VHS Videos: The Patriot Video

Average Rating:

Rating: - "Braveheart" at the Battle of Cowpens!
"The Patriot," starring Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Chris Cooper, Jason Isaacs, and Tom Wilkinson, is a film that's well acted and sumptuously produced, although not particularly historically accurate. It tells the heroic story of how one man's attitude toward the war slowly ensnaring him and his family changed from one of indifference to fervent patriotism; a tale of how a stolid family man and pillar of his community became an impassioned leader of men in battle, and, ultimately, a hero to his nation's cause.

I enjoyed every aspect of this superb film. Mel Gibson turns in another characteristically fine performance as Colonel Benjamin Martin. Gibson portrays the movie's protagonist as a man of contradictions: gentle with his children, yet possessed with an almost demonic violent streak; a stolid, almost stoic family man capable of demonstrating great passion for the cause he so deeply believes in; a man of great honor who will not hesitate to stoop to less than honorable means to achieve his goals; and a man tortured by a dark secret in his past.

One other particularly noteworthy performance must be mentioned here: that of Jason Isaacs as the pathologically evil Colonel William Tavington. With his icy blue eyes and clipped, uppercrust British accent, Isaacs imbues his deliciously evil character with ramrod-straight military bearing, stuffily aristocratic swagger, and overweening pomposity, making him the kind of arch-villian easy for viewers to hate passionately.

Heart-pounding action abounds in "The Patriot." Battle scenes are well choreographed and employ just the right amount of bloody realism, without succumbing to gratuitous sanguinary violence. Some viewers may find themselves a bit squeamish at a couple of points in the film; however, those scenes of gore are necessary and pass by very quickly.

If there is one area in "The Patriot" deserving of criticism, it's the apparent lack of an original idea. It appears to me that "The Patriot" relied too heavily upon another wildly popular Mel Gibson vehicle - "Braveheart" - for its inspiration. Indeed, the similarities between the themes in these two films are so striking that they cannot be coincidence! In both films, the protagonist - already a hero to his people - has ambivalent feelings toward violence. Only a heart-shattering event resulting in a deep personal loss is capable of changing the protagonist's mind about fighting the enemy of his people. Once committed, however, the hero becomes an impassioned, almost zealous, exponent of his cause. I would have liked to see "The Patriot's" screen writers rely a bit more on an original story line. It would have made an already entertaining film even better.

For lovers of great action movies and fans of Mel Gibson: don't miss "The Patriot!" It's first-rate entertainment all the way!

Actually, Mel Gibson's Benjamin Martin is a composite of 3 historical characters: one of course was Francis Marion the "Swamp Fox"; another was an illiterate backwoods general, Daniel Morgan, who encouraged the militia at the Battle of Cowpens (final battle enacted in the movie) to stand their ground against the British; and the third was a cavalry officer, William Washington, who pursued Tarleton after Cowpens and fought him in hand-to-hand combat, which they both barely survived.

Gen. Marion used tactics that the Brits termed "ungentlemanly" for warfare, but he got the job done, just as the Viet Cong did 200 years later against our own GI's. Marion knew, because of his lack of manpower, equipment, and experienced soldiers, he couldn't take on the superior British forces using outmoded and quaint European-style warfare (in fact, this idiotic style of warfare continued up until WWI). The movie depicts this very well. So Gen. Marion wisely used the only tactics left to him - hit-and-run, which he learned from fighting the Cherokees during the French and Indian Wars.

The movie's villainous Lt. Col. Tavington, who is also loosely based on Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton, is not too far from the truth.

It was during the retreat of Waxhaws that Tarleton came to symbolize British cruelty in the Revolutionary War. Tarleton was seen as a "butcher" when American forces under Col. Abraham Buford laid down their arms in an attempt to surrender yet the British continued their assault. From then on, his reputation grew and "Tarleton's quarter", in effect, came to mean "no quarter".

In the tradition of the day, after the surrender at Yorktown, American officers hosted the defeated Cornwallis and other British officers at their respective tables. But no American invited Tarleton nor would any eat with him. Tarleton asked if the omission was accidental, and he was told that, indeed it was not, because of his past atrocities.

Tarleton lived a long life, condoning his use of total war - burning houses, destroying crops, the end justifying the means. He also would never admit to any fault at Cowpens, saying he was "outnumbered" and received inadequate assistance from Cornwallis. He wondered, "how some unforeseen event" could "throw terror into the most disciplined soldiers".

I didn't go into this movie for a history lesson but to be entertained, and I was. The movie wasn't perfect - it was cloying and obvious at times, but I give it high marks for effort and for bringing to the screen an important part of American history that has received disparate treatment in movies, and I think Devlin & Emmerich can now be forgiven for Godzilla.

I thought this was a good movie. I could have done without the more than 1-dead-body-per-minute body count, but I thought this was an interesting tale.

--Double standards in movies--
One thing that irritates me, if you will permit me a brief digression, is that this epic film competes, in epic terms, with the earlier summer release Gladiator. One criticism of Gladiator I heard over and over was that it was not true to the history of the time. I have yet to hear that criticism levelled at The Patriot, which is just as fictional while being based in a real-world scenario.

Of course, another parallel with Gladiator that I couldn't help but notice is that of a major villain (the emperor Commodus in G, and the despicable Tavington (played admirably by Jason Isaacs) here) taunting our hero to try to make him lose his cool, only to be rebuffed and get his come-uppance later.

Ah, formulas aren't just for the chemistry lab...

--Basic Plot--
Mel Gibson turns in his usual good performance as Benjamin Martin (how colonial a name is that?), a widowed single father of a large brood of children, who had had enough of war in the French and Indian War (perhaps America's most forgotten war), reluctantly goes along with his idealistic son as he determines the best way to preserve his family (his personal definition of and attachment to liberty) is to drive the British out.

There is a dark secret in Martin's past (which I won't reveal here). Alas, I didn't think it was THAT dark, but then, in colonial times, well...

Of course, the British (in this film, and in real life) had no reason to think that they could ever lose this war (the loss of the colonies is perhaps best likened to America's failure in Vietnam -- how can a superpower, and Britain the strongest superpower of the time, lose a war against underequipped, ill-trained, poorly disciplined... well, you get the drift).

The battlefield drama, the struggle to decide what is right and wrong, the fight with the inner demons and the past, make this an interesting psychological drama despite the pile of dead bodies in the background.

--Production notes--
The costs were staggering, but this held all the elements for a summer blockbuster -- star power, compelling theme (ID 4 also grabbed the July holiday slot, and did well, and shares many of the same people in production with The Patriot). Many have described this as the American Braveheart -- I wonder, if Gibson were not in, if that would be true? Gibson claims not to have given much advice to the filmmakers of The Patriot, whereas he was in charge of Braveheart. If the battlefield scenes look similar, that is because battlefield scenes do look similar, over time (and across films).

--Historical notes--
This movie shows in stark terms some of the conditions and costs of the American Revolution/War with the Colonies. It is perhaps one of the more regrettable wars in human history, much more akin to the American Civil War a century later, as it pitted relatives and friends against each other. Just as North and South had much more in common than that which divided them, so to did the British and Colonists have more in common than one would think. What would the world be like today had Benjamin Franklin's diplomacy been well received in London, and the British hierarchy been responsive to including colonial representation in the government, on some level?

Alas, we'll never know.