There is of course lots of tragedy to be found in the film, and these are some what surprisingly, tenderly handled by Emmerich, but mostly it's via an on song Gibson, who remains one of the few modern day male actors capable of believable grief. Not even the overtly flag waving and sloganeering on show can off set the impact of the well constructed battles. While cannonball's whizz, bang and tear off body parts, it's grim, yet oddly rousing stuff. Roland Emmerich ("Independence Day" and "Godzilla") directs and handles the battle sequences very well, there's lashings of blood as men line up to shoot and dismember one and other. So much so it ultimately turns into a one man star vehicle, which for a costume war epic isn't a great thing really.
Surrounded by caricature villains (though Jason Isaacs' Tavington is deliciously vile) and underwritten characters (Chris Cooper wasted and Joely Richardson is but a mere prop), Gibson has no choice but to hog the screen. The problems, acting wise, lay away from Gibbo's central performance. It's very easy to accept him as a staunch family man who transforms into a blood thirsty warrior. Gibson is fine, he shoulders the burden of the film with great gusto and no shortage of emotional depth. So casting aside the artistic licence factors, is "The Patriot" any good? Well nearly it is - nearly. It's not my want to scribble about the facts of Benjamin Martin (Re: Francis Marion), or William Wallace for that matter, information as such is but a mere click away on the world wide web. He loves the Brits does Mel Gibson, "Gallipoli", "Braveheart" and here with "The Patriot", see the pattern anyone? As with the aforementioned "Gallipoli" and "Braveheart", certain liberties have also been taken with events in "The Patriot" so as to glossy up for the eager Hollywood contingent.
#WATCH THE PATRIOT FREE MEL GIBSON FULL#
The Patriot is a grand epic full of action and emotion.But it's also surprisingly insightful in its evaluation of the American ideal - if not the reality.The Patriot is based around one Benjamin Martin, an ex-soldier, who now happily living as a family man finds himself thrust into conflict at the break of the American Revolution. Professor Mark Glancy, teacher of film history at Queen Mary University of London has said: “It’s horrendously inaccurate and attributes crimes committed by the Nazis in the 1940s to the British in the 1770s.” In contrast, Australian film critic David Edwards asserts that "this fictional story is set around actual events, but it is not a history of what America was, or even an image of what it has become - it's a dream of what it should be. The film attracted controversy, with competing claims made about its relative historical accuracy.
The protagonist, Benjamin Martin, is a composite figure based on four real American Revolutionary War heroes: Joseph Plumb Martin, Francis Marion, Daniel Morgan and Thomas Sumter. The film mainly takes place in rural York County, South Carolina and depicts the story of an American swept into the American Revolutionary War when his family is threatened. It was produced by the Mutual Film Company and Centropolis Entertainment and was distributed by Columbia Pictures. The Patriot is a 2000 American historical war film directed by Roland Emmerich, written by Robert Rodat, and starring Mel Gibson, Chris Cooper, and Heath Ledger.