Film ‘The Patriot’

The Patriot is definitely a film that I found surprising to say the least that I know of in recent memory. It released on June 28, 2000, and got mostly middling critical reception at its box office debut. I expect films to at least be shocking or have some sort of plot twist in them that makes them fun to watch. However, I don’t really find anything about this film very shocking or anything else really in it. Most of the film is really going to boil down whether someone likes historical or war movies. I, however, find it to be middle of the road when it comes to films as it and many people would definitely share a similar opinion. I find the Patriot to be quite middle of the road when it comes to dpection of war. 

The film follows Benjamin Martin(Mel Gibson) a French and Indian War Hero who is haunted by his past wants nothing to do war, lives quietly on a plantation in South Carolina. However, his two eldest sons, Gabriel(Heath Ledger) and Thomas(Gregory Smith) want to join the potential army to fight against their father’s wishes. When South Carolina decides to fight with the rest of the colonies for independence from the British, Gabriel immediately signs up for the Contiential Army without permission from his father. More trouble happens when Colonel William Taviinginton(Jason Issacs) burns his plantationto the ground, and takes his oldest son hostage on the grounds of spying for the Contential Army. Now Benjamin Martin is forced back into war to help the Conteintials win indpendece, along with getting revenge on the colonel that killed his two eldest sons. The rest of the plot is what you should expect from a war movie like it. The flim is very depicting of war and violence such as most other movies that are simliar to it. I really do believe, however, that it is very heavily violent and graphic, although it fits for the time period the film takes place in. Certain scenes show a decent amount of blood and deaths by people getting shot. Blood gets stained all over people’s clothing and certain characters really illustrate that point hard. The killings of the rebels by William Tavington though really seemed to click and made me realize, how sad I felt for those victims. 

Burning down of buildings by the British troops also scared people for a long time. A good example of burning down buildings is the scene where many people are huddled into a church by the British troops. Then, the church is burned down into the ground killing everybody that was trapped inside the building. The crime committed left a huge impact on the people related to the victims, which contributed to fighting against the British for revenge and other reasons. I would consider that act a war crime which was done very often by armies back then in the 1700s. The amount of violence would also lend itself to the way that war is generally fought. With bayonets and rifles being great weapons to use against your foes, they were the main weapons used in those days of warfare. Warfare is something that I know will continue to be depicted in films such as it for years to come. 

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