Creme de la creme

Rating: Null/10 (13 April 2002)

Before the end of Braveheart, my ass started to ache against the cheap hard theater seat. I was much less comfortable watching Patriot (at a drive-in), but I noticed it less. I would not have noticed my sore butt, the crick in my neck, etc. etc. even if Patriot was six hours long. That's a great film. Great on all counts. It's four stars. I would go out of my way to buy this film. Braveheart? I'd go out of my way to watch it...not really to buy it.
Why is Patriot better? Front-to-back, it is dedicated to dealing with primal human concepts that existed long before we were here, and will endure long after we are gone. After you've seen it a few times, you begin to realize this is not a story so much about American independence, as about a tug-of-war between life and death. The story about the Revolution is a sidebar. Want proof? Watch it beginning to end - at no time does any stretch of fifteen minutes pass, without the advantage shifting from one side to another. Life wins, death wins, back-and-forth, beginning-to-end. This is great storytelling.
I think the criticism for playing fast-and-loose with history is valid, but not valid enough to tarnish the reputation of the product. Taking license with history is dangerous, after all, only to those of us who don't bother to read up. Failing to read up is decisional. You don't like how Mel Gibson invents people, covers up things, makes slaveholders look like heroes and decent people look like ogres? Fine. Go read about how it really was, and take his movies with a grain of salt. Everyone else isn't doing that, but if they're being mislead by Gibson's efforts, the deception pales in comparison to what HBO does to them every night. Cut him some slack. There's nothing in Patriot that compares to having an English princess knocked up by a Scottish bandit who really never lived in the same country as she did at any given time, and died when she was thirteen years old.
The best thing about this film is you can watch it three, five, ten times or more and still see more detail you didn't notice before - detail meaningful to the story. This is yet another sign of great storytelling, and great filmmaking. Easily the best film of 2000, and every year since then.