The emotionally charged adventure "The Patriot" tells the story of Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson), a reluctant hero who is swept into the American Revolution when the war reaches his farm and the British endanger what he holds most dear. He takes up arms alongside his idealistic patriot son, Gabriel, and leads a rebel American Militia into battle against a relentless and overwhelming Redcoat army. In the process, he discovers that the only way to protect his family is to fight for a young nation's liberty, but his dark past haunts him.
In 1763, the lengthy french and Indian War ended. England controlled Canada and all the territory between the Appalichian Mountains and the Mississippi River. In many ways, the men who lived on and faught for the land had stronger ties to it and to eachother to Britian. The hardy settlers formed Great Britian's 13 colonies in the New World. After years of warfare, they reclaim their ordinary lives in the burgeoning cities and countryside.
Benjamin Martin is one of these men. Once a ferocious warrior, he's made a hero by his comrads, but leaves his brutality behind him and returns to his home in South Carolina. He marries a fine woman who bears him sevin children and under her influence, he trades his violent past for a pieceful future on his sproaling plantation. But the cost of Pax Britannica is high and the young colonies are not willing to pay the price. A series of taxes are are demanded: the Currancy, Sugar, Stanp and Quartering Acts come in rapid succession; the draconian "Intolerable Acts" follow. The colonists strenuously object to the notion of "taxation without representation" and the threat to their rights of self-gogernment. The Boston Harbor becomes a vat of tea. Another conflict, this time with England, is inevitable.
Benjanin Martin is not so sure. While the British yoke bristles, he is not anxious to return to battle. He has different goals now. His wife has died in childbirth, leaving him to soul caretaker of his brood of children. Tradegy, responsability, and the sins of his past have transformed him. A somber, restrained man, his facid belies a troubled war gnaw at his conschience.
His eldest sonGabriel harbors no such doubts. The radical speeches, samphlets, and newsletters that begin in the cities and pews and traverse and colonies make an impression on the young man. War is coming and the cause, the new and independent country, is just. In defiance of his father, he joins the fight and inadvertently brings it to his families doorstep.
|
