the way that leads to freedom

Rating: 7/10 (23 March 2003)

This is the film-maker of "Independence Day", Roland Emmerich who made this historic adventures movie which the action takes place in the eighteenth century during the Independence War of the United States. Emmerich manages rather well from this epic movie. Anyway, the result is better than the conceited "Independence Day". This is a movie rather well made and careful, especially at the level of the (bloody) sequences fight.
There's also an honorable performance that owes a lot to Mel Gibson, brave and lucid when it's necessary. Heath Ledger, eager to join the army so as to defend his country against the English soldiers. On the other hand, Tchéky Karyo isn't equal to his role. I'm under the impression that he was hired only to make the spectator remember that the USA gained their independence with a little help from the French. Otherwise, he isn't really equal to the performance and he's there just to be decorative.
It's also obvious that the screenplay was inspired of several movies. You think about "the Last of the Mohicans" when Gibson sets an ambush in order to set his elder son free. But also "Robin Hodd", and above all "Braveheart". However, the screenplay doesn't succeed in hiding a certain manicheism: sadistic English soldiers face Americans settlers filled with good feelings. You can also notice a shy but pointless presence of humor. At last, you find in this movie, some beloved subjects to American movies: strained relationships between a father and his sons but an unexpected event will bring them closer (here, it's war). But also, the difficult choice to join the army, the question of the honor and revenge.
This movie only relates a minor episode of the Independence War. In spite of its weaknesses and its slight lack of inspiration, this is an epic movie, sometimes violent but never boring.