Tuesday, May 5, 2009

2000 - My review of THE PATRIOT" while mostly sleeping through it

My son had the day off from school yet again and was looking for a movie to watch that night, we went through the pile and found The Patriot the Mel Gibson epic based on Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion aka "The Swamp Fox."


Since we were starting the movie at 10:30 at night it was looking pretty grim for my staying awake for the next 2 hours and 44 minutes. However, I can comment on the following: This is a Mel Gibson ego fest flick if ever there was one. It's all about Mel,  widower, father, fighter, deep thinker, you name it he's got it.


Mel's son, played by the finally deceased Heath Ledger gets kidnapped by the redcoats. It's Mel to the rescue shooting and tomahawking the British into a thousand pieces to free his son. He's very bloody after the attack but the blood is very artistically placed on him to make his hair and skin glimmer in the golden sun. Mel's a widower with a lot of kids (in real life Mel has a lot of kids) he takes them to visit his dead wife's sister who wears bosom enhancing wardrobes whenever she's around him and clearly has the hots for him, how could she not.

Mel forms a band of guerrilla fighters to fight the redcoats in the swamps of South Carolina, we have a somewhat ridiculous scene where Mel bluffs his way into the British fort to mess with General Cornwallis and his pet dogs, the dogs end up running away with Mel because he is so Mel. Mel has an evil bad guy he must fight who is much like the Wez from The Road Warrior except he's British instead of Australian.

The movie ends with Mel helping General Washington to win the Revolutionary War, the last shot is of Mel returning to his plantation with his new bride and the family, after all how could it not.

The director of this epic was Roland Emmerich who had previously made two Revolutionary War films, Independence Day and Stargate.

 164 minutes, written by Robert Rodat.

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