The Patriot – 4/5 stars

Aim small, miss small.

Though reluctant to join the revolution against the British in 1776, farmer Benjamin Martin is drawn in when the war is brought to his front door. He joins the fight and leads a militia in South Carolina using guerrilla tactics to stop the British from advancing North.

Just as I thought Saving Private Ryan was an excellent movie choice for Memorial Day, so too was The Patriot for Independence Day (yes, even better than Will Smith’s Independence Day). This was actually my first time seeing the movie, but I liked how it showed what it was like back in 1776 and our fight for independence against the British. I’m not sure how historically accurate it was, but nonetheless, I enjoyed it and it made me proud to be an American.

While the story may not have been as good as Braveheart, there was amazing cinematography and some just breathtaking shots. I really loved what they did with the lighting in many of the shots. Here are a few shots I thought were great:

Directed by Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow). Gibson did fantastic in this film, as always. He’s got the “widowed father/husband on the hunt for revenge” role down well. The film also starred Heath Ledger and Jason Isaacs.

Something interesting about the movie was seeing how wars were fought in the 18th century. It was so dumb. Opposing sides march within 30 yards of each other, fire all at the same time, then spend the next 30 seconds reloading just standing there taking shots with no cover. They just stood in formation taking shots and bodies dropped with no tactics or strategy to speak of, but that was probably similar to how it was.

Overall, I would rate The Patriot 4/5 stars. It’s an awesome choice for July 4th because it reminds us of the fight for our freedom that we probably take for granted each and every day. I’d highly recommend it, even if you missed it for the Fourth of July, and would recommend checking it out while it’s available to stream on Netflix.