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The Patriot
Rating: Poor

Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Director: Roland Emmerich
Rating: R
Genre: Action
Release Date: June 28th, 2000
Cast: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs, Chris Cooper.
picture above from www.spe.sony.com/movies/thepatriot
Plot: A Southern farmer named Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) has to raise about half a dozen children by himself since his wife died years back, although he has considerable help from his African American slaves.  His sons start getting the feeling of patriotism and speak to their father about joining the war.  Martin who does not advocate going to war, but supports the American political movement, does not believe in war altogether.  His wife changed him from being a dangerous man who fought well in wars before, which he refuses to tell his children about as he hopes to discourage them from battle.  Eventually the eldest son (Heath Ledger) goes against his father's wishes to join the war leading to a series of horrible consequences for the family bringing Martin into the war.
  Critique:  This movie was an almost comical string of melodramatic scenes that include Mel Gibson looking "sensitively" into the camera and talking about how he is such a good parent.  The only good thing I can say about this movie is the talented John Williams, and his solid score.  However, it had to be the background to many cliche ridden, positively annoying scenes.  Heath Ledger actually did an alright job acting and surprised me, however his lines weren't enough to give me any lasting impression.  Roland Emmerich must have just sat in his director's chair grunting like a pig the whole movie, leaving the cast and technicians to figures things out for themselves.  The reason being, there was no direction for the actors, and no artistic scenes that made me believe.  It wasn't all his fault though as the script was sadly skin deep, extraordinarily shallow.
    The movie basically said that in war America is not at fault at all and the evil British are brutal, mean, and frankly at fault for every death.  Come on!  Plus, half the main characters in this movie plummet to their deaths, including a whole small town burning alive in a chapel.  This is excessive, and the only representation about war is bad.  The only way this pitiful movie can show it is by murdering lots of people that we are supposed to care about, and I did at the beginning before I lost any emotional involvement.  The movie can't show in more depth why war is bad, and instead gallops into why war is great in the end, spawning nationalistic glory and patriotic fun.

                        by Supernothingman (ES)
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