a well done historical caricature

Rating: 7/10 (2 July 2000)

"The Patriot" is quite an amazing mixture of the best and the worst in a movie. The acting is quite good. Mel Gibson is way better than in Braveheart as he does get to act and not just to do loud screaming, weapon waving and undergo physical and emotional torture. All of his children are excellent as well. And there is quite a bit of good humor and some impressive battle scenes.
However the script is far too predictable and sooo terribly stereotypical and too Hollywoodish. There are a few emotionally overcooked episodes, especially each time Gibson is striken by another tragedy (brrr, and I thought "Ransom" was bad!)

My biggest problem, however, is the unbelievable historical inaccuracy of this movie. Yea, yeah, I know , this is not a documentary and the director should be allowed an "artistic license". However, no matter what artistic interpretation of historical facts the director makes, he has to capture the spirit of the time. Otherwise we are treated to a fairy-tale, which is exactly what happened here. In fact the "Patriot" is a particularly superficial and shallow fairy-tale.
Why did they have to demonize the British so much and present them as inhuman savages worthy of German Nazis? This was certainly not the case in reality and it was not the "inhuman atrocities" of the British Army that drove most Americans to fight in the Revolutionary War. Of course showing the Brits torch a church with the whole village locked inside is much more dramatic than trying to explain the whole "taxation without representation" thing! I am neither American nor British (in fact I am from Russia) but this film's treatment of the British seems very much like a slander.
The treatment of slavery in the movie is totally idealistic and has nothing to do with reality. In fact I am surprised that they chose to set the movie in South Carolina which, of all the American states, is the one most responsible for perpetrating the abomination of slavery in America.

What makes it really bad is that most young Americans are so ignorant of their own history that they are likely to accept the historical caricature of "the Patriot" for the real thing.
Having said all of this, I have to confess that I rather enjoyed this movie. So go see it and then read a good history book afterwards!