THE PATRIOT
The first half hour of "The Patriot" is damned near perfect. I was ready to tighten my seat belt for the ride of a lifetime! First, director Roland Emmerich ("Independence Day") and screenwriter Robert Rodat ("Saving Private Ryan") establish the idyllic plantation life of the widowed hero of the French and Indian Wars, Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) and his seven kids. Ben is determined to steer clear of another conflict, yet his oldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), feels he must, in good conscience, join George Washington’s Continental Army in the War for Independence. Then the war reaches the Martins’ back yard and Ben tends the wounded from both sides. The hissable British Brigadier Colonel Tavington (Jason Issacs) accuses him of giving aid to the enemy, takes Gabriel prisoner, kills the son who doth protest too much, and burns down the Martin homestead. Ben gives his other sons a quick lesson in guerilla tactics and sets off to rescue Gabriel. The ferocity of the hero of Fort Wilderness is once again unleashed with a hail of bullets from single shot muskets and hand to hand combat with Benjamin Martin’s swift swirling double edged Cherokee tomahawk cutting the unsuspecting Brits to bits in the most pivotal action scene in the movie. Everything the audience needs to know about Benjamin Martin is revealed. He is plagued by guilt for the sins of his glorified past. He places his love of family above political loyalties. And he is a fierce and brilliant warrior who knows more about the enemy and their tactics than they know about themselves.
Before I go off on a tangent, let me say, I wanted desperately to love "The Patriot." There has yet to be a truly great Revolutionary War movie and I thought this might be it. It isn’t. It’s a revenge flick, plain and simple, with the War for Independence as its backdrop. As long as the movie sticks to the action, "The Patriot" is hard to beat for pure thrills and rousing entertainment. The third tier actors who make up the South Carolina militia who follow Col. Benjamin Martin do everything but paint their faces blue for "Braveheart"’s Mel Gibson but the movie suddenly lurches forward with the adventures of The Ghost (a name given by the English) and goes woefully awry.
The rest of "The Patriot" is made up of great moments separated by patches of dated comic relief, slogans instead of dialogue, an unfulfilling love story, an occasional bad actor cast more for his ruddy looks than his abilities, and the introduction of a politically correct race angle. These lapses are hopelessly at odds with the rest of the movie’s epic grandeur. Every frame of the Continentals and his Majesty’s British Regulars clashing in the field of battle exhibits the panoramic sweep of war in all its bloody horror and intangible glory. "The Patriot" is not without humor that is germane to its story. One of the film’s best scenes brings Benjamin Martin face to face with General Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson) to exchange prisoners. They size each other up with a verbal reparte over what constitutes the measure of a gentleman. Is he a man of means or a man of honor? - a man from the Old World or a man from the New? - an Englishman or a colonial? It’s one of the few scenes that truly addresses the Mother Country’s misunderstanding of the colonies’ new burgeoning cultural identity that led to war.
In Jean Renoir’s seldom seen classic "La Marseillaise" (1938), a squad of men in the 1780’s travel through the French countryside toward Paris. As they enter the city gates, the camera pulls back, the roar of the crowd drowns out their voices, and they get lost in the multitudes, becoming part of something bigger than themselves - The French Revolution. Similarly, when Ben Martin and his militiamen join the Continentals for the big battle against Cornwallis, the filmmakers almost got it right when Martin grabs a tattered American flag and rallies his men to push forward in the midst of their retreat. But once again, big bad Col Tavington of the British Brigadiers rears his head to face off against The Ghost - Benjamin Martin. The filmmakers lose the opportunity to redeem themselves and the Cause of the real patriot - Gabriel - takes a back seat to the movies’ cliché ridden story of revenge. It may seem a moot point but it’s one that could have made the sum of "The Patriot" greater than its individual parts.
Suggested Video Pix
"La Marseillaise" ( 1938) - I have to recommend Jean Renoir’s classic for its humanistic portrait of the royals and the peasants on both sides of the French Revolution. Every few years it shows up PBS on July 14th - Bastille Day - the French equivalent of America’s July 4th. The makers of "The Patriot" could have learned something from the tone of this film.
"Drums Along the Mohawk" (1939) - The John Ford classic about the rigors of colonial life in upstate New York where the Indians sided with the English during the American Revolution. The classic scene of women watching their men go off to war is a staple of many of director John Ford’s movies. With Henry Fonda, Claudette Colbert, Ward Bond and John Carradine. This one still packs a punch.
"Johnny Tremain" (1957) - A young man seeks his rightful inheritance in Massachusetts and winds up at the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington for the shot heard ‘round the world. An entertaining Disney film that teaches but never preaches.
"Allegheny Uprising" (1939) - John Wayne is a pre-Revolutionary frontiersman who stands up to the big bad British captain played by George Sanders and the local bad boy Brian Donlevy. Unpretentious actioner with Wayne at his best before he became an icon.
"The Howards of Virginia" (1940) - A movie I saw so long ago I hardly remember what it’s about - but anything with Cary Grant can’t be all bad. He’s looking to plant his roots for the long haul but the Revolutionary War gets in the way.