Hollywood revisionism and complete trash.

Rating: 4/10 (5 November 2000)

The maudlin, revisionist story of the mighty landowner who fought for family and country. The characters impose late 20th century ideals and accents onto an undoubtedly less 'sensitive', less feminist period. When the marriage on the beach occurs -- complete with South Carolinian, white landowners rejoicing hand in hand with black slaves to the Caribbean melodies -- I nearly fell over laughing. Hollywood's, and Mel Gibson's, take on 18th century America. Who are they trying to kid? With such gross inaccuracy the movie loses all credibility with regard to it's depiction of the actual battle scenes. I didn't know what to believe. Add to the mix some hyper-emotional, cathartic releases by these '1990's' men and you have American Revolution suitable for the whole family. Just avert your eyes when the occasional cannonball decapitates 'our' militiamen. What a joke. This kind of 'all American' movie makes me embarrassed, not proud, to be an American. This kind of tripe is another in a long line of films more about the lead actor (Gibson, our Braveheart) than the story it tries to depict.