This story had to be told

Rating: 10/10 (16 December 2005)

This is the film we were all waiting for. It tells the history in a clear and concise way of possibly the most important war of all time..
Mel Gibson plays a humble farmer who becomes a patriot for his people in fighting against a brutal oppressor, in this case, the British Army. The film depicts the horrors of war, including the burning of a church by the British, with the poor women and children brutally burnt within it.
The movie contrasted the hierarchical and snobby ways of the British, with the down to earth manner of the American and French patriots. All were welcome to fight for the cause, whatever class, creed or race you were, all were equal under the flag of the patriots, the flag of the United States of America, which is the film's true hero.
The climatic end where good overcomes evil in the Battle of Yorktown is one of the greatest battle sequences in movie history.
The reaction of the movie on audiences in Switzerland was of note. People, mostly women and children, were crying, mostly in the scenes where the families were being oppressed by the enemy, and naturally in the scenes where house, farms and village buildings were torched. At the end of the film I watched in Zurich, the many people at the theater jumped up, clapped, and let out an almighty cheer. Others were still stunned at what they had witnessed and were still crying.
What a film for the master director! Bravo, Mel Gibson. You are the best!