Patriotism at its Highest Level

Rating: Null/10 (24 February 2001)

"The Patriot" is another in the long line of patriotic summer movies, with recent examples being Independence Day and Armageddon. But unlike those two other pro-US patriotic movies, "The Patriot" is excellent. Eventough it's mostly the same point as the other patriotic movies, the United States can prevail over anything, this benefits from great performances by two Aussie's.
The two Aussie's in question are Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger. Gibson puts in a performance which stands as some of his best work, while Ledger(in his first major role) proves he can hold his own with even the best actors. All the other actors in this movies acquit themselves quite well. Led by a scary performance from Jason Isaacs as the main villain. Tcheky Karyou proves that with the right material he can also be excellent.
The plot is based on the Civil War and eventhough the main character and most of the other characters are all made up the story stays loyal to the source. One thing this movie does well is put in a right mix of action and drama. At some points I was nearly crying and at others I actually stood up and cheered. The character of Benjamin Martin(Gibson) is very intelligently written, while his Gabriel(Ledger) is at times under-written but comes off very convincingly. The only character that I didn't specifically like was that Colonel William Tavington(Isaacs). Eventhough the movie made me hate the character like it was supposed to, Tavington was just a bit too cartoonish in his evilness and it was hard to believe that he was a real person.
But overall "The Patriot" overcomes it's small flaws and becomes one of the best films of the year. I highly recomend "The Patriot" 9/10