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THE PATRIOT Send This Review to a Friend
With Mel Gibson as a kind of Rambo with sensitivity, "The Patriot" is strictly the Revolutionary War according to Hollywood, a throwback to the epics of old, only bloodier. Cliches go with the action. Unsurprisingly, what Hollywood knows how to do best is stage battles scenes--a head blown off here, a leg shattered there, fierce hand-to-hand combat and stupid army face-offs as thousands march obediently to their deaths. Toss in a dash of political correctness for updating.
Despite the lavishness and spectacle heaped upon this story that begins in 1776, "The Patriot" is disappointing in its failure of Robert Rodat to come up with a screenplay that does justice to the war for independence. Instead there is the traditional Hollywood approach that cheapens the real heroism of the patriots who fought the superior British forces. The focus here is on the militias waging guerilla warfare in support of the more formal battles. Unlike the understated and more believable Civil War guerilla tale in "Ride With the Devil," this Revolutionary War saga revels in Hollywood heroics.
Gibson earnestly plays Benjamin Martin, a South Carolina widower, who is disgusted with previous French and Indian War fighting that made him a hero and feels guilty about vengeful atrocities in which he participated. He is determined to stay out of the conflict with the British and tend his children. But the war seeks him out when a the vicious British Colonel Tavington (Jason Isaacs), who sadistically enjoys persecuting the population, shoots one of Martin's sons. From that moment we know that the war we watch is going to come down to a showdown between Martin and Tavington.
Martin, first shockingly arms his two young sons and leads them on a raid to slaughter British soldiers, then organizes old battle buddies into a militia and earns the reputation among his enemies as "The Ghost." His older son Gabriel, who has enlisted against Martin's orders, eventually becomes part of his unit. As these scripts go, we can figure that Gabriel will have to die before the bloodshed is over. But there at least is the appeal of handsome actor Heath Ledger, whose portrayal of Gabriel stands to entice an audience.
Director Roland Emmerich and screenwriter Rodat know how to pump up revolutionary fervor and stir patriotic feelings. But they rarely can resist a cliché. The longing glances toward Martin by his sister-in-law Charlotte (Joely Richardson), emphasized by the cleavage she shows no matter what scene she is in, indicate that she will be there for him after the carnage. Also tossed in is a subplot about Martin's young daughter who refuses to speak and resents his always leaving home, another element sure to be happily resolved. Then there's the romance between Gabriel and Anne (Lisa Brenner), with script nonsense about his having put ink in her drink when they were kids, and she getting even by inking his tea so he has blackened teeth, as she also does after they kiss.
The treatment of the British is corny as well, with Lord General Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson) trying to be the gentlemanly warrior, but later giving in to Tavington's tactics. In a scene that is amusing but ridiculous, Martin engineers a negotiation to deceive Cornwallis and returns the general's dogs that he had captured. But when Martin leaves, his whistle brings the dogs scampering from the general to loyally follow their new master. The French are dutifully insulted for a while by barbs aimed at a French major (Tcheky Karyo) fighting on Martin's side. But by the end of the picture it is all Vive La France. Let's not forget the slave fighting in the militia and counting the months until the 12 needed to gain his freedom. At first one militia member shuns him, but by film's end the detractor is honored to serve with him. At least the proud ex-slave wasn't killed off when finally free. But by packing the script with so many contrivances the filmmakers undercut such genuine horrors as civilians being locked in a church and burned to death by orders of the villainous Brit.
To be sure, the so-called production values are there. Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel provides the sweeping visuals enhanced by special effects techniques, and composer John Williams supplies the requisite thundering music. Of course, Martin, although nursing sword and gun wounds, survives to go back to what's left of his family--and Charlotte's waiting bosom. Vive Mel Gibson. A Columbia Pictures release.
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