A mess of epic proportions

Rating: 4/10 (2 July 2000)

"The Patriot" is the latest film about the ugliness of war. True, if it hadn't been for this brutal war for independence, there wouldn't be a Here. Had we not risen up against the British, where would we be now? Worse off? Better? Is that so unimaginable? "I will not fight," are Benjamin Martin's words (Mel Gibson) to the South Carolina Colonial legislature. He knows that any war with the British will be fought not in some far away place away from civilians, but in cities, in communities, in people's back yards. He holds that he and his seven children are just fine with the way things are. Or maybe he foresaw a future filled with Jerry Springers, Howard Sterns, Newt Gingriches, and Bill Clintons and decided it just wasn't worth it. If only everyone else had this kind of foresight.
Despite Martin's urgings, war breaks out. Everything he feared soon becomes reality: the war spills over into his home. Imagine walking out into your back yard and watching hundreds of men in opposing lines, hundreds of rifles exploding in unison, cannons firing, blood splattering, heads flying. Freedom has a high price. The same kind of war against the innocent is being waged right now in other countries.
When his eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), is exposed as a dissident by the ruthless British General Tavington (Jason Isaacs) and taken away to be hanged, Martin hunts Gabriel's captors down and slaughters them (with the help of two of his surviving sons). Beneath Martin's gentle exterior is a savage warrior capable of laying waste to several men with nothing more than a hatchet. This was a well staged, well cut scene. From here, a vengeful Martin wages a one-man guerrilla war against the British to minimize the body count of his countrymen. Okay, well not quite. This is what is set up, but is not the direction the story takes. Martin's warrior rage never resurfaces. Instead, the story settles into a demonstration of how vengeance and bloodlust have no place in a war. Not that I'm disappointed--it's just that there's a difference between misdirecting the audience (for surprise) and misleading them. To put it more simply, pick a story.
Benjamin Martin is portrayed as a man with an ugliness inside of him that he will do anything to keep in check. War tends to bring out this side of him and so as a result, he fears war. Once this side of him he keeps down, though, this unstoppable "instrument of warfare" (to quote another Robert Rodat script, "Saving Private Ryan"), is established, BECAUSE it's what the character doesn't want, the best thing for the story is for it to resurface. Didn't Mr. Rodat ever watch "The Incredible Hulk" on TV? Or how about "Unforgiven," about as close to perfect as a film script gets? Will Munny hates the man he used to be. The more he talks about it, the more we want to see that side of him. We do. Payoff. It's that simple. Writers live by many mottos and one of them is this: Don't introduce it if you're not going to use it.
The story offers up one innocent victim after another in the interest of drama and to create as much emotion as possible. It all feels so manufactured for some reason, like some characters are only introduced so they can be sacrificed. Just when you start getting involved with a character, they get killed. After a while, I gave up trying to like anyone in this movie. The story is an endless cycle of killing and revenge, and isn't much fun, at least not for me. I know there's a point in there somewhere and I think it's this: protecting what you love and fighting for what you believe in are the same thing.
Roland Emmerich isn't my favorite director. To his credit, he does does have a shining moment here and there in this one (the cannonball flying right at the camera, for instance...nice). But after films like "Universal Soldier" and "Godzilla," I wasn't optimistic. He's not quite in the big leagues yet. Maybe next time.
Why didn't Mel direct this himself? It must have been torture for him to be in front of the camera all the time. During the battle scenes, when Emmerich wasn't setting it up right, Mel must have been ready to go off: "No, no, no! You're doing it all wrong! Look, man, I know what I'm talking about! Want to see my Best Director Oscar?"
Grade: C-