rated on a 4-star scale screening venue : odeon ( liverpool city centre ) released in the uk by columbia tristar on july 14 , 2000 ; certificate 15 ; 157 minutes ; country of origin usa ; aspect ratio 2 . 35 : 1 directed by roland emmerich ; produced by mark gordon , gary levinsohn . written by robert rodat . photographed by caleb deschanel ; edited by david brenner . cast . . . . . mel gibson . . . . . benjamin martin heath ledger . . . . . gabriel martin jason isaacs . . . . . colonel william tavington joely richardson . . . . . charlotte selton chris cooper . . . . . colonel harry burwell tom wilkinson . . . . . general cornwallis you don't send a boy to do a man's job . roland emmerich -- the director of such dreadful action films as " independence day " , and the recent " godzilla " remake -- should not have been assigned an epic about the american revolutionary war . it's nonetheless unsurprising that my opening maxim never occurred to anyone involved with " the patriot " . after all , they did approve a script in which two small boys are given guns and told to shoot at british people in the woods . the tots are about ten years old , or maybe a little younger . the film's hero , played by mel gibson , is a widower whose farm is unjustly attacked by 'redcoats' ( the nickname for the brits ) ; he's also the one who supplied the kids with their weapons , and ordered them to commit murder . after their shooting spree , when gibson is tucking the lads into bed , one of them reports " i'm glad i've killed , pop ! " america -- although a film as blindly patriotic as this would never admit it -- already has enough gun-crazed maniacs . their defence for bearing arms is that 1 ) the constitution allows it , and 2 ) they need to do so for home protection . with scenes like the one above , " the patriot " serves as an incitement of those freaks , and also of the pathetic flag-wavers who wear stars-and-stripes shorts at street parades and recite " we really do live in the land of the free and the home of the brave ! " as if paraphrasing a line from one's national anthem is the same thing as seriously examining one's country . " the patriot " is being advertised as the revolutionary war equivalent of gibson's great scottish epic " braveheart " , but it's nowhere near as entertaining , and does a much more methodical job of demonising the british while glamorising a revolt . the narrative essentially consists of gibson and a small band of merry men wandering around the country discussing " the cause " ; although now and again gibson meets up with his family , or there will be another attack from those horrid recoats . of course there is a token black character among gibson's troupe , who gets some racist comments at first , but then apologies , so none of the americans come off looking evil . when the level of the storytelling becomes apparent , we hold out hope that we can at least expect some spectacular sequences of dumb action . but there is hardly any fighting until the climax , when comes a highly implausible battle scene , with gibson running through the bloody lines unharmed , carrying the american flag . then he thrusts it into the ground and has a ridiculous clash with a british officer ( jason isaacs ) , where each man wields two swords in each hand , and juts them at each other in time to swashbuckler music chords . to picture this , recall the jim carrey comedy " cable guy " , with its parody of the famous " star trek " fight . gibson opens every scene with a flustered , confused expression and then turns it into a frown . it's like " braveheart " going senile but sporadically returning to his old self . the dialogue that he and all the other actors have to speak varies from horribly stilted ( " men ! richly fight for the cause about which you spake ! " ; " father . . . this yonder boy be two years younger than i ! " ) to nonsensical ( " i'm a parent , i don't have the luxury of principles " ) to lazy and pedestrian ( " daddy , daddy , come back ! " ) . and there are scenes of ineptitude , such as when gibson's platoon creep up behind a british ship , and then emmerich cuts to a wide shot to show the boat blow up . how the hell did that happen ? did they throw a hand grenade ? where did they find one of those , being in the 1770s an' all ? like " u-571 " , another dreadful recent war movie , " the patriot " has drawn fire for its reworking of history . the real-life figure gibson's character is based on was known for shooting civilians for sport , and raping his slaves ( in the film , he doesn't even keep slaves ; the negroes working his land are free men ) . and william tavington , the english colonel who the screenplay pits him against , did not murder children or use any unorthodox tactics . even if you don't care about the facts , " the patriot " is incompetent and disappointing . i dragged a buddy to the screening with me , and felt compelled to apologise both during and after . i think i'll ring him again right now . copyright ( c ) 2000 ian waldron-mantgani <a href= " http : //members . aol . com/ukcritic " >http : //members . aol . com/ukcritic</a> 
