Gibson hits true with ‘The Patriot’

By Cynthia Grenier

Mel Gibson has pulled a real neat doubleheader for himself by
kicking-off the big summer movie season.

As the eponymous protagonist of

“The Patriot”
opening June 28, Gibson does a fine bang-up job contending for two hours and 40 minutes with a singularly odious enemy, practically winning the American Revolution single-handedly.

In “Chicken Run,” to which he lends his voice, he is a cocky Yank of a rooster who rescues a bunch of claymation / animated chickens from winding-up as ingredients for chicken pot pie. To catch some of the Aardman Animation spirit, of which this is the first feature film, check out the company’s page at

Atom Films.

For an animated film, even with Gibson’s lively vocal presence, “Chicken Run” definitely has its dark side with overtones shadowing concentration camps and a dire fate hovering over all, which might give parents a pause or two before bringing their youngest progeny to see it. Disney it’s not.

As for “The Patriot,” it too has its dark side. Pretty dark indeed. Gibson may start out the movie as a peaceable, well-to-do plantation owner in South Carolina, a widower with seven children (in real life, Gibson’s own brood also numbers seven), but we learn before long why he keeps a tomahawk locked away — and why men refer in awe and fear to deeds he committed during the French and Indian War.

All it takes to unleash the extremely lethal Mel is the intrusion of a battle on his land, the arrival of superbly nasty Green Dragoon Col. Tavington (Jason Isaacs, an actor with a real future as a villain), the arrest of his oldest son, the murder of a second son and the torching of his house and property. Three muskets, his tomahawk in hand and two younger boys in tow, Gibson takes-off through the woods to stage a dazzling, savagely murderous guerrilla attack to rescue his eldest.

And here parents may gulp a bit as they watch Mel arm his boys, who look about 10 and 12, telling them to aim first for the officers. The kids play their part, aiming well and shooting true, then stand in stark horror as they watch their father slaughter in a blind berserk rage a British soldier with his tomahawk until he is literally dripping with blood. It’s the kind of scene Gibson can bring off with a rare convincing brio. He’s an actor who truly knows how to unleash his inner demons.

Cut to later that same night, Mel all clean and washed up, tucking his boys into bed. One son says he’s glad to have killed the British. The other boy turns away from his father. Mel looks sad. And that’s about all the follow-up you’re going to get on how youths respond to killing — not that frontier boys that age in times past didn’t often perform such acts. Young male teen-age audiences who are most likely to turn out to see “The Patriot” will no doubt gobble it all up, parents or no.

The film directed by German Roland Emmerich (he of “Godzilla” and “Independence Day”) goes on and on with many a battle sequence, a touch of humor as Gibson cleverly outwits British Gen. Cornwallis before winding up with a pulsing, glorious charge by a ragged American militia, led by our hero, bearing the American flag as he charges forward before locking mano a mano in gripping combat with the malevolent Tavington.

“The Patriot” makes for dandy, uplifting, feel-good American fare, where for once, Americans are not treated as the enemies of the world as Hollywood is wont to portray them. You can regret a bit that Gibson didn’t direct “The Patriot” himself as he had his Academy-Award winning “Braveheart” a few years back. His battle scenes were definitely more imaginative and genuinely warlike, even if Emmerich does give audiences one head being shot off by a cannon ball (but it happens so fast, if you blink at that moment you miss it).

If you’re a bit of a history buff, you may want to pick up the July issue of Smithsonian Magazine, decorated with a dashing portrait of our Mel, American flag in hand. The

issue
gives rather good background material on how Smithsonian authorities advised director and crew. And, yes, you also get some good quotes from megastar Gibson.

Odds are, though, “The Patriot” should prove one of the summer’s big winners. Potential competition may well come from “A Perfect Storm,” although it stars George Clooney, who, poor man, has no luck in hitting it big at the box office, no matter how hard he tries. Plus the fact, the best-selling book on which the film is based gives away the watery end, which in more ways than one is definitely a downer. The preview shots of the mightiest storm known on the East Coast are terrifyingly impressive, which may well get folks into the theaters.

And a minor quibble for “The Patriot”: an Australian lad named Heath Ledger who plays Gibson’s eldest son — perfectly, if duly competently — is 23, but a pretty soft, subdued young man he is compared to Gibson who at that same age set international movie screens afire with “Mad Max;” he’s still got the fire. But you can’t help wondering where Ledger will be at 47.

Cynthia Grenier

Cynthia Grenier, an international film and theater critic, is the former Life editor of the Washington Times and acted as senior editor at The World & I, a national monthly magazine, for six years. Read more of Cynthia Grenier's articles here.