The year's biggest disappointment (yet still watchable).

Rating: 1/10 (12 January 2001)

** 1/2 stars out of ****
It pains me to give The Patriot anything below ***. Simply put, with Mel Gibson in the title role of a man fighting for his family and his country, I was expecting an historical epic that could somewhat reach the heights of Braveheart. It didn't happen, but that's not to say The Patriot was a bad movie, which is not the case by a long shot.
It's around the beginning of the Revolutionary War in America (specifically, South Carolina for this film), fighting for independence from England. Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson), a widower and father of 7, hopes to shelter his family from the horrors of war, but his attempts are rendered futile when his oldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), disobeys him and enlists.
After a few campaigns and battle defeats, Gabriel manages to return home, but insists he must go because he had been ordered to send dispatches. The British also arrive at the Martin residence, led by Colonel Tavington (Jason Isaacs), who takes Gabriel prisoner and has Martin's second child, Thomas, killed.
Enraged, Martin ambushes the men escorting Gabriel, frees his son, and has them sheltered in the home of his sister-in-law, Charlotte (Joely Richardson). But Gabriel refuses to stay, and returns to the army, with his father following aside. Both eventually join and form a militia, which now has the assignment of trying to slow down General Cornwallis as long as possible and hold him in the south so the French can arrive in time. At the same time they are taking down the British with ambushes, Colonel Tavington plans of a way to take down Martin and his colonial militia.
The Patriot has so many things wrong with it that I'm surprised I didn't give it ** stars instead. First off, the storyline is dull and cliched. Oscar-nominated screenwriter Robert Rodat's script is often unengaging and lacks the depth so vital to an historical drama. He and director Roland Emmerich seem to be more concerned with "inspiring" subplots and cliches than real drama. Consider the unnecessary side stories involving a slave who has to prove himself in battle, the daughter who won't speak to her father, etc., and you've got a movie that wastes too much time on material that really isn't all that important.
Another flaw in the script is Rodat's obsession with injecting a lot of the humor into the film. I have no problem with that, but only 1/4 of the humor actually works, and it wears out fast after the first viewing, thus making the humor look out of place and even corny on a second viewing.
But let me go into what is good in the movie. The action scenes are impressively choreographed and the first ambush attack-with Gibson rescuing his son-is simply a magnificently done sequence, a white-knuckle set piece with true emotional power. Had there been more scenes like this, The Patriot would have been a fantastic film. The last battle itself is an exciting and long sequence, but features lttle compelling power or drama. Emmerich proves adept at handling action scenes, but does little to create true depth, instead often resorting to manipulation.
The Patriot does have more action sequences than The last of the Mohicans and Glory, but you'd be surprised by the sometimes sluggish pace (as compared to the tight pacing of those aforementioned films). When the movie's not on the battlefield, it can get quite slow moving (and even during the skirmishes, the annoying overuse of unstylish slow motion gets on your nerves after a while). The fact is, the story is simply not executed well enough to maintain tight and undivided interest for 165 minutes.
The performances are actually quite strong and help to lift the movie above its flawed script. Mel Gibson is as great as ever, and his terrific portrayal of a man torn by family and country is one of his best performances yet. Jason Isaacs is equally good as the villain. His Colonel Tavington is convincingly cold and calculating. Heath Ledger turns in a stellar performance, and his co-star/love interest Lisa Brenner is decent (though her church speech is almost over-the-top). The lovely and underrated Joely Richardson is good as Gibson's love interest but doesn't enough screen time to flesh out her character completely. She also tends to speak rather slowly, as if though she's having a hard time trying to dispell her British accent. The rest of the supporting cast is adequate, though some of the militia characters can get quite annoying.
On the technical side, Caleb Deschanel's cinematography is at times gorgeous and the costumes and sets are convincing. John Williams score is a mixed bag. The haunting and foreboding elements of the score-particularly in the scene where Isaacs knocks the tomahawk out of Gibson's hand in their fight-work very well and is at times a terrible beauty to listen to. The patriotic score, however, is too overly jingoistic and just too cheery.
So, The Patriot didn't quite turn out to be that glorious epic I was hoping for, but it's by all means a watchable movie, one that I recommend with and/or despite some reservations. This year's true epics are really Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Gladiator, but The Patriot is a decent outing for those looking for some sweeping spectacle.