Patriotic Kitsch

Rating: 7/10 (15 February 2004)

'The Patriot' is a good film by the norms of Hollywood, belonging to the genre of the historic epic drama. On the positive side it is well done, well acted, with quite a complex action line. On the bad side all is very expected, many of the 'memorable' lines as well as the characters behavior belong more to low grade history books rather than to an artistic film. It looks like cinema art did not develop after 'Gone with the Wind'. The film is also very one-sided in its historical approach, pro-American and anti-Brit. Being quite well done, no wonder that American viewers are moved and resonate positively, while British viewers may find it ultrageous - see some of the IMDB comments. Mel Gibson is on some kind of programatic path with his creation lately, and I like less and less what he is doing. He seems to forget that art is more valuable and durable when political or religious propaganda are played lower key.
Over all I watched the film with a mix of cinema enjoyment, and lack of comfort because of the too obvious historical and political message. Too much message, too little emotion. Curiously enough, 'The Patriot' reminded me some of the films I saw in my younger days, in Communist Romania, where the propaganda machine was enrolling the cinema industry into making films in service of the official ideology. Worth seeing, but controversial for me - 7 out of 10 on my personal scale.