Exciting and emotional adventure, long but worth sticking with (one very tiny spoiler within)

Rating: 10/10 (6 August 2006)

The Patriot is a very good film. It has what I think of as cinematic integrity. When you first watch it, you will spend at least half an hour (it's 2hrs30ish long) thinking it really isn't progressing fast enough and you don't want to know why Mel Gibson cares so much about rocking chairs. But bear with it, because it's exciting and emotional and worth watching.
Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) is a widower looking after seven children and being a peaceful family man when the American war of Independence is on the verge of breaking out; he does however have a good military reputation for some atrocities he now regrets committing during the French and Indian Wars. His oldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), joins up to fight for freedom, and then the next son is desperate to do so, and here the action begins.
I won't reveal the plot from here, because it's worth just being surprised by stuff that happens. But there are some things that should be highlighted, the first of which is the very good acting. Jason Isaacs makes a very good and completely amoral villain called Colenel Tavington (occasionally overacted but mostly very good), who manages to persuade General Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson, wonderful) that brutality can be a good idea sometimes. Gibson is outstanding - there is one point where he cries for a reason I won't reveal because it would spoil it, and if you're soft-hearted like me it's impossible not to start crying with him. Ledger is also very good and there's a very sweet romance between Gabriel and his sweetheart, Anne. One of the best things is the Martin children, though some of them are a little underused.
The second thing to say is that, on the subject of cinematic integrity, this is a film that doesn't shy away from bad things happening. A lot of bad thing happen, and people die and people are upset over it and sometimes it's quite depressing (this isn't spoilerish - I didn't tell you *who* dies!). This sense of gloom makes the stirring ideas about freedom and patriotism all the more potent - it's a time that Americans are proud to remember, and rightly so. This isn't about modern patriotism, however much the film's distributors might have had this in mind - it's much more relevant in the sense that it portrays that period in history with great skill.
What I was most impressed by was the attention paid to emotions in the film. Gibson was excellent in conveying anger (with a tomahawk) and grief and did a wonderful job of playing a complicated family man with a past and priorities. There are a number of very poignant scenes, going together to make the atmosphere very affecting. Another gem was the youngest daughter, Susan, who begins the film not speaking, and when she starts speaking still refuses to talk to her father - but, in a very poignant moment that *always* makes me cry, she runs after him shouting, "Daddy! Please don't go! I'll say anything if you don't go!" The film has something for everyone - excitement, adventure, pathos, moral reasoning.
Excellent film, and always a joy, if a slightly depressing one, to watch. Slow in places, but it more than makes up for this in excitement, depth and raw emotion.