God bless Americans!
They really know how to celebrate themselves, to gratify their nationalistic needs.
The latest flag-waving mainstream example is the starry-and-stripey The Patriot, featuring Mel Gibson, all pony-tailed and looking concerned during the glorious American Revolution.
Who can blame Hollywood for Yank-ing us around?
I can, since their pride is my prejudice, having been raised nearby in the True North strong and free, not including GST.
Okay, it's a fact. Some countries have a lot to be proud of, and Americans go all red, white and gooey when they remember their historical break from England.
Jingoistic
This particular jingoistic recollection is directed by German-born Roland Emmerich, who brought us Independence Day, a sci-fi flag-waver released in time for the July 4 fireworks.
Ditto The Patriot, which deals with a sort-of legend by the name of 'Swamp Fox' Francis Marian. He was a gallant southern swashbuckler who led a hit-and-run renegade band of Carolina cutthroat killers who gave the Redcoats lots of assassination problems and more than a few nightmares. Refer to the Vietcong game plan during the Vietnam War in the 1960s.
The Patriot, set in the 1770s, features the rogue Marian renamed Martin. He's also redefined as a family fellow and widower, who initially is passive about getting aggressive with England. That changes abruptly when one of his many sons is shot point-blank by a rather nasty, sneering English colonel.
This gets Mel's Martin steamed enough to declare war in what becomes a daddy-dearest revenge movie with way too much sappy string music from John Williams.
Battle scenes? You want battle scenes, you got them. There are enough of them to make the weak-hearted cringe.
For those who relished Gibson's Scottish medieval war tale Braveheart, there won't be enough rip-snortin' clashes to suit you, although limbs are sliced and heads are lost in the name of apparent patriot realism.
Graphic depictions of violence? Sure there are. No wonder. Saving Private Ryan screenwriter Robert Rodat wrote The Patriot as a sort of time-warp sequel to the Steven Spielberg award-winner.
Included, too, in The Patriot are see-through themes surrounding family, country, duty, and honour -- the big four mushed together like a marketing-trend stew.
Despite that, and the bare-faced America The Beautiful choruses, The Patriot has an emotional charm.
Gibson, the actor who became a movie star less than a decade ago, offers a superficial but personable presentation as the sturdy centre, an alleged composite of four or five heroic revolutionary figures, or so goes the apology for playing fast and loose with the facts.
Dastardly
Fellow Australian Heath Ledger, portraying Gibson's oldest son, is likable and enticing as the whippersnapper fighter, battling alongside his poppa.
On a dastardly note, Jason Isaacs goes from being Armageddon's smartest guy in the world to The Patriot's meanest, as the killer colonel with a heart of stone. You almost want to boo him out loud, he's so vile. The colonel is as awful as the rest of the Redcoats are witless or wonderfully inept.
So there you have it -- a pro-American war story for the nuclear family. If you have the time -- lots of time -- enjoy this movie anthem. It makes you wanna stand and be counted, or stand and leave halfway through.
Either way, there's no denying it's for the consumers of delicious Made In America hokum.
(This film is rated AA)
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