Subject:
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movie: The Patriot
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.fun
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Date:
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Sun, 2 Jul 2000 15:37:38 GMT
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Viewed:
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177 times
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Hi all,
I saw The Patriot last night with Mel Gibson. (Actually, I wasn't with him, he
was just on screen.)
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I liked it well enough but it seemed kind of wishy-washy in several ways.
Most importantly, it was a historical fiction, right? Well... It is pretty
one-sided in the depiction of the nice/good/brave revolutionaries and the
evil/silly loyalists. The relationship between Marin and Tavington seems like
something that just had to be put in place for the sake of being a Hollywood
film. I would rather it have been less personal. Or at least less personal on
one of the sides.
Martin's transformation from peacenik to bloodthirsty crazed warrior seems like
a bit of a stretch. If they were going to portray him as such, why go to such
great effort to show him as peaceful in the beginning?
Good things:
The choreography of the ambush that Martin and sons stage near the beginning
was incredible. One of the best fights in film history. It took the good
parts of Hong Kong action film fighting and left out the bad parts and thrust
it into the late 1700s.
Scenery was grand. Costumes, buildings, big battles, etc. were all very well
done and very pretty to look at.
Gibson's performance was good. I think the role was a little shallow, and he
added depth. Who would have thought where he'd go after Mad Max?
Protagonists die. I am agravated by Hollywood miracles saving the protagonists
of most films from grave situations. In The Patriot, several empathic
protagonists die, and you often feel it. The church scene did not, however, do
it for me.
The running length was two hours and 45 minutes. I like long films. It was
used to good effect. Another movie, Heat, was about 170 minutes and was way
too long. In this film, there was important development, characterization,
drama, and plot pretty steadily throughout.
The supporting cast was good. Jason Isaacs was great as the evil Tavington,
even if the character was overdone. I liked seeing Adam Baldwin, Stephen
Tobolowsky, Chris Cook, etc.
Anyone else see it?
If you like Ebert reviews, you can read his at
http://www.suntimes.com/output/ebert1/patr28.html
Chris
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: movie: The Patriot
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| First off, excellent film. If you haven't seen I recomend you do so. (...) he (...) on (...) like (...) This was explained in the film. He was a soldier in the French and Indian War and went "Bloodthirsty." He didn't want to go back to that in the (...) (24 years ago, 3-Jul-00, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
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