The Patriot Review
by "Rose 'Bams' Cooper" (bams AT 3blackchicks DOT com)July 5th, 2000
'3BlackChicks Review...'
THE PATRIOT (2000)
Rated R; running time 165 minutes
Genre: Action
IMDB site: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0187393
Official site: http://www.spe.sony.com/movies/thepatriot/ Written by: Robert Rodat
Directed by: Roland Emmerich
Cast: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs, Chris Cooper, Tcheky Karyo, Trevor Morgan, Lisa Brenner, Bryan Chafin, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Tom Wilkinson, Rene Auberjonois, Logan Lerman, Adam Baldwin, Beatrice Bush, Mika Boorem, Mary Jo Deschanel, Shan Omar Huey, Gil Johnson, Jay Arlen Jones, Jamieson Price, Hank Stone, Kristian Truelsen, Mark Twogood, Joey D. Vieira, Grahame Wood, Peter Woodward
Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 2000
Review URL: http://www.3blackchicks.com/bamspatriot.html
I've been to plenty of long movies before. THE GREEN MILE clocked in at 3 hours plus (though it didn't seem that long to me). And on the other end of that spectrum, STUART LITTLE (chronologically short at just 94 minutes) seemed *much* longer. I've been to plenty of long movies before. THE PATRIOT wasn't just long. It was *torture*; sheer manipulative torture.
The Story (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**):
1776. A time of upheaval and revolution in these (not quite) United States Of America.
Widower Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) is a man who has known war, and no longer wants any parts of it; he just wants to farm, make bad rocking chairs, and be left alone to raise his seven young children. His eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), doesn't understand Ben's pacifistic mood, and wants to join the Colonials to fight against the Evil British Empire and old tax baron King George. After the Evil British Colonel William Tavington (Jason Isaacs) wreaks havoc on Ben's family and land, Ben leaves his youngest children with their aunt Charlotte (Joely Richardson), so he and Gabriel can join forces with Regular Army Colonel Harry Burwell (Chris Cooper) and French Army officer Jean Villeneuve (Tcheky Karyo) to create a militia to go up against Tavington and slightly-less Evil General Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson).
[And lots more stuff that takes up two hours and forty-five minutes of movie time.]
The Upshot:
I sat myself down and thought long and hard about what made me the maddest about THE PATRIOT, to the point where its greenlight for its epic sweep and beautifully-filmed tale, turned into a yellowlight for its manipulative nature. Here's what I told a dear friend about it, with regard to the other "based on a true[r than *this* one, dadgummit] story" out this week, THE PERFECT STORM:
What I liked most about [THE PERFECT STORM] (and conversely, hated most about THE PATRIOT), is the way the actors seemed to capture the real, messily imperfect folks they played; from everything I've read about the production [of "Perfect"], the actors and director and such were extremely cognizant of the background story, and wanted very much to do those people honor (rather than playing the "Look at me, I'm an artiste and a
battle-recreator!" game that Gibson and the folks attached to "Patriot" seemed to). It shows.
"Manipulative" is the word I keep coming back to when I think about THE PATRIOT. It's not enough, it seems, that this movie is being released around the fourth of July; Independence Day roun' dese hea' parts. No; "we must forcefully remind The Uhmerkin Public", the filmmakers seemed to say, "that Gibson...uh, blue-eyed Benjamin Martin, was a True American Hero, by having him Wave The Flag Meaningfully at every opportunity! And hey, while you're at it, have a few of his friends and family members die Slow Heroic Deaths with the camera trained on their faces for a godawful long time, whydoncha? And ooh yeah, that image of Mel baby Running Boldly Into Battle with just that battered flag, *that'll* hit 'em where it hurts, eh?"
Bah. Just tell me the story, dammit; let *me* decide when and where to cheer for them, eh? I don't need no friggin' equivalent to a laugh track, spattered into so many manipulative scenes. Bad moviemakers. Bad, Bad moviemakers.
In all fairness, though, THE PATRIOT latches on to its single-mindedness and never lets go; at least it's not wishy-washy in its dogged determination to make the viewer Love Benjamin and his family for being Epic Heroes. Even when it speaks of Ben's Unspeakable Past, you learn early on that Ben was just doing what he had to do For God And Country. Can't blame a fella for that, even when it leaves him bloody, can ya? Not the way these moviemakers were selling the story, you can't.
(And don't get me wrong: not having had to ever do much heavy fighting outside of the time Judy hit me in the stomach with a two-by-four when I was 13, I'm *not* saying that War Ain't Really Hell; I'm sure it is that and much more. What I *am* saying, however, is that the audience doesn't need to be battered upside the head with the Wifflebat to get that point. I understood it after the first hour of my battering; I didn't need to have it go on for the whole almost-three hours, sheesh!)
I know I'll be in the minority of the reviewing population--I heard Raving Reviews about "Patriot" blaring on the radio just before I went to see it (which, in and of itself, gave me a Bad Feeling)--but this telling of THE PATRIOT didn't move me at all. Actually, it did: it moved me from being sympathetic to the cause of a young--and, let's be honest: White--nation getting its legs under itself, to being cynical and critical about that *other* part of itself that THE PATRIOT tried to whitewash over: the folks that were somehow forgotten in "We The People".
The "Black Factor" [ObDisclaimer: We Are Not A Monolith]:
We The People. Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident. All Men Are Created Equal. That is, "we, the White, male landowners, see it that way--about us". All others need not apply.
It was this undeniable truth about the establishment of "a more perfect union"--that its people were only "created equal" if and only if they were White, male landowners--that grated me most about THE PATRIOT and its whitewashing-over of its colorful tale. If the folks behind this movie had not addressed it (slavery: the big It) at all, then, fine. I wouldn't have had an issue with their looking-over of that big It. But they addressed It. Badly. Shame on 'em, I say.
A little truth goes a long way; but "Patriot" couldn't seem to face up to the realities of its own time, *this* late into the moviemaking game (well past the time when the filmmakers could've claimed ignorance about such things). And that--much more than the fact that I never caught the name of the Black slave character, only knowing him from his introduction as "my nigra"--is what finally brought "Patriot"'s house of cards tumbling down for me. In all its flag-waving, it seemed to forget that even back then, these States weren't as United as the Founding Fathers claimed they were.
History, it seems, *does* tend to repeat itself.
Bammer's Bottom Line:
Call me cynical, call me anti-American, whatever; but I hate feeling manipulated, and that's exactly how I felt watching THE PATRIOT. I went into this movie with an open mind, hoping to learn something more about what made the early revolutionaries in these, yes, great United States, tick. I came out of it with a contempt for what I had just been put through. And that's *never* A Good Thing.
THE PATRIOT (rating: yellowlight):
If only they had stopped waving the flag long enough to see the hearts and souls that went into weaving that symbol of independence...
Rose "Bams" Cooper /~\
Webchick and Editor, /','\
3BlackChicks Review /','`'\
Movie Reviews With Flava! /',',','/`, Copyright Rose Cooper, 2000 `~-._'c /
EMAIL: [email protected] `\ ( http://www.3blackchicks.com/ /====\
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