|
by Jeffrey Wells
Having now seen all of The Patriot, the Mel
Gibson Revolutionary War drama that opens June 30, I can see why those crafty
Sony publicists showed just 40 minutes' worth — the first act — to journalists a
few weeks ago. The first 40 minutes are the tightest, strongest, and most
focused part of the film. Moreover, director Roland Emmerich's tendency to
shamelessly milk each and every emotional scene (i.e., those involving death,
love, family bonding) for maximum cloying impact becomes much more apparent
later in the film.
The Patriot is longish (2 hours, 35 minutes), but it
doesn't bore, and it delivers the basic goods. It's a sad, stirring saga about
the horrible costs of war exacted upon a single family, told in a sprawling,
episodic style.
It's the "sprawling" that's the problem, according to a
small group of journalists who gathered in the lobby of the William Holden
Theatre on the Sony lot last night (i.e., Thursday). It goes here and there, and
then someone gets killed, and then there's a battle, and then it's time to
nurture the family, and then it's off to war again, and so on. Not a great deal
of story tension. It's always eye-filling, but it wanders a bit. More than a
bit, others were saying.
"Steven Soderbergh could've made this a great
film," someone said. "I wish I could see the Soderbergh version." Meaning he
believes Soderbergh would've trimmed the fat, tightened the pace, and cut down
on the emotional milking.
Widower dad Benjamin Martin (Gibson) has a
brood of seven children, including Gabriel (Heath Ledger), the oldest, who joins
the Colonial Army to fight the British as The Patriot begins. Before the film
ends, the family will have its ranks narrowed, and a lot of blood will be spilt.
It's not pretty. The violent content is quite raw and "real."
At first
Gibson is against joining the fight, claiming that his only true responsibility
is to his family and crops. In fact, he fears the violent savage within him that
was once let loose during the French and Indian War, and he is consumed with the
fear that if he goes to war again his sins — specifically, an atrocity he took
part in following a massacre — will come back at him and destroy his family. He
does, and they do.
The battle scenes are awesome. Beautiful, really —
better than Barry Lyndon's, if you ask me. The aural effects are magnificent.
The distant sound of muskets popping off and the rumble of random, booming
cannon fire puts a chill into the bones of Gibson's family as they hear them for
the first time. Same for the audience. The first time we hear these sounds of
warfare — in the early evening, from the vantage point of Gibson's front porch —
may be the film's most potent moment.
I'm not giving The Patriot a
failing grade — I was moderately satisfied with it. But I know what those guys
in the lobby were talking about, and they're not wrong.
The same guy who
uttered the Soderbergh remark also said, "I think Warner Brothers is going to be
very happy with this film." He was referring to WB's The Perfect Storm, which is
also opening June 30, and the likelihood that WB distribution execs will be
encouraged by the judgment (shared by our lobby critics) that The Patriot may
not have long legs, while The Perfect Storm — which our lobby critic believes to
be a better film — may pull out ahead after two or three weeks. Or it may not.
Never underestimate the public's willingness to wallow in on-the-nose
emotionalism.
http://www.reel.com/reel.asp?node=movienews/confidential
Bard
Pro Libertate - For
Freedom
BUCHANAN-Reform
http://gopatgo2000.com/default.htm
To
support Mr. Buchanan in the White House
we must send to Congress
Constitutional conservatives.
|
