THE PATRIOT (2000) Rated R; running time 165 minutes Genre: Action IMDB site: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0187393 Official site: http://www.spe.sony.com/movies/thepatriot/ Written by: Robert Rodat Directed by: Roland Emmerich Cast: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs, Chris Cooper, Tcheky Karyo, Trevor Morgan, Lisa Brenner, Bryan Chafin, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Tom Wilkinson, Rene Auberjonois, Logan Lerman, Adam Baldwin, Beatrice Bush, Mika Boorem, Mary Jo Deschanel, Shan Omar Huey, Gil Johnson, Jay Arlen Jones, Jamieson Price, Hank Stone, Kristian Truelsen, Mark Twogood, Joey D. Vieira, Grahame Wood, Peter Woodward
I've been to plenty of long movies before. THE GREEN MILE clocked in at 3 hours plus (though it didn't seem that long to me). And on the other end of that spectrum, STUART LITTLE (chronologically short at just 94 minutes) seemed *much* longer. I've been to plenty of long movies before. THE PATRIOT wasn't just long. It was *torture*; sheer manipulative torture.
The Story (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**): 1776. A time of upheaval and revolution in these (not quite) United States Of America.
Widower Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) is a man who has known war, and no longer wants any parts of it; he just wants to farm, make bad rocking chairs, and be left alone to raise his seven young children. His eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), doesn't understand Ben's pacifistic mood, and wants to join the Colonials to fight against the Evil British Empire and old tax baron King George. After the Evil British Colonel William Tavington (Jason Isaacs) wreaks havoc on Ben's family and land, Ben leaves his youngest children with their aunt Charlotte (Joely Richardson), so he and Gabriel can join forces with Regular Army Colonel Harry Burwell (Chris Cooper) and French Army officer Jean Villeneuve (Tcheky Karyo) to create a militia to go up against Tavington and slightly-less Evil General Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson).
[And lots more stuff that takes up two hours and forty-five minutes of movie time.]
The Upshot: I sat myself down and thought long and hard about what made me the maddest about THE PATRIOT, to the point where its greenlight for its epic sweep and beautifully-filmed tale, turned into a yellowlight for its manipulative nature. Here's what I told a dear friend about it, with regard to the other "based on a true[r than *this* one, dadgummit] story" out this week, THE PERFECT STORM:
What I liked most about [THE PERFECT STORM] (and conversely, hated most about THE PATRIOT), is the way the actors seemed to capture the real, messily imperfect folks they played; from everything I've read about the production [of "Perfect"], the actors and director and such were extremely cognizant of the background story, and wanted very much to do those people honor (rather than playing the "Look at me, I'm an artiste and a battle-recreator!" game that Gibson and the folks attached to "Patriot" seemed to). It shows.
"Manipulative" is the word I keep coming back to when I think about THE PATRIOT. It's not enough, it seems, that this movie is being released around the fourth of July; Independence Day roun' dese hea' parts. No; "we must forcefully remind The Uhmerkin Public", the filmmakers seemed to say, "that Gibson...uh, blue-eyed Benjamin Martin, was a True American Hero, by having him Wave The Flag Meaningfully at every opportunity! And hey, while you're at it, have a few of his friends and family members die Slow Heroic Deaths with the camera trained on their faces for a godawful long time, whydoncha? And ooh yeah, that image of Mel baby Running Boldly Into Battle with just that battered flag, *that'll* hit 'em where it hurts, eh?"
Bah. Just tell me the story, dammit; let *me* decide when and where to cheer for them, eh? I don't need no friggin' equivalent to a laugh track, spattered into so many manipulative scenes. Bad moviemakers. Bad, Bad moviemakers.
In all fairness, though, THE PATRIOT latches on to its single-mindedness and never lets go; at least it's not wishy-washy in its dogged determination to make the viewer Love Benjamin and his family for being Epic Heroes. Even when it speaks of Ben's Unspeakable Past, you learn early on that Ben was just doing what he had to do For God And Country. Can't blame a fella for that, even when it leaves him bloody, can ya? Not the way these moviemakers were selling the story, you can't.
(And don't get me wrong: not having had to ever do much heavy fighting outside of the time Judy hit me in the stomach with a two-by-four when I was 13, I'm *not* saying that War Ain't Really Hell; I'm sure it is that and much more. What I *am* saying, however, is that the audience doesn't need to be battered upside the head with the Wifflebat to get that point. I understood it after the first hour of my battering; I didn't need to have it go on for the whole almost-three hours, sheesh!)
I know I'll be in the minority of the reviewing population--I heard Raving Reviews about "Patriot" blaring on the radio just before I went to see it (which, in and of itself, gave me a Bad Feeling)--but this telling of THE PATRIOT didn't move me at all. Actually, it did: it moved me from being sympathetic to the cause of a young--and, let's be honest: White--nation getting its legs under itself, to being cynical and critical about that *other* part of itself that THE PATRIOT tried to whitewash over: the folks that were somehow forgotten in "We The People".
The "Black Factor" [ObDisclaimer: We Are Not A Monolith]: We The People. Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident. All Men Are Created Equal. That is, "we, the White, male landowners, see it that way--about us". All others need not apply.
It was this undeniable truth about the establishment of "a more perfect union"--that its people were only "created equal" if and only if they were White, male landowners--that grated me most about THE PATRIOT and its whitewashing-over of its colorful tale. If the folks behind this movie had not addressed it (slavery: the big It) at all, then, fine. I wouldn't have had an issue with their looking-over of that big It. But they addressed It. Badly. Shame on 'em, I say.
A little truth goes a long way; but "Patriot" couldn't seem to face up to the realities of its own time, *this* late into the moviemaking game (well past the time when the filmmakers could've claimed ignorance about such things). And that--much more than the fact that I never caught the name of the Black slave character, only knowing him from his introduction as "my nigra"--is what finally brought "Patriot"'s house of cards tumbling down for me. In all its flag-waving, it seemed to forget that even back then, these States weren't as United as the Founding Fathers claimed they were.
History, it seems, *does* tend to repeat itself.
Bammer's Bottom Line: Call me cynical, call me anti-American, whatever; but I hate feeling manipulated, and that's exactly how I felt watching THE PATRIOT. I went into this movie with an open mind, hoping to learn something more about what made the early revolutionaries in these, yes, great United States, tick. I came out of it with a contempt for what I had just been put through. And that's *never* A Good Thing.
THE PATRIOT (rating: yellowlight): If only they had stopped waving the flag long enough to see the hearts and souls that went into weaving that symbol of independence...
Rose "Bams" Cooper /~\ Webchick and Editor, /','\ 3BlackChicks Review /','`'\ Movie Reviews With Flava! /',',','/`, Copyright Rose Cooper, 2000 `~-._'c / EMAIL: b...@3blackchicks.com `\ ( http://www.3blackchicks.com/ /====\
If you liked Braveheart, you probably liked Gladiator. They both had Australian stars playing extremely manly, likeable heroes who lead rag-tag bunches of untrained men against seemingly insurmountable forces. Each has a really bad guy doing really rotten stuff to really innocent people. And each of the male leads are reluctant warriors, dragged into large-scale confrontation only after somebody messes with their family in some horrible way.
The Patriot is more of the same - even more so than Gladiator - and could have saved a fortune in marketing costs by just calling itself Braveheart II: The Phantom Menace. In this installment, Mel Gibson battles the English on American soil during the Revolutionary War, as opposed to Braveheart's 13th century Scotland backdrop. Gibson (Payback) plays Benjamin Martin, a man who could be a direct descendant of William Wallace (he does everything but wear the kilt and the blue face paint).
The film starts off in 1776 South Carolina. Martin, a former war captain, has turned decidedly anti-war ever since his beloved wife went tits up. The reason for his pacifism? He’s afraid of leaving his seven children without a father. Martin even goes to the Continental Congress in Charleston to vote against the war, but his side loses and, to make matters worse, his oldest son Gabriel (Heath Ledger, 10 Things I Hate About You) signs up to fight the Redcoats.
Before long, the battles are literally being fought in Martin’s backyard. Gabriel is captured by the ridiculously ruthless Col. William Tavington (Jason Isaacs, The End of the Affair) and ordered to hang for betraying King George. Some other stuff happens that I won’t give away here, but before you know it, Martin is wielding his tomahawk and covered in English blood. He even teaches two of his younger sons how to attack a procession of English officers. The scene, which has already sparked a lot of debate over the whole kids/guns issue, is a revelation as both boys are so scared that they end up looking through the sights of their guns with tears in their eyes. Kudos to screenwriter Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan) for this splendid scene.
Like Braveheart’s Wallace, Martin has a smart mouth, a cocky attitude and fights like he's immune to death. He uses eyebrow-raising tricks and unconventional combat techniques, and apparently is the guy that came up with the idea of hiding behind rocks and trees while engaged in gunfire with the enemy (as opposed to marching in a straight line in a wide-open field, which was all the rage back then). And he can mix it up like nobody’s business, brandishing a long list of weapons from guns to flagpoles.
But there are problems with Martin’s character, too. He’s way too squeaky-clean and noble. Even his slaves aren’t slaves (they just love working his fields). Interestingly enough, Martin’s character is supposedly based on one Francis “The Swamp Fox” Marion, a Revolutionary War hero and noted racist that bragged about hunting American Indians for sport. Allegedly, The Patriot was intended to be a biopic about Marion’s life, but once Sony Pictures heard about the Swamp Fox’s real-life exploits, they changed the name of the character and, as they say, the rest is history. Here, some brief mentions are made to some atrocity that Martin may have committed against the French and the Cherokee at a place called Fort Wilderness. But Gibson is Gibson - as long as he’s bashing people’s skulls in, the world is a happy place.
The Patriot simply looks amazing from the first frame to the last. It’s one of those films whose scenes seem to be set during sunrise or sundown, thanks to cinematographer Caleb Deschanel’s (Anna & The King) warm photography. There are several scenes set in a foggy graveyard marsh, where Martin and his band of merry men meet to discuss battle plans. It looks like something out of Sleepy Hollow. Perennial Oscar-nominee John Williams (Angela’s Ashes) score manages to press most of the right buttons.
The Patriot was produced and directed by the team that brought us Godzilla and ID4 (Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin), but this film is leaps and bounds better than those two travesties. And this film is the second in two weeks to feature either Gibson (he lends his voice to Rocky the Rooster in the animated Chicken Run) or the underused Chris Cooper (Me, Myself & Irene), who plays Col. Harry Burwell in this picture.
Directed by Roland Emmerich. Screenplay by Robert Rodat. Starring Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Jason Isaacs. Running time: 164 minutes. Rated AA for blood letting and violent scenes by the MFCB. Reviewed on July 4th, 2000.
By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN
I find it amusing that one of the previews before "The Patriot" was for "The Hollow Man". That title so accurately sums up this picture: hollow. It's been a long time since a movie tried so hard to involve me emotionally, and fail so miserably. Don't get me wrong -- "The Patriot" looks great, and is broadly entertaining. But much of its almost three-hour running time is wasted on flimsy characters and tedious retreads masquerading as emotional high points. For once, I wish the filmmakers had just been trying to make a summer action pic.
Comparisons with star Mel Gibson's last historical epic, 1995's "Braveheart", are perhaps inevitable. Both movies feature Gibson as the leader of a band of insurgents against oppressive British rule. There he was trying to free Scotland, here it is the American colonies during the Revolutionary War. The death of Gibson's wife and ultra-realistic battle scenes figure prominently in both pictures. But "Braveheart" stirred a raw, genuine response from me. "The Patriot" clearly strives for the same sort of impact, but never achieves it. Is it just that I've become more cynical in the five years between the two films? Perhaps. But I think it's more than that.
"Braveheart", you see, featured real characters. Gibson's William Wallace was a compelling hero, and his fate left me both shattered and uplifted. Benjamin Martin in "The Patriot" is just Gibson on autopilot. He's not poorly-acted, but he's all window dressing with nothing underneath. I believed in William Wallace; I can't say the same for Benjamin Martin. The same criticism can be levied at Heath Ledger, who plays Ben's eldest son Christian. Ledger spends the whole movie mumbling listlessly, like he didn't realise rehearsal was over.
For a movie about family to work, we must be convinced of the bonds between them, no matter how strained, but "The Patriot" never forges those bonds. Indeed, so tepid is the interaction amongst the castmembers that it feels almost as if they each filmed their scenes individually, so that they could be composited electronically in post-production. Most unfortunate is the lack of chemistry between the two stars -- Gibson and Ledger feel more like passing acquaintances than father and son.
There is a good story underlying "The Patriot", if only it were in service to a better film. Benjamin is a veteran of the French-Indian War, but now preaches dialogue instead of combat. Against his father's wishes, Christian runs off to join the continental army. When the War of Independence comes as close as the Martins' South Carolina fields, Ben elects to care for the wounded on both sides, which happens to include Christian. But the brutal British Colonel Tavington (Jason Isaacs) has the Martin homestead burned anyway, and Christian is arrested for carrying colonial dispatches. When another of the Martin sons intervenes, Tavington shoots him dead.
This spurs Benjamin into action. Accompanied by two more sons, he ambushes and slaughters the British contingent bringing Christian back to their camp. That night, one son tells him he's glad he killed British soldiers. Here was a perfect opportunity to examine the effects of war on the young. But no, the movie passes it by, instead confining itself to safe territory well-trod by other movies. Judging from "The Patriot", pretty much the only negative ramifications of war are that men have to leave home for long spells, and sometimes they never come back. Well, duh.
Things go downhill from there. There are obligatory romances, one each for Christian and Benjamin. Christian's at least benefits from involving a somewhat charismatic paramour, Anne (Lisa Brenner). Benjamin, however, is shoehorned into an unconvincing attraction to his dead wife's sister (Joely Richardson). There is no spark between them, and the whole thing happens only because the movie demands it. Cliche after cliche is paraded across the screen: The bad guy who's not quite dead yet. The token black soldier. When a recalcitrant Benjamin is assigned to recruit civilians for a militia, the locals demur, until Anne gives a stirring speech. A pause and then... you guessed it, one by one all the naysayers stand in support of Ben.
The villains of "The Patriot" fare no better than the heroes. Isaacs' Tavington has no motivation, and no characterisation beyond "he's mean". Tavington was a real person, and his wicked depiction here has drawn the wrath of the city of Liverpool, which considers him a hero. Liverpudlians needn't worry: I doubt anyone could believe this portrayal is accurate, because no real person is so utterly devoid of personality. Tavington's superior is General Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson), who is at least useful for comic relief -- although much of the humor here is so banal, it's barely worth a groan. When Benjamin's militia blows up a British supply ship during a party at Cornwallis' estate, one dim-witted aristocrat ecstatically exclaims, "Fireworks!"
It is when "The Patriot" concentrates on the war that it finally kicks into high gear. Director Roland Emmerich does the movie no favours by filming many of the battle scenes with a tedious, mechanical style (close up of American soldier, wide shot, close up of British soldier, wide shot, repeat), but the realism and intensity of the combat overcomes this, especially in the exciting final clash. Every now and then, Robert Rodat's script shows a spark of creativity, or at least reuses old ideas in entertaining ways -- look at what becomes of Cornwallis' dogs, for example. And the beautiful period detail is a major attraction, with the whole movie looking as though it was lifted from a Leutze painting.
But "The Patriot" is ultimately a disappointment -- although, given that Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin masterminded "Independence Day" and the 1998 "Godzilla", two films with the most grotesque budget-to-intelligence ratios in recent history, maybe that's actually not such a bad thing. This is "Braveheart" lite: great fighting sequences trapped in a shallow narrative.
And why, if the movie spans five years, do the Martin children never age a day?
_______________________________________________________________________ / Shannon Patrick Sullivan | "We are all in the gutter, but some of us \ | shan...@mun.ca | are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde | \___________________________|__________________________________________/ | Popcorn Gallery Movie Reviews www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies.html | | Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel) /drwho.html |
"The Patriot" -- Life, Liberty and Happiness by Homer Yen (c) 2000
"The Patriot," a powerful and impressive looking period piece set during the American Revolution, tells the story of a family being torn apart by war and a father torn between duty to his family and duty to his country. Full of stirring moments, it is a sweeping saga that showcases beautifully filmed and brilliantly choreographed battles, a patriotic soundtrack that combines the reverie of fife and drums with majestic orchestrations, and utterly unbridled flag-waving jingoism. I can barely contain my enthusiasm and am saluting as I write this.
In 1776, the American colonists have come to a critical juncture. Fed up with British rule, revolutionaries charge that "if principles dictate independence, then war is the only way." However, countless lives will be lost, though the sacrifice in the name of freedom is worthwhile. Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) hopes that instead of voting for war, America might adopt a more diplomatic course of action. Benjamin was once a brilliant military tactician and warrior, but is now the loving parent of seven. He doesn't wish to leave them fatherless. "I am a parent," he says. "I don't have the luxury of principles."
Although Benjamin remains adamant about his pacifist stance, his eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger) is compelled by the crusade. Against his father's wishes, he enlists, grateful to serve the cause of liberty. But he is horrified to see the disorganization of the American army. The Red Coats are an impressive force who marches into battle with an imposing cadence. Going muzzle-to-muzzle against them in an open field is madness. The American front lines continually collapse, leading to swift defeats. General Cornwallis of the British Army states, "those rustics are so inept that it takes the honor out of victory."
Eventually, the battle winds up right on Benjamin's front lawn. His political stance is shattered when he encounters the ruthless Colonel Tavington (Jason Isaacs). Gabriel is captured; their plantation home is burned to the ground. Tavington doesn't abide by the rules of war and displays a brutality that is horrifying. He shoots innocent children, mercilessly kills prisoners-of-war, and even locks dozens of people inside a church and then instructs his men to burn it down. This is the kind of villain that elicits boos from the audience. It's impossible not to hate him, and the audience will not find satisfaction unless he dies by the hand of Benjamin.
We increasingly cheer for our pacifist-turned-revolutionary hero, as he becomes something of a colonial Robin Hood. Recruiting men throughout the countryside, he employs guerrilla tactics and mounts a series of successful skirmishes. In addition to his superb military skills, he is also adept at humiliating the enemy. We find much levity in watching him make a mockery of General Cornwallis. Yet like the American army, who is outmanned and outmatched, so too is Benjamin. As the battle wears on, personal losses begin to mount.
However, the colonists' and Benjamin's fighting spirit never dies. Even in the darkest of moments, there is time for a miraculous turnaround. This leads to a final, glorious engagement between the Colonial/British forces and between Benjamin Martin and Colonel Tavington. An American victory may turn the tide of war. And for our hero, payback may be close at hand. This sequence, with flying cannonballs, thousands of soldiers fighting, and its swings in momentum are nothing less than riveting.
"The Patriot" packs as much raw power and energy as any fireworks display and is certainly one of the best films of the year. Gibson gives a compelling Oscar-worthy performance full of passion, courage and strength. As far as summer movies go, this film is as good as it gets, featuring bold emotions, an epic storyline, incredibly visualized battle sequences and a monumental dramatic arc. To miss this film would be an act of treason.
Grade: A S: 1 out of 3 L: 0 out of 3 V: 3 out of 3
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