The Patriot

Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich (the Little Spielberg from Sindelfingen–self proclaimed probably) are very talented filmmakers. Especially when it comes to action sequences and tugging at the heart strings. I just wish that they would have an original thought occasionally. Universal Soldier was the closest they came to an idea that came from themselves…and we saw where that went. Three sequels and Burt Reynolds later it’s still going, but no one cares. They seem to be in the business of thinly veiled remakes. Stargate was some weird conglomerate of Close Encounters and The Ten Commandments with a little bit Lawrence Of Arabia thrown in for good measure. It had some brains to it, though. Independence Day was War Of The Worlds for the cyber-set. Dumb, but it was very entertaining. Godzilla was more Jurassic Park and The Lost World than Toho Studios. And it was just dumb.

This time out they’ve decided to remake Braveheart and set it during the American Revolutionary War. Luckily they decided to do a good job of it. I really would have come down hard on them if they had screwed it up. Braveheart is one of my all-time favorite movies. I know my Audience Of One disagrees with its merits, but I don’t care. So, nyah!

Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) is a simple farmer with seven children (not too much of a stretch for Mr. Gibson–I think he’s actually up to 15) and a dead wife. He also happens to be a hero to every man who knows him. He was one of the victors at Fort Wilderness, a battle that helped to end a war with France and get the Cherokees to end their treaty with the overseas enemy. He also did some things that he’s not proud of during that battle.

Now his oldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger from 10 Things I Hate About You) wants to help the cause of the Revolutionaries. Ben sees the side of the Americans, but he doesn’t want to get involved because of the horrors that he saw at Wilderness. He also doesn’t want his son to be any part of it.

But, of course, his son joins up and is caught by the English army and is set to be hanged as a spy. On his way out of Ben’s house, Thomas (Gregory Smith from Kripindorf’s Tribe and Small Soldiers–he looks a bit like a really young Mike Myers), Ben’s next oldest boy, is shot by Colonel Tavington (Jason Isaacs from Armageddon and The End Of The Affair–even looks a little like Ralph Feinnes). Now revenge must be gotten. Tavington is quite evil, too. Even his superior, General Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson from Rush Hour and Shakespeare In Love), thinks he’s out of line in his brutality. There was one scene where I wanted to jump into the screen and kill him. I almost yelled out at the character who was trying to kill him exactly how to do it. I don’t think the rest of the audience would have liked that, though. But I bet they were thinking it.

This is one of those rare movies that will get your adrenaline going and actually make you wonder what you would do in the heroes place. Would you be able to give your young sons guns and have them kill soldiers? Would you be able to lead a band of farmers to victory against a huge army of people who are dying to kill you? Would you be able to look a man in the eye and kill him?

The answer to all of these questions for Ben is, of course, yes. He becomes a malitia leader and sends his family off with his dead wife’s sister (Joely Richardson from 101 Dalmations and Return To Me). His old friend Colonel Harry Burwell (Chris Cooper from American Beauty and a lot of John Sayles movies–finally not playing a jerk) allows him to keep Gabriel close enough to protect him.

A lot of people have commented on how violent the film is. Well, you know what? That’s how it was. Not many people said too much negative about how violent Saving Private Ryan was. Or even Braveheart. We all just took it that that’s how those wars were fought and that the filmmakers were going for pure realism. But I think the thing that people were really offended by in this one was the fact that, in order to save Gabriel, Ben gave his two sons (both around 10 or 12) guns and told them “Aim small, miss small.” (I’m not a gun owner, so I don’t really know what that means. I guess if you aim for a finger, you’ll miss by a finger?) Now, I’m no advocate for guns at all (in fact, I think the less there are, the better), but this action was totally representative of what was going on at the time. This was why “the right to bear arms” was in the Constitution. Today we don’t have this danger (believe it or not), so of course little kids shouldn’t have guns. But at the time it was necessary sometimes. And the boys had exactly the right reaction to their killing. The oldest one seemed a little disturbed by it, but he was glad that he did it. (And that was a little disturbing, too.) The younger one was angry at his father for making him do it. And his father’s act of sheer violence on one of the soldiers scared the bejesus out of him, as it should have.

And speaking of the action, WOW! The battle scenes were played out so well that I almost forgot that I was watching a Hollywood movie. It’s no Private Ryan, but it was at least, well, Braveheart. And, unlike some scenes like this (13th Warrior), you could always tell what was going on. At no time was I thinking, “Who just did that? Who’s knife is that sticking out of that back? Should I be glad that that guy’s head got blown off?” And the decapitation by cannonball scene was something else. I haven’t seen a blow to the head like that since, well I’d have to go back to Braveheart. Or maybe Deadly Friend.

It’s funny how the most unpretentiously patriotic film to come out of Hollywood in years was made by a German. Maybe it’s not so strange since we naturalized Americans tend to take it for granted. But when we do come up with something to celebrate this great land of ours, we slather it on so thick that even Patrick Henry would ask for death. I mean, come on. The Postman? Armageddon? I’m as much of an American as the next guy, but I cringed during a few scenes in those movies.

The Patriot, on the other hand, didn’t have as many obligatory flag waving scenes. Yes, there was a flag and, yes, it was waved, but not in a way that made Mel’s troops want to kill him. The problem scene came with Gabriel in a church trying to recruit troops. He’s not strong enough to get people rallying behind him, so the girl he loves (Lisa Brenner from MTV’s train wreck of a soap Undressed) has to. When she stands up to yell at all of the men of her town about their cowardice I had nearly retched. Mel’s comic relief recruiting scene in a seedy bar gave me more tears in my eyes. Actually, that’s not true. I had tears in my eyes during the church scene. Tears of laughter. (But it’s always good to see Robert Altman/”Benson”/”Deep Space Nine” alum Rene Auberjonois. And he’s back in Father Mulcahy mode!)

The final battle was a great example of how to build tension and rally the audience at the same time while still keeping an air of dignity for the participants. Even though Mel uses the same trick he did in that Scottish Revolution flick he did a few years back (the spike in a horse–but this time it reminded me more of The Simpsons episode that he was in) it didn’t seem totally derivative. And Mel’s final fight scene with the evil Col. Tavington was one of the high points of the film. As it should be.

One more problem, though. What happened to Cornwallis’s dogs? Ben and his gang captured a couch that contained two of the General’s dogs. After they make an appearance with Ben in Cornwallis’s office and are more loyal to Ben than their former owner (of course) they just kind of disappear. That’s too bad. I would have liked to see them maul their less popular owner. I know, it’s not historically correct, but it would have been funny.

More parallels to Courageous Ticker? Well, besides the fact that they’re both about people trying to win their independence from England, there’s a semi-secret wedding. (I half expected to see Tavington try to claim his right of prima nocta.) The lead character is reluctant to go to war even for freedom. There are family members killed as a turning point for the lead character. Ben’s army almost disbands when they find out that “the English are too many” and he has to give a speech to get them back. Well, ok, he waves a flag, but it’s the same thing. They’re waiting for a foreign army to come to help them out. (And there’s a sort of eccentric character who promises that they’ll come played by Tcheky Karyo from GoldenEye and Bad Boys looking a little like Gerard Depardieu.) Ben changes the way the army fights because he’s apparently a military genius. (Although I don’t think that a guy named Ben Martin was the one who suggested that the American army hide behind bushes.) There’s even an insider who betrays the militia (Adam Baldwin), but he’s not as close to Ben as Robert The Bruce was to William Wallace. He did, however, feel remorse when Tavington went too far in his warfare tactics. At least Mel didn’t scream out “FFFRRREEEDOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!” I’m very surprised that he didn’t, though.

Even when Devlin and Emmerich are good they’re not very original.

But Mel can always be counted on to bring the level of anything up a notch. He makes what could have been just another pre-1900s war flick up to the level of The Last Of The Mohicans, which this also has a lot in common with. More in look than plot, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen that one. Mel does a great job with his talking and walking and moving about and being an actor in general.

Seriously, he’s great as always and everyone else is on his level. And Heath even seems to have overcome his accent problem! I almost forgot that he’s an Australian. (Funny how the lead actors in a movie about the American Revolution are Australian. But we’ve covered that one already. And Mel’s only an adopted Australian, so he may not count.) And we were allowed to get to know the supporting characters enough to care when they died. That’s something that a lot of these kinds of movies can’t seem to do anymore. Just check out any of Emmerich’s or Jerry Bruckheimer’s films. But with these performances and the writing it’s easy. Not surprising, either, since Robert Rodat, writer of Private Ryan, wrote this one.

So check this one out. Devlin and Emmerich have finally put out a movie worthy of its box office. And they did it without too many epic shots of pompuer. I don’t know how historically accurate it is (I’m a film geek, not a history geek), but it’s good enough for me. It tweren’t no Braveheart, but it’s a damn fine piece of filmmaking. Not too deep, but entertaining as hell and worth my money to see and, eventually, buy.

And a quick note to Spike Lee (as if he’ll ever read my petty little review). He was apparently ticked off and hated the movie because there were no slaves in this movie. First off, there was a slave, but he was fighting in the malitia for a year so that he could get his freedom. That was a law. The black people who were on Ben’s farm, but they weren’t really slaves. They were basically indentured servants. But slavery was an issue. They talked about the fact that the black man in their crew was a slave and how things were going to be different after the war, but they all knew that things weren’t going to be THAT different. (It was a little forced, but I think I heard at one point that that law did actually go into effect.)

Here’s the deal with Ben’s lack of “real” slaves. A mainstream American audience can forgive a man for killing another man. They can even forgive him for giving his kids guns and telling them to kill if the motivation is right. But, they won’t forgive him for owning slaves. Even if he’s Mel Gibson. He’ll just be a charming slave owner. He’s got to do some serious soul searching for that to work in this day and age. And even then we’ll think twice before letting him move in next door.

Spike should be glad that we won’t stand for that kind of hero. It may not be realistic (Ben probably would have owned a lot of slaves considering the size of his farm), but it’s more palatable.

And that’s the way things are Spike. You wouldn’t have even liked Ben if he had actually owned his servants. There’s plenty of other things for you to be pissed off about. Don’t take it out on a popcorn movie. Sometimes I really do think that you wish you lived back in those days so you could start a revolution. You can be a great filmmaker, but stop thinking that the whole world is against you because Mel Gibson can’t own slaves. We just don’t want him to.