America's birth, bathed in blood

Rating: 7/10 (17 December 2012)

There have not been many films about the American Revolutionary War. That is somewhat surprising as there are so many stories there to be told. The Patriot tells the story of one man, Benjamin Martin, who fights for his family. If at the end of the fighting independence has been achieved that is all well and good. But for Benjamin Martin family comes first. He is reluctant to fight, unwilling to place his family in danger. He won't go to the war. But the war comes to him. Right to his front porch. With horrifying consequences. And so Benjamin Martin takes up the fight. And what a bloody fight it will be. Nobody ever said the birth of a new nation would be pretty. There will be tragedy, heartbreak and grief along the way. Nothing worth fighting for comes easily.
It is a blow to his family which drags Benjamin into the war. A blow which will be avenged quickly and savagely. The tone is quickly set for a film which will be bathed in blood. But there is more to Benjamin than brutal violence. He proves to be smart, cunning, an inspiring leader. Mel Gibson gives an excellent performance in the role, capturing all that makes up this very unique man. There is a quiet dignity and honor to Benjamin Martin and Gibson brings that out. But there is that brutal side to him as well and Gibson handles that with aplomb too. Speaking of brutal, there is the film's main antagonist, the unspeakably evil British Colonel Tavington. When first we meet him he commits an obscene atrocity. And it only gets worse from there. This is truly one of the most reprehensible film characters ever. Jason Isaacs relishes the role, embraces the evilness. It's a solid performance from Isaacs but the character really does go too far. He's too evil. He does things which simply are not believable. Yes there were surely atrocities committed in this war but this film takes the character past the point of no return. Bad things may have been done but not that bad. No wonder so many British critics were up in arms upon the film's release. It's good if a film has a villain you can truly despise but this villain is just too much. He leaves such a bad taste in your mouth that it detracts from the film.
The over-the-top villainous Tavington is not the film's only flaw. There is a lot of dialogue that is clunky and awkward. The film clearly goes on too long, approaching three hours and at times really struggling to sustain itself for that length of time. But despite the flaws the film does enough good things to be deemed a success. Gibson is excellent, Isaacs a worthy foil. Other winning performances come from Heath Ledger as Benjamin's son, so eager to join the fight, and Chris Cooper as an American Colonel trying to hold his ragtag army together. If you want a bit of romance there's that too, Joely Richardson and her absurdly bountiful cleavage paired up with Gibson and bright, young Lisa Brenner for Ledger. And then there is the war itself, the brutal battles. The film spares nothing in its gory accounts of 18th century combat. The close-range gunfire, the bloody bayonets, and the cannonballs that do truly grotesque things to a human body. There are two good stories here, the big picture revolution and the more personal story of the Martin family. Those stories are meshed together very well by director Roland Emmerich. We haven't gotten many American Revolution stories in films. This one, flawed and highly fictionalized though it may be, is ultimately a satisfying one.