Posted: 07/11/2000

The Patriot

(2000)

by D. Patrick Seitz

What price box-office glory?

There are certain cinematic combinations that all but ensure success. For example, when a character played by Harrison Ford gets a bee in his bonnet about the Nazis, you just know the film will be enjoyable. Adhering to the same inexplicable laws of film physics is the fact that when a Mel Gibson character fights the British, expect the film to pull out all the stops and give you your money’s worth.

Such is certainly the case in The Patriot, Gibson’s latest Brit bash. It seems that movie trailers are getting more and more explicit, and The Patriot is no exception. If you own a TV or have been to the movies lately, you already know the basic premise. I’ll just cut to the chase and tell you what you can’t learn via the trailers. Gibson plays Benjamin Martin, a landowner, father, widower, and former war-hero. He’s got a bunch of pretty kids, the hots for his dead wife’s sister, and a nice house. Life is good, until that damn war with the British starts fouling things up on the homefront.

When I first heard about The Patriot, I voiced what proved to be a relatively common sentiment among my friends: “Hmmm? Mel Gibson kicking Brit ass, all in the name of freedom. Now where have I seen this before?” For the most part, though, it lived up to the sizable task of not turning into “Braveheart 2.” Benjamin Martin comes across as a much more reluctant hero than did William Wallace—a man who has seen the horrors of war and is in no great hurry to revisit them. Also, he’s got that passel of kids to worry about, thus denying him that delicious nihilistic sense of revenge that colored all of Wallace’s actions in Braveheart. Having said that, though, I must admit, when Martin rides into General Cornwallis’ camp under the flag of truce, I was waiting for him to whip out a mace in sweet slow motion and start doling out a little blunt force trauma.

One of the film’s biggest strengths is its cast, including Joely Richardson and Jason Isaacs (Event Horizon), Tom Wilkinson (The Full Monty, Shakespeare In Love), Rene Auberjonois (Benson, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), and Chris Cooper (American Beauty). Heath Ledger, who plays Gibson’s eldest son, is getting a lot of publicity off of this film. Only time will tell whether or not this is the start of his ascent. Not to sound pessimistic, but don’t we all remember when Matthew “Bongo Naked” McConaughey was going to be the next big thing?

However, the film is not without its weaknesses. At times, situations in The Patriot seem as if they’ve gotten a taste of the revisionist moral airbrush. When Gabriel’s beau stands up in the middle of church and chastises the menfolk for their cowardice, nobody bats an eye. Instead, all the guys get this sheepish look on their face and join the rebel forces. Would men really have taken that sort of dressing down from a teenage girl in the late 1700s? I have my doubts. Also, the blacks in Martin’s employ seem inordinately happy—and liberated—for people of color working on a South Carolina plantation at that time in history. Meet our protagonist, folks: Benjamin Martin—hero, father, card-carrying member of the NAACP.

The battle scenes were plenty brutal, with cannonballs scattering appendages hither and yon and soldiers being felled like so many trees. Watching each battle unfold as a miniature war of attrition, it’s hard to imagine that such straightforward and costly maneuvers were ever considered the tactical norm. Martin, having learned guerilla tactics during the French and Indian War, tears through his foes like nobody’s business during small skirmishes.

Some people might find The Patriot too bloody for their liking, but it’s a war movie—what else should one expect? Even Three Kings came out medium rare, and there was practically more blood spilt in that film then there was in the war about which it was made.

More disturbing than the general level of gore, though, is one specific scene in which Martin arms his young sons and takes them along on an impromptu ambush. I’m definitely not one to blame Columbine and its ilk on movies, games and music, but something about the image of very young children using guns hit a little too close to home.

The Patriot is a little long (twenty minutes shy of a full three hours), and it takes certain historical liberties, but for the most part, it’s an engaging post-Payback romp through history. The good guys are heroes, the bad guy is dripping with evil, and everybody’s siding up. Just remember to hit the bathroom on your way in, or your mind will start wandering right as the stakes are getting really high onscreen.

D. Patrick Seitz recently put down roots in Los Angeles, where he’s trying his hand at acting, writing, and singing.

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