No doubt revolutionary battles were fought right there in the pasture, but would Benjamin Martin allow his kids to stand in the windows, or tell them to hide in the barn? The "real'' battles are grueling tests of men and horses, as soldiers march into withering fire, and the survivors draw their swords or fix their bayonets for blood-soaked combat in close quarters.
THE PATRIOT 2000 MOVIE PART 1 WINDOWS
Two battles near the beginning of the film are conveniently fought in open fields visible from the upper windows of houses, so onlookers have excellent seats for the show and can supply a running narration. The movie's battle scenes come in two flavors-harrowing and unlikely. Still, when the Americans refuse to "fight fair'' and adopt hit-and-run guerrilla tactics against the British (who march in orderly ranks into gunfire), Cornwallis bends enough to authorize the evil colonel to take what steps are necessary to bring down Martin (by now legendary as "the Ghost''). Cornwallis ( Tom Wilkinson), a British leader who promotes a "gentlemanly'' conduct of the war and rebukes Tavington for his brutality. The big players in the war (George Washington, King George) are far offscreen, although we do meet Gen. The movie's scenes of carnage have more impact than the multiple killings in a film like "Shaft,'' because they are personal, not technical individual soldiers, frightened and ill-prepared, are fighting for their lives, while in the modern action movies, most of the victims are pop-up arcade targets. Gabriel is freed, and the younger boys get a taste for blood ("I'm glad I killed them!'' one of the tykes cries. Martin and his sons hide in the woods and ambush Tavington and his soldiers eventually the battle comes down to hand-to-hand fighting (with Martin wielding a tomahawk). The following sequence is the film's most disturbing. There must have been many British officers less cruel-but none would have served the screenplay's purpose, which is to show Martin driven berserk by grief, rage and the need for revenge. Since Martin had merely been treating the wounded of both sides in his home, this seems excessive, and in the long run turns out to be extremely unwise for the British, since Martin goes on to more or less single-handedly mastermind their defeat. William Tavington ( Jason Isaacs), arrests Martin's eldest son Gabriel ( Heath Ledger) and takes him away to be hanged, after first shooting another of Martin's sons just for the hell of it and burning down his house. I haven't got the luxury of principles.'' But he gets some in a hurry, after the monstrous British Col. Asked about his principles by an old comrade in arms ( Chris Cooper), he replies, "I'm a parent. He saw enough of battle in the French and Indian Wars, and was frightened by what he learned about himself. Mel Gibson stars, in a powerful and effective performance, as a widower named Benjamin Martin with seven children.
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