Politically correct, racist and dumb.

Rating: 5/10 (22 June 2005)

I used to really like "The Patriot." Unfortunately, I watched it again recently and found myself quite disappointed. It's too silly, really. The ending, for example, is a hoot (somehow I had overlooked it countless times before). The Brits are all these vicious, stupid dogs and the Americans are smarter, better, stronger, and cooler.
It's extremely politically correct, so much so that it's almost laughable. In one corner there's the stereotypical black freedom fighter. In the other, the Evil Brit. And in yet another corner, the Man Who's Lost His Wife and Doesn't Want to Fight Because He's a Father and Has Learned to Value Human Life Despite His Violent Past (similar characters exist in every movie ever made, just about).
There's an exchange of dialogue that goes like this, during a fight:
(Before fighting the boss on level eight - err, I mean the British):
White Racist: You're a free man, now.
Black Man: I'm here on my own accord, now.
White Racist: I am honored to be fighting alongside you. Truly honored.
Then the black man smiles warmly.
It needn't be pointed out that this is awful stuff, but just for the sake of pointing it out to you: This is awful stuff, folks.
Later, during a retreat, Mel Gibson's character grabs the American flag, hauls it forward, yells "No retreat!" and waves it in the air. The black man looks on fondly. The point of all this is clear but it's way too heavy-handed and stupid. It's subtlety on the level of that scene in "Cool Hand Luke" (the only problem I have with the movie) where Paul Newman complains he just sees a lot of guys laying down rules. The exposition is unnecessary, and in both cases it ruins the flow of the scene.
So, to summarize: The movie is politically correct (it was originally going to be based on the Swamp Fox but they weren't allowed to show a hero mistreating his slaves, as the Swamp Fox did) and racist. It's anti-British, which I don't really have a problem with because every movie needs a villain, but it's a bit too much.
A couple years ago I considered this one of the best war films of all-time. Now, I see a pop culture reworking of a historical period, transformed by the director of "Godzilla" and "The Day After Tomorrow" into a silly, poorly-acted (apart from Gibson, who I'll always enjoy in film), stereotypical jumble of the biggest clichés in the book.