Interesting movie about the Revolutionary War.

Rating: 8/10 (3 March 2010)

I enjoyed this movie and for the life of me I do not see how the movie "The Perfect Storm" made more than this film at the box office. They both opened the same weekend and this one would make quite a bit less than that movie. A movie that seemed to be made only to show that scene where the boat met the wave while this one actually had an interesting story, good bloody action, and some rather humorous moments too. It also had Heath Ledger in one of his earlier roles as Mel Gibson's oldest son and he and Gibson paired up very well for this one. The story takes place during the revolutionary war and has Gibson as a father of I forgot how many children, but there were a lot. He owns a nice home and the African Americans that are on his land are not slaves, but choose to be there. Yes, I know this part seems unrealistic, but I am guessing they wanted to make the guy more of a hero than the actual guy this was sort of based off of and if he had slaves that would not have been good. Well anyway this guy is trying his best not to get involved with the war. Unfortunately, his eldest son joins the rebels and soon after he is being arrested and Gibson's second oldest son is killed while trying to get to his older brother. Well this sets a light under Gibson's character and you find out he was a rather super killer during his younger days fighting battles. He soon enlists the aid of others and they begin fighting the redcoats using tactics not seen during this era. Basically, instead of standing there taking shots at each other they ambush their enemy from hiding spots. The movie has a sad scene later, and ends on a rather more positive note after a fierce battle and great final line between Gibson and the villain of the piece. The movie works on a lot of levels, could use maybe a trim down on the run time of the film and perhaps a tad less tragedy and it could have been really great. Still, I enjoyed it and will never understand how this fine film got sank by that weak boat in "The Perfect Storm".