Ok drama about the reasons for fighting a war, I think...

Rating: 5/10 (7 April 2001)

1st watched 4/6/2001 - 5 out of 10(Dir-Roland Emmerich): Ok drama about the reasons for fighting a war, I think. The setting is slightly before America gained it's independence from England in the south. Mel Gibson plays a colonel who has decided that fighting a war is not the best way to gain something, but then changes his mind when the British kill some of his family members and are rather brutal in their methods. To me this was a confusing film because it's not about Patriotism, it's not a history lesson about the civil war, but rather a way of putting a revenge movie in a different setting. We are never given enough time or information as to why Gibson doesn't want to fight until after he starts fighting again. I believe the picture was trying to show that love for family should be greater than love for a cause, but I honestly don't think it did a very good job at this either. Emmerich seems to have a "hit or miss" directing style and this one for me was a miss. More dramatic than most of his efforts, but after this he probably needs to go back to mindless effects-filled action.