Following "Braveheart" to the "Indepedence Day" ...

Rating: 8/10 (15 August 2013)

When the director of "Independence Day", the screenwriter of "Saving Private Ryan" and the hero of "Braveheart" work together, a result like "The Patriot" isn't surprising. The summer 2000' blockbuster is a flamboyant, heavily patriotic epic relating the war between the Continental Army and the Loyalists to the British Crown, and the British Redcoats. The central figure of this American Revolution is Benjamin Martin, who couldn't have had a better incarnation than Mel Gibson, the eternal hero of 'David vs. Goliath' causes.
There' such sincere poignancy in Gibson's performance that he carries the whole film with the same confidence and pride as if it was the stripes and stars banner. In fact, the same film without him would have lost half of its effect; the role was tailor-made for Mel Gibson. And "The Patriot" has the perfect mix of action (the battles are as gruesome and realistic like "Braveheart") and emotion. I even wonder why the film didn't get as many accolades as "Braveheart" or its rival of the same year "Gladiator", both have their share of thrills, Gibson had nothing to envy on Russel Crowe, much more his archenemy, played by Jason Isaacs, is probably the only villain to match Joaquin Phoneix on the field of awfulness.
Action and sentimentality indeed, the film was both spectacular and surprisingly moving. It's like "The Patriot" tried to embody the two pillars of patriotism, muscle and heart: we fight for the country, but there's no fight without a heart to drive the spirit. We got the message on "Saving Private Ryan" but Mel Gibson's presence is here to remind us that the film borrows more from "Braveheart" than Spielberg's WWII epic. The comparison with "Braveheart" is even more inevitable because the enemy is the same, only this time, they're not incarnated by their king, but by one colonel, who's not less ruthless and cruel, but you can tell, they wanted to avoid attacks on historical accuracy, by showing that not all the English acted that way.
But Emmerich isn't a man of restriction and wisely enough, wouldn't trade thrills for objectivity, and Lord knows a movie like "The Patriot" couldn't have afforded objectivity. The more hateful the antagonist is, the more you support the hero, and even if he fights for a just cause, it's for the hero we care. We cared for Scots because it was William Wallace's people, not because we were eager to support them, the same goes for Americans. Granted they're the good guys in the film, but it's their personification by Gibson that creates our empathy, and it works precisely because he is unenthusiastic about the Revolution. This reluctance echoes the same plot of "Braveheart" when Wallaces states he doesn't believe in violence, but making violence undesirable doesn't prevent it from happening.
You know the rule, there are two ways to die in Mel Gibson's films, to be family or wife (he played widowers in more than 15 films, including the 'Lethal Weapon' and 'Mad Max' series) or kill his family or wife. That's the trigger to awaken the fierce beast and reopen the concealed wound. Benjamin Martin, the ex-veteran of the French and Indian war, coerced by his comrade and friend Chris Cooper to vote for the levy to support the Continental War, refuses first because he's got seven children and "can't afford principles". It doesn't take much for a movie fan to guess what kind of action will definitely make any English soldier an enemy for a man who adores his children more than anything. It even subtly questions the roots of a patriotism which is less made of abstractions, but as a sort of society's collective dream starting on its core: family.
But that's it, with Mel Gibson, no matter how predictable a plot point is, the acting wins our hearts, and it's impossible to resist to his on-screen charisma. What follows the turning point is a magnificent display of bestial savagery, but just because we root for the father as we despise the villain, just because Colonel Tavington (Isaacs) killed his son and ordered the soldiers to shoot the wounded Continentals, we savor the first vengeance. Watching the 'tomahawk ambush' isn't a sadistic delight, but the emotionally satisfying pay-off of a patient build-up and the sign of even more thrilling sequences to come. And still, "The Patriot", and that's why I enjoyed it more than "Gladiator", doesn't overplay the 'serious' card, this is not just an action film, there are characters, there is a spirit, and even some with guiding the action.
Indeed, there are many cute and moving moments that would have felt awkward in other typical action films, a sweet romance between Benjamin's idealistic son Gabriel, played by a young Heath Ledger and a sweet courageous girl whose father's deafness creates some funny moments. There is a subplot involving two stolen dogs, Martin's cute little girl who never spoke since the death of Martin's wife and who's responsible for a particularly moving scene (again, we know she will speak but it doesn't make her shining moment any less powerful). There is also the solid supporting presence of Ledger, Cooper and Tcheky Karyo as the grouchy but reliable French (holding some grieves against the British). "The Patriot" reveals Emmerich's capability to see beyond the limits of its patriotic plot.
Inevitably, the criticism it faced concerned Robert Rodat's screenplay and the portrayal of British soldiers, betraying the same superficiality I denounced in "Saving Private Ryan", but while it ruined Spielberg's film, because it was supposed to be realistic, it remarkably fits with "The Patriot" because the film doesn't have the same pretension, and easily avoid the 'propaganda' trap. Yes, the Colonel (again, it's not the whole British Army, but one individual) has a Nazi-like morbid aura, but what kind of other villains would match Mel Gibson? It's easy to find critical points in "The Patriot" but for each one, the alternative is rarely better.