Please forgive Mel...

Rating: Null/10 (27 June 2000)

I have only one word which can describe this film: Unnecessary.
I walked into this movie expecting so much. I wanted love, action, patriotism, family, and triumph. Instead I got cliche, holocaust, incest, insanity, and bitterness.
The plot is a fairly simple one: Mel was a great fighter once (legendary in fact), but has since hung up his sword and pistol to settle down with his wife and family. When the Redcoats kill one of his seven children, he kind of snaps and goes back into action like a one-man Terminator. Easy enough story. Here were the problems...
The filmmakers took almost a full half an hour before anything happened. I don't mean before the first fight, or before the first love scene--I mean ANYTHING. Mel sitting around (literally) and looking lovingly at both his wife's grave and his children. By the time the first scene that furthered the plot arrived, I was almost asleep, but I continued to give it the benefit of the doubt. So they kill the son and Mel goes berserk. The scene in which he eliminates a rather large band of Redcoats with the help of his two youngest sons is amazing. I watched it and forgave the slow opening. "Here it comes," I thought, "The rest of this is going to kick butt."
I was wrong. You see, the incredibly weak script by Robert Rodat (who also wrote Saving Private Ryan, a movie that would have been boring had it not been directed by Steven Spielberg) has to force the idea that war is bad upon us repeatedly, as if we are all so stupid we didn't get it the first eighteen times. SPOILER ALERT The first son has to die--that makes sense. It allows Mel to go back into action. Then a bunch of other people die. Then more of his children die. Then some more people die. Then a guy kills himself. Then the entire population of a town gets burned alive inside a church (the most unnecessary moment in the entire movie). I'm sure I'm forgetting the other hundred people who bit it along the way as well. The point is, kill one son to have Mel seek revenge. Have some battles in which tons of people die (it worked in Private Ryan and Braveheart), just make sure it's no one you convinced us to care about. If you really want to prove that the bad guy is evil, have him attempt to burn up the church, or give the order or something. YOU DON'T ACTUALLY DO IT!
As if that overkill wasn't enough, everyone has to end up happy in the end, as if none of it had happened. All the men who lost their families are happy and dancing, the slaveowner loves the slave, the house that had been burned down is being built again, and the children who were upset with their parents suddenly love them once more. They are so happy, in fact, that Chris Cooper almost smiles. Worst of all, there's Mel Gibson, the man who lost his entire family, his home, his tranquility, his peace of mind, his connection with God, and his sanity, standing there waving the flag in patriotic triumph.
On top of all of that, the movie is full of badly directed scenes (I'm not surprised--the director also helmed Universal Soldier and Godzilla), poorly written dialogue, and loooooooooooooooong monologues that could just as easily have been seen, not heard. SHOW ME, DON'T TELL ME!
I can't believe Mel Gibson accepted the role, $25 million payoff or not. Even more, I can't believe he didn't stop halfway through it and say, "Listen guys, you all suck, I have two Academy Awards, let me finish directing this thing properly."
To compare this to Braveheart is an insult. This is the kind of movie that tries to be a thoughtful, dramatic, sensitive experience, but instead completely disrespects its characters, betrays its own hyped-up emotions, and gives the finger to the audience. It's as if the filmmakers are telling us that if we don't understand or sympathize with the characters, we are bad people.
Don't let them manipulate you, even though that is what they are trying desperately to do. This movie is mediocre at best. Bottom line is this: Although I like Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger immensely, all this movie managed to do was piss me off. With the actors they had and the epic subject matter they had access to, this could have been a true classic. What they did with it was downright unpatriotic.