My Review of "The Patriot"

The Patriot came out back in the year 2000. It was a time when not a lot of us thought about propaganda or even questioned a lot of things in film. That's why I think this movie got away with a lot of stuff when it first came out. Today I'm sure there will be tons of people up in arms about this film when they see it. I remember it fondly the first time I saw it. It was almost like some sort of Batman movie back in the late 18th century.

This movie starts innocently enough. We hear a little narration from our hero Ben Martin. He tells us that he's done stuff in the past that he's not so happy about and he's worried it'll rear its ugly head back at him soon.

We then cut to his perfect family in South Carolina in the late 1700s. He's got a massive family but his wife had passed away. It's his responsibility to take care of the family but something is brewing up in America. You can tell from the kids that something is up and Ben is kind of trying to ignore it.

America is at its tipping point. They want to separate from England because of the crazy taxation they have to pay to them. The hostility has brewed up to the point of war and every man in America is arming up for the fight.

Ben's oldest son Gabriel wants to join in on the fight but Ben being a parent doesn't want any of this. Of course Gabriel enlists anyways and the fight begins. Ben does everything he can to stay away from the war until some untimely situations happen that he can never forgive. He suddenly sees red and all hell is going to break loose on the red coats.

This is when the movie really gets heart pounding and action oriented. There are a few scenes to alleviate some of the tension but for the most part you want to see how Ben is going to outwit the overpowered red coats. That's where all the fun is in this movie. I loved how each side was one upping the other in sly and cunning maneuvers.

Now this movie isn't for everyone. Like I said before this movie is kind of a propaganda movie. They take a lot of liberties of actual real life history to embellish the story. It's to make Ben and his men seem more sympathetic and make it more obvious who we're supposed to root for. Some of these embellishments can go over the line for some and can enrage others.

The movie is also over three hours long. They meant to make it into some sort of epic movie and in a way it is. Unfortunately the runtime is filled with some melodramatic relationships that can make some groan. Back in the day I just felt it was character development and it is. The problem is that when I watch it today I can see how cheesy it is.

Everything is pretty predictable and you'll know exactly what's going to happen because everything is so obvious. It's sort of like watching an epic film written by WWE showrunners. Yes it's obvious and cheesy but there's some weird satisfaction in the end.

If you can overlook all of those faults and watch it as a popcorn film this movie can be mindless fun. That's what I watched it for and darn it's a guilty pleasure.

Overall, I really do feel bad for having so much fun with such an overdramatic cliché propaganda movie. The problems with this movie are obvious but I still had a good time. That's why I still have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. I also found it pretty hilarious that for such a patriotic American movie none of the key players of this movie were born American.