What it does it does well

Rating: 8/10 (20 October 2004)

In true Gibson style, Mel plays the leader of an American militia during the Revolutionary War and realizes his heroic role through terrible suffering and heartache. It is a very familiar theme, played in countless other films: former war hero tries to live a peaceful life with his family, attacks on him and them force him back into service with a vengeance, and while we know the eventual income (it's no spoiler to note that the Americans did eventually defeat the British and form a new nation), we are drawn into the personal drama of what happened to this particular patriot and those close to him. In many ways this film is formula: several British officers - the enemy - are presented unidimensionally as either stereotypically pompous or inhumanely evil, along with an oft repeated general storyline. Nonetheless, like any good war film, this one ends up saying things about all wars - the suffering of the common people at the hands of a ruthless invading military, the loyalty of comrades to each other as much as to their country, the sense of duty above all else, and more. Interestingly, I found myself drawing parallels to more current wars, namely Vietnam and Iraq, only in this case it is our forefathers (and mothers) who were the victims of an invading army in which ordinary soldiers were neither good nor bad men, but just soldiers. Many people will see this film as little more than another example of the Gibson prototype (although he is the lead actor, not the director) following tried and true Hollywood formulae. But that having been said, it is entertaining, full of action, and moving, and what it does it does very well.