Review of The Patriot (2000) by Kyle M — 22 Aug 2014

Intended to be a prestige picture, "The Patriot" takes the American War for Independence and turns it into a revenge action picture that has little interest in historical facts. Mel Gibson is a widowed, pacifist South Carolinian farmer who is against fighting the British in the name of protecting his family.

Improbably, he doesn't own any slaves and there is no familial political division. When the tyrannical British soldiers murder his son, Gibson takes up arms leading the colonists in guerilla warfare to defeat the British.

Director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin present Gibson as a Rambo-like vigilante who scalps the villainous redcoats and we in the audience are forced to cheer on the gruesome acts he commits.

The fight for independence seems a minor matter next to one man's thirst for vengeance. Jason Isaacs is the sadistic British colonel who burns a church full of colonial women and children. The plight of slaves and the overall significance of the war is largely ignored.

Passages of dialogue are trite. Heath Ledger is compelling in a brief role. The superb cinematography is by Caleb Deschanel. For a far more thoughtful view of the Revolutionary War period check out HBO's superb miniseries "John Adams" instead.

Written by Robert Rodat. With Chris Cooper, Joely Richardson, Tom Wilkinson, Tcheky Karyo.