An uneasy combination of its director probably producing their best work; its lead firing on all cylinders and this strange sense of having seen it all before.

Rating: 5/10 (21 November 2012)

One could be right in saying that the crossover period between 1999 and 2000 Mel Gibson spent in front of the camera was epitomised by all of: the desire for revenge; the need to challenge a ruling patriarchy and the ill-witting stumbling into a situation wherein encouraging people to stand up and believe in a burning desire for liberation is key to his presence. In Brian Helegeland's 1999 remake of Point Blank, entitled Payback, Gibson played out the role of angered lowlife striving for a bloody revenge on a man who wronged him before further still taking on a dominant ruling force and finding love where he didn't expect it. In Nick Park's Aardman clay figurine driven animation Chicken Run, he voices a rooster who quite literally crash lands into a chicken farm and whose desire to be free of the restraints of the scattered coops did not match their owners lust for them to produce eggs. It was here Gibson's character, through one means or another, became an idolised beacon of hope prefigured by those in desperate need of leadership. Where both films clock in at about a hundred odd minutes in length and get the job done, Roland Emmerich's The Patriot just doesn't quite make the grade. It isn't as much fun and nor is it about as substantial, in spite of the fact it is the length of both these movies put together and allows for its lead (Gibson) to wade through similar content.
For sure, the film is that of Gibson's - in spite of the fact a handful of characters not limited to that of his eldest son Gabriel (Ledger) and a true to life British General named Cornwallis (Wilkinson), often strike us as going through plights that are more interesting. The project will eventually come to form one of those often tired circular journeys which begin on the homely sanctuary of a farm before ending on one after all the chaos; skirting with an enemy and experiencing life and such has played out. Along the way, the lead will be faced with the opportunity to bury the grief he has for a deceased spouse as well as discover the chance to rid himself of the post-traumatic stress disorder he has carried with him when specific wartime acts many-a year ago left him in startled awe at what he was capable of on a battlefield. The film has been branded as being about the dangers of pacifism, and it is a credit to the makers for addressing the crux of such a matter without indeed glorifying warfare.
The lead is Benjamin Martin, a widower, and he lives on a South Carolina plantation in 1776 where the African Americans are paid; his youngest kids run through corn fields with warm smiles on their faces and the maid bakes pies for supper (although mercifully, she does not leave them on the sill to cool). Trouble is brewing, and war with the English (only later referred to as "the British") over control of these East Coast states not limited to New York and Massachusetts is desired by most of the local council. Martin, troubled by what he experienced himself in the Franco-Indian wars, rejects the idea but is largely ignored when a crucial vote passes. Through one thing or another, he is dragged into the conflict when it quite literally arrives on his front door step and his family is befallen a tragedy; a tragedy instigated by a snarling villainous British Colonel named Tavington (Isaacs), who kills one of his sons and burns down the farm.
From here, Emmerich launches the piece into a post-Last of the Mohicans; sub-Braveheart (with splashes of Saving Private Ryan on account of the Robert Rodat screen writing credit) wartime thriller as that of the British Empire crush the American infantry before tables are turned through the sole help of Martin and his guerrilla troops with whom he had previously fought. Along the way, Emmerich will, in equal measure, stall as well as kick things on; there is a lull to proceedings for about forty minutes as the second act tries to kick in and we await formal hostilities between that of Martin and Tavington to start, whereas attempts to touch on issues resembling that of Civil rights are more-so dolloped than subtly slid into proceedings to prop up the primary focus.
There are things about the film one is able to admire, it provides us with a likable hero; a nasty antagonist and a number of supporting acts whose respective tales of romance and war time strife do well to just about justify the runtime. Emmerich resists depicting comically inclined British bad guys going up against brave, heart-on-the-sleeve Americans and allows for antagonism to transpire in both camps. Alas, it is an admirable failure. Granted, it falls into being one of those war films wherein the two key people, who are required to fight, are able to spot one another during the climactic battle wherein chaos and killing is all around them whilst they stand still and immune, but you go with it. The result is something fairly pedestrian, but not without merit.