Little to feel patriotic about...

Rating: Null/10 (12 March 2001)

Unlike many "historical" films, the Patriot feels more like a high-concept action movie. For one, the "history" depicted is simply a setting in which the fictional aspects take place. Yes, real people like Gates and Cornwallis are used, but such major sequences such as the battle at the end are not even named, leaving us to run to our history texts to find out what was going on. However, people such as Martin and Colonel Tavington are fictionalized permutations of real characters who would have been much more interesting. For example, the real Sir Henry Talton and his British Legion were considered so dangerous that George Washington himself planned an operation to wipe them out. Furthermore, just on the merits of the film itself, The Patriot is packed full of every major war cliche, and is dragged on by scenes that do little to further the plot. By the third time that Tavington wiped out one of Martin or his men's families, I decided that he was definitely evil and needed to be killed, but by the fourth or fifth time, I was starting to finger the fast forward button. There were also several little plot aspects that were thrown in that did nothing to further the plot. Though, I should expect nothing more from the director of Godzilla and Independence Day. I need not mention that the first twenty minutes is almost point-for-point Braveheart. The film does have one great aspect, however. It is probably the first time someone has taken advantage of modern special effects to show warfare of the pre-Napoleonic period, showing the modern average public things like real cannonball behavior--though these same aspects would have done little for "great battle" films such as Waterloo or Gettysburg. Now, if someone would make a truly historical Revolutionary War film, and not just another Johnny Tremain, it could be a great achievement.