Majestic motion picture about the American Revolutionary War

Rating: 10/10 (1 March 2004)

"The Patriot" is without a doubt the best movie about the American Revolutionary War that was ever made. The movie is somehow the Revolutionary War's version of "All Quiet on the Western Front" but only in reverse. Where in "All Quiet on the Western Front" is a story about a young German student Paul Baumer who gets caught up with the pro-war enthusiasm of August 1914 and eagerly joins the Kaiser's army only to lose his love for war after seeing up front the horrors and bloodshed that war spawned. Where as in "The Patriot" the story is just the opposite.
In the movie we have a man Benjamin Martin, Mel Gibson,who fought with honor and bravery in the French and Indian War of 1754-60. Martin was so repelled by the war that he never wanted to have anything to do with war again. It wasn't until his home was burned down and his young son Thomas, Gregory Smith, was murdered by the British and his older son Gabriel, Heath Ledger, taken away by them to be hanged that Benjamin Martin changed his mind. Turning into a tiger and fighting like hell against the Red Coats with a fury that was impressive enough to inspire those of his fellow Colonialists to fight along with him.
"The Patriot" is both grand in scope and deep and rich in the history that it presents. It's everything that a movie about an historic event like the American Revolutionary War should be. Well written and acted with beautiful and breath-taking photography and with an eye on the details of the era 1775-1781 that makes you feel as if you were there.
You can see just what a good actor Mel Gibson is in his first battle scene when he attacks a British unit with his two young sons who have his older son Gabriel being taken away to be executed. In a matter of minutes he changes from a peaceful and law biding person into a savage and blood-thirsty killer that's so convincing that it almost makes you for just that moment feel sorry for the British soldiers. Who are about to kill his oldest son and murdered by shooting in the back his younger son Thomas just moments before.
There's a number of equally effective scenes in the movie ending in one of the most action packed and realistic battle sequences ever filmed in any war movie in motion picture history.
With the movie ending at Yorktown Va. with the British Army of Gen. Cornwallis trapped between the Continental Army on land and the French Fleet blocking their escape to the sea on October 19, 1781 that ended the Revolutionary War in the American Colonialists favor.
"The Patriot" is always being compared to Mel Gibson's previous historical movie classic "Braveheart" and alway seems to come out second best. I feel that "The Patriot" is every bit as good as "Braveheart" if not even a better movie. It's "The Patriot's" misfortune to have been made some five years after "Braveheart" so it comes across like it's not an entirely different movie then "Braveheart" but it's sequel