Review of The Patriot (2000) by Henry T — 11 Sep 2012

It was one of those slow days when I decided to watch Mel Gibson's The Patriot which I oddly like enough for a positive rating. While historically inaccurate and misrepresentations of events, I found it enjoyable.

The Patriot is a melodrama that follows one man's revenge against a British officer and it just so happens his vengeance helps American in the American Revolution. Which I kid you not is the actual plot of this movie and drags out to a three hours movie which is too long. The movie plot is so-so, we often get characters that are important to our protagonist but are never truly develop nor worth caring about. The best way to define this movie is propaganda, I've done actual research on the actual historical figure that Gibson character is based of and he was a awful person. He repeatedly raped his slaves and killed Indians for fun, yet in the movie he's portrayed as a family man who fights for noble cause so historical accuracy is absent here. I've found a total of ten mistakes from watching the movie before the thirty minute mark, so strictly watch this as a movie and don't seriously take in anything this movie tells you. What it does do right is having Gibson in the main role. His acting is good here and actually makes this glorification of a awful man in history tolerable to watch. The rest of the cast are also good, though some characters just appear in the movie at random whenever the movie wants them too. The actors make this watchable and are the best part of the movie, to bad the script plot wasn't as good. The battle scenes are done well, though this is the American Revolution so don't expect anything worth caring from these also inaccurate battle scenes. The imagery is good, but again, it is propaganda and a glorification of a awful historical figure.

The Patriot.... historically inaccurate and despite my problems with it, it was good enough to get a positive rating from me. While it's a good time waster I wouldn't recommended to anyone no matter how much free time they have, just to much glorification for anyone take in a single day.