A compelling story awash in gore

Rating: Null/10 (29 July 2000)

THE PATRIOT is set in Colonial South Carolina. My husband was born in Rock Hill, my grandparents lived in Chester and I have traveled extensively in the Pee Dee/Low Country of the state; therefore I recognized quite a bit of the scenery. The film messes with history (still, as co-author of a historic textbook, I knew more or less who the characters were supposed to be), but it is a compelling story. And Mel Gibson is outstanding in his portrayal of a tormented man driven to extreme means to defend his family.

That said ... I knew ahead of time THE PATRIOT contained violent battle scenes and other rather unsavory (often sadistic) bits of business. I didn't realize, however, that I was going to spend half the movie with my hands over my eyes. Particularly disturbing to me was a suicide scene that lasted perhaps a second, but made me hyperventilate (I lost a friend to suicide a few years ago). One might say that since war is hell, the violence is not gratuitous. Maybe not, but gore is gore, and there's quite enough of it. THE PATRIOT is a good movie, but I would not recommend it for anyone who finds violence unnerving.