THE PATRIOT
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: THE PATRIOT is a big movie with
some big virtues and big faults. It is a long
film with handsome production values and some
subtle script touches, but too many of the
episodes seem borrowed from children's TV
adventures. Still it is nice to see someone
making the Revolutionary War exciting. THE
PATRIOT is at the very least entertaining with a
very nice look and some valuable history.
Rating: 7 (0 to 10), low +2 (-4 to +4)
The story begins in 1776. While certain of the American colonists are engaged in declaring their independence from Britain, the British are finding it almost impossible to engage the colonists' army on the battlefield. The Americans know almost nothing about fighting and if it could be brought to a European style battle, the British are almost certain they could bring the rebellion to a quick end. (As one of the British in the film puts it, "These rustics are so inept it nearly takes the honor out of winning.") The British have to try a new approach. Their ace in the hole is the unpopularity of the rebellion in the southern colonies like the Carolinas. If they can sweep from the south, pick up southern support and sweep north with it, they can probably capture the Continental Army. To do this they take Charleston and, reinforced by locals, are ready for the northward sweep. Locally the operation is led by General Cornwallis.
Benjamin Martin (played by Mel Gibson) is a South Carolina farmer. He fought Indians and French in the Indian wars and came out a war hero, but at the same time he is a man hating what the wars had done to him. Now he is a widower with seven children who wants no part of war. He watches in fear as the British and the Americans fight. He refuses to give his support to the rebellion even though his eldest child Gabriel (Australian Heath Ledger) is anxious to fight the British. Colonel Harry Burwell (Chris Cooper), a war buddy of Benjamin's, leads the locals. Finally Benjamin lets Gabriel join up. As the months pass the war gets closer and closer to the Martin Farm. But it takes Gabriel's return, wounded and with army dispatches, to bring his father into the war. The merciless Col. William Tavington (Jason Isaacs) finds Gabriel at the farm and against the rules of war sentences him to hang. In a feeble attempt to resist, a brother is killed and Tavington orders the house razed to the ground. Benjamin knows less feeble ways to resist and is at long last drawn into the seemingly impossible conflict. Soon he is a rebel leader hiding in the swamps and known by the nickname "the Ghost" and putting some of the honor back into the winning.
If all this sounds like the beginnings of a children's movie, perhaps a reframing of adventures of Robin Hood, the facts will certainly bear that interpretation. There are many good things about THE PATRIOT, but the core of the plot is not one of them. There are episodes in this film one would expect from a children's TV show. While there are some nice battlefield scenes, when Benjamin fights the British hand-to-hand, they are far too easy to beat. One shot and they are dead. It is almost like knocking down nine-pins. People are a lot harder to kill than that. Benjamin Martin is in part based on Francis Marion, nicknamed "the Swamp Fox." A part of preparation I did to see this film was to watch Walt Disney's THE SWAMP FOX, starring Leslie Nielson. This is by far the nicer production but at heart I would put the two stories on a par with each other. The film is directed by Roland Emmerich and produced by him and Dean Devlin. This is the team responsible for STARGATE, INDEPENDENCE DAY, and GODZILLA. They consciously aim films at a level of young teenagers, and THE PATRIOT is no exception, though the historical recreation, the costumes, the look of the film, all should make this a film of interest to a wider audience than the basic plot would alone.
While the plot is on a childish level, the script as a whole is somewhat better. Written by Robert Rodat, author of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, the film contains some rather noteworthy discussions of the ethics of war. Tavington, the blood enemy of Martin, sort of this films Sheriff of Nottingham, is totally ruthless with his enemy and is happy to slaughter any of the enemy who get in his way. Cornwallis (played by Tom Wilkinson) and several others of the British do not buy into his concept of total war and are shocked at his brutality. This sympathy to particular British, even while making the British the enemy may seem like a small thing, but notice that in films like GANDHI there are almost no sympathetic British characters. It is nice to see someone saying that as a colonial power Britain had some scruples.
With the exception of its treatment of the British colonialists the script tries a little hard to be politically correct. Most of the Americans we meet are against slavery and live in friendly neighborliness with a colony of blacks. There have been some protests that Benjamin Martin is based on Francis Marion and Marion is currently interpreted as being what we would call a racist. In fact he seems to be based only in part on parts of him. Martin should probably be considered a wholly fictional character. While I am on the subject of discussions of the philosophy of war, there is a marvelous exchange between Cornwallis and Martin in which Cornwallis complains that it is wrong for Martin to target British officers. If you kill off the officers and leave just the men you will have chaos on the battlefield, he complains. In one sentence he douses us with culture shock and sums up the differences of 18th century warfare and the more modern brand that was coming. That may well be the best written line in any film I have seen this year.
Culture shock is just why one wants to see historical films. How many Americans have had an opportunity to look out their front window and see two armies fighting? How many have seen the battle wash like a wave over their homes? Luckily almost nobody since the Civil War. It is rare that we see any film about the Revolutionary War and far rarer that we see that war from the eyes of the southern colonies. Still some of what we see is a little hard to believe. Several of the scenes created for this film seem to have been digitally enhanced so they seem less like real photographic scenes and more like nicely composed paintings. But nicely created is what we see of the day-to-day life in the southern colonies. This part was overseen by experts from the Smithsonian Institute and what we see does have an air of authenticity. Some of the battle scenes are also authentic in a brutal sort of way. The destruction done by swords and cannonballs and even musket balls obviously could be fairly brutal compared to the relatively clean wounds made by bullets. If anything this film underplays how much gore there really was in a battle, though seeing Gibson go at someone with an Indian hatchet (mercifully behind foliage) and seeing pieces of person flying is something that parent should be warned against before bringing young children. The costume work with this film is excellent. Some of the scenes with Mel Gibson riding with the banner of the American flag are a bit over-ripe in the same way as scene that people complained about in THE POSTMAN. John Williams has written a decent score, though at times it is reminiscent of Hans Zimmer.
Mel Gibson is a good actor, probably better than most with his popularity, but some of what was needed for this role he just did not have. He does not express sadness well. When Clint Eastwood loses his home and family in THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES you do feel his loss. Gibson does not convey the same sort of loss well. Chris Cooper has been an actor I have looked for since MATEWAN. He is becoming a lot easier to find. AMERICAN BEAUTY seems to have made his name, but recently I have seen him in OCTOBER SKY, and two days before THE PATRIOT he was in ME, MYSELF & IRENE. Other notables in this film include Rene Auberjonois, Tcheky Karyo, and Tom Wilkinson.
On a plot level THE PATRIOT is a disappointment, but most everything else is done well. That earns the film a 7 on the 0 to 10 scale and a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 2000 Mark R. Leeper
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