Almost So Bad To Be Entertaining But It Leaves A Bad Taste In The Mouth

Rating: 3/10 (28 January 2010)

Since the last film I reviewed was COME AND SEE the Soviet film depicting Nazi war crimes in Bylorussia in World War 2 most distressingly the inhabitants of a village being burned alive in a barn I thought it'd be a good idea to rewatch THE PATRIOT a film set during the American War of Independence starring Mel Gibson and directed by German Roland Emmerich to see if it's every bit as bad as I remembered and which caused a lot of controversy when it was released
Unsurprisingly it is every bit as bad as I remembered . The battle scenes of massed ranks standing in front of one another firing muskets are vaguely realistic if only on a tactical level because in those days chivalry at its most basic still existed in the mind of military men and was a gentlemanly act . Strangely Richard Rodat ( The screenwriter of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN ) and Emmerich seem to have created an alternative universe where butchering the civilian population just because things were going slightly badly was part of a strategy by the Brits . There is some debate about atrocities happening during the period but historians are unanimous that while some things may have happened that could be classed as war crimes nothing on the scale as seen in here did happen during the period . It led to one critic Jonathan Foreman writing a famous article in The New York Post decrying THE PATRIOT as " blood libel "
Interestingly the film draws attention to the fact that the colonial rebels were helped by the French . Before anyone starts to applaud this fact their role is totally downplayed . There is a French officer present who's aiding these patriots because his wife and children were burned to death by these nasty Brits . Goodness me according to this film the British empire's idea of war is stocking up on a lot of matches setting fire to the nearest passer by who can't fight back . You can almost understand why he likes to slaughter surrendering red coats and it's left to Mel Gibson ( I won't refer to him as his character's name since he's Mel Gibson playing ... well Mel Gibson ) to point out that killing unarmed prisoners is wrong . Interesting too that that it's heavily implied at the end of the film the French only turned up at the end when the war was effectively over . I think that might have been true of America's role at the end of WW1 but certainly wasn't true of the French in the American War Of Independence . France , Holland and Spain all gave military help to the colonials throughout the war especially naval power . Effectively the whole world was against Britain helping the revolutionaries on land and sea
In this version of America everyone lived in a multi ethnic egalitarian utopia where all men are equal before God . Not only were black people not slaves but if look closely you can spot the occasional black face walking along streets unhindered .One can understand how much hatred Spike Lee has for the film and has been very vocal about it and it really is laughably bad the way the film spins out how much equality is afforded to African -Americans in the late 1770s . It's a bit like watching a version of SCHINDLER'S LIST were no one actually gets murdered for being Jewish . Just for the record Britain abolished slavery in 1807 while the Americans didn't get round to it for decades later .
This is a movie that shows Hollywood at its very worst . If it'd been made by a bunch of American journeymen film makers it would have just been Hollywood rubbish . However since I'd previously seen COME AND SEE it does leave a very disgusting taste in the mouth that it stars Mel Gibson and has been made by a German director . The only good thing to say about it is that it's so bad that no one will be able to take it seriously