How Mel Won the War

Rating: 4/10 (17 September 2001)

When one sees these blockbusters, full of CinemaScope-like battle scenes, colors, graphic decapitations, the first impression is that there must be something here. I disagree with people who say it shouldn't be criticized because it's a movie and doesn't promise to be American history. No movie is an accurate portrayal of American history. They do however, within the world of the film, present accuracies and verisimilitude. This one is again a monster movie. The personification of evil, Satan himself, is British, and heartless. He locks people up in a church and burns them alive. He has no regard for anything--they are as flies to little boys--they kill them for their sport. Not only that, he's impenetrable, he's yet another thing that can't be killed. Thank God Mel Gibson is around. Unfortunately, by the time he gets into the action, there's not much left. The battle scenes are breathtaking; the scope of the movie phenomenal. Can't someone take this and do a Saving Private Ryan or Paths of Glory. Instead, we end up with the supernatural villain who can only be killed if he faces the Gibber, who personifies Popeye when he says, "That's all I can stands, cuz I can't stands no more!" I didn't make it to the theater to see this. I'm sure visually it is more grand than my big screen TV. A little subtlety, using characters we care about, people with hearts and souls, and, yes, a little bit of reality about what the American Revolution was about. As it stands now, we have shown that the great Patriots and Revolutionaries didn't win the war--An Australian Did! Aren't they part of the British Empire?