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The Patriot
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by Sony Pictures
Sales Rank: 4837
Price: $9.95
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Aimed directly at a mainstream audience, <I>The Patriot</I> qualifies as respectable entertainment, but anyone expecting a definitive drama about the American Revolution should look elsewhere. Rising above the blatant crowd pleasing of <I>Stargate</I>, <I>Independence Day</I>, and <I>Godzilla</I>, director Roland Emmerich crafts a marvelous re-creation of South Carolina in the late 1770s (aided immeasurably by cinematographer Caleb Deschanel), and Robert Rodat's screenplay offers the same balance of epic scale and emotional urgency that elevated his earlier script for <I>Saving Private Ryan</I>. Unfortunately, Emmerich embraces clichés and hackneyed melodrama that a more gifted director would have avoided. Instead of attempting a truly great film about the most pivotal years of American history, Emmerich settles for a standard revenge plot with the Revolutionary War as an incidental backdrop.<p> On those terms, the film is engrossing and sufficiently intelligent, especially when militia leader Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) cagily negotiates with British General Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson) in one of the most rewarding scenes. For the most part, the story concerns Martin's anguished quest for revenge against ruthless redcoat Colonel Tavington (played with snide relish by Jason Isaacs), and the rise to manhood of Martin's eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), whose battlefield honor exceeds even that of his brutally volatile father. At its best, <I>The Patriot</I> conveys the horror of war among innocent civilians, and the epic battle scenes, while by no means masterful, are graphically intense and impressive. And although Ledger's love interest (Lisa Brenner) is too bland to register much emotion, the focus on family (which frequently relegates the war to background history) provides a suitable vehicle for Gibson, who matches his achievement in <I>Braveheart</I> with an effectively brooding performance. <I>--Jeff Shannon</I>
Viewer Reviews
Amidst the steady stream of disgusting, vulgar, and /or western civilization-bashing crap that flows like a sewer from our Left Coast, we get a little reminder every once in awhile that the United States is not completely the Great Satan. We do have a redeeming quality or two. Thank God for a generation that didn't bow the knee to British oppression and tyranny. (Anyone who thinks the British were righteous during that period probably also thinks that Islam is a religion of peace.) Today we are the world's oldest democracy because that generation "stayed the course" (oh, the mindless clichés!), fought barefoot in the snow, and defeated the most powerful empire in the world (strangely reminiscent of the Vietcong).
When I'm feeling low about the porn-saturated, Bush-decimated, corporate-dominated, widely-hated USA, I'll watch this movie and imagine a time that my people not only believed in virtue, but actually behaved as though there was something more important than self-interest, self-esteem, self-awareness, and getting off.
If I seem a little overly passionate, it's because I've mistakenly spent time reading the one-star reviews. When I calm down my review of the movie will probably just be "It was pretty good." In the meantime, I'm compelled to respond in my review to Bob's "family values" review:
So you do or don't like how he doesn't want to fight? Your sarcasm makes it difficult to determine if you approve of anything about the movie. You really should study up on the definition of fascism. Fighting an invading army does not fit the definition of fascist. Or is the Iraqi resistance fascist too? Maybe it was the flag scene that bothered you. Perhaps we should not have a flag at all?? When you see the US flag do you envision a giant swastika? I like the way you put words in Gibson's mouth like "God must be on our side." It's easier to debate your opponent if you get to pick his arguments. Thanks to our revolutionary generation, you and I both get to say whatever foolish things we want to.
I notice that you really love the Bourne movies (as do I). I guess your "blood lust shall be satisfied with just killings of the wicked" too, as long as the killer is sufficiently remorseful and is killing unrepentent CIA (read "SS") agents. That's the "liberal" thing to do! How absurd to suggest that the British would burn a church full of people! Now the CIA, that's believable! With the aid of our jack-booted marines, they're burning mosques full of children at this very moment! I hope Michael Moore is filming it! The truth about the Christian fascists must be told!!!
If this generation's warriors who have bled and died in Iraq and Afghanistan are going to have their heroic deeds told on film (REGARDLESS OF ANYONE'S OPINION OF THE POLITICS THAT GOT THEM THERE!) it will have to be someone like Mel Gibson that does it, someone with the ability to withstand the hateful and moronic attacks of our "patriotic" countrymen on the Left.
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The Patriot
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