Hey folks, Harry here with two looks at THE PATRIOT, which they test screened last night. Both reviewers seemed to like the film, though the second reviewer saw too many parallel's to BRAVEHEART... which I address right before his review. I'm very anxious to see how this film comes out, I enjoyed the screenplay quite a bit and hope I can say the same about the film... This was a very early screening of the film, temp tracked... a little long, needing a few tweaks here and there. Some compositing left to be done. Overall, it seems that they are very much on the right track at the moment. Here's the first review... from Corporal Punishment....
Greeting General Knowles,
Corporal Punishment reporting from the battle field. While getting ready to go to work today I got a call from my friend Corporal Klinger, who told me that he had scored a couple of tickets to see a special screening of a "Big" movie that would not come out until this summer. As a frequent visitor to your great site, I quickly went over every major movie opening this summer: was it The X-men or MI2 The Perfect Storm or Gladiator. But it turn out that it was none of the above, it was The Patriot.
After dropping everything (including work) and a close call where I almost did not get to see the movie at all, we got in and found great seats. I did not know much about this movie, I thought that it would be Bravehart meets the American Revolution, and as far as the battles are concern you could say that it was, but it would be an injustice if I did not say that there is more to the movie than that.
The basic story goes like this: Mel "Lethal Weapon" Gibson plays Benjamin Martin, a former soldier, widower, and father of seven that votes against going to war in order to protect his children. Heath Ledger plays Gabriel, Benjamin's oldest son who enlist to fight the British against his father's wishes. Without giving too much away, I will just say that eventually Benjamin is trust into the war and much carnage ensues.
For the most part the movie move along at a great pace, only slowing down a little too much in a couple of scenes, but nothing that would make you restless. This is specially important since the movie was around 2 hours 45 minutes long. Everything else is top of the line, I was especially surprise by the directing by Roland Emmerich which while not flashy is effective and to the point. The battle scenes were so good that the audience burst out in cheers more that once. Overall, it had a perfect balance between action, drama and humor.
We were told that it was a work print and that there was still some work to be done on it, but besides some color correction and some composite work that needs to be finish, everything else seems done. It even had opening credits. This movie should give Gladiator a good run for its money as the top dog in the carnage peddling marker this summer.
One last point, I don't know if it was rated already but I hope that they don't cut anything from the battles (Well maybe a little on the flag waiving).
Just call me Corporal Punishment
Alright, with the next reviewer... SuperPlag, we seem to be told that this is basically BRAVEHEART 2. Sigh... The parallels between the history of William Wallace and the American Revolution... well, there are parallels, just as there are to any case in history concerning freedom fighters... Be it the 'fictional' Robin Hoods or Ivanhoes.... or William Wallace or the Swamp Fox. Invaders do bad things to the people they are invading. This will always reflect, burning of houses, raping and killing of women, murdering of men and farm animals, etc. It's part of what happens. However, revolutionary war tactics and battles are quite different... as are the tools of war. In BRAVEHEART there was no father/son... family fighting a war scenario. I'm most interested about that relationship and how it is fleshed out in the film. Hopefully we'll be hearing more about this one!
Hey Harry,
Superplag here to report on Mel Gibson's revolutionary war film , The Patriot, or Braveheart 2 as I like to call it. I won't give away any spoilers because I think that ruins a movie, and the filmmakers should get a chance to tell their story without me giving out a plot outline. Not that It would really do any damage seeing as how the film is extremely predictable and basically takes parts from every succesful war movie and peices it together.
Don't get me wrong I did enjoy the movie and Mel Gibson plays a great hero along with his son played very well by Heath Ledger( along with many other great performances), but it seemed like they pulled every cheap trick in the book to get people to like this movie. His daughter can't talk because of his wife's death, they get you to like a character only to kill him/her off 2 scenes later so you feel closer to them, the black slave who fights along side men that don't want him there , the forced romance, etc. . The film does excel however in some great action scenes ( the small ones are better than the large ones). The canons are used extremely well, although not enough and cinematograhpy is not that impressive . I was hoping for much more but Roland Emmerich is a conservative Director, who didn't really take any chances with this movie.
The scenes with Mel and his children are well done as is a meeting between him and the General of the British Army.
The worst part about this movie is it mimics Braveheart too closely and it's no coincidence Mel Gibson was cast in this role. William Wallace leading his band of rag tag soldiers against the british army. Replace William Wallace with Gibson's current character and you don't even have to replace the villain because in both films it's The British army.
I feel like I'm blabbering on too much and that once re-edited I'm going to enjoy this film much more. As it stands there is a lot to get rid of namely too many pointless sub plots, and the final battle scene is a little unrealistic and too drawn out. I can post more if anyone wants more info, but as it stands this is a good summer movie that will make tons of money, although its no cinematic gem and far less than I expected.
