We're American.
We were born in fire.
And, by God, we will die in fire.

You can go into The Patriot thinking one thing. You can go in there ready and sure. You will walk out changed. I went into The Patriot ready to write a review. The review to which I am I speaking of is my comments on the Pearl Harbor trailer. I was full and steadfast, drafting it in my head all morn. That review will not come until the fire inside me dies down.

I am a student of history. I am a student of film. I am a student of war. If Pearl Harbor is film about Japan's attack on the US naval base at Oahu, I will see it. I will praise it. But, if Pearl Harbor is, as it has been referred to, a film in the same vein as Titanic, fire and brimstone shall be your bed. Perhaps I am not clear... If Pearl Harbor is, as I fear, a film manufactured to get pre-pubescent girls to shell out some $200 each to see Ben Affleck be the heart throb that he is, all the while portraying the Nipponese Empire as an evil inhuman entity, I and a thousand like me will be very very upset.

There were eight people in the theatre, including my father and myself. They were all elderly couples, save a mother and her boy and his buzzcut and gap-toothed smile. The child, and I shudder with disgust by using such a term, would prove to be the bane of my experience at The Patriot.

He first delighted me with his temperament during the Pearl Harbor trailer. He giggled as the Japanese planes cut across the island, just over heads. He found it funny as US anti-aircraft guns tore a Zero from the sky. Yes, it is fun to see things explode.

Yes, it is fun. Sigh. Tragically, this child, again I shudder at the term, is all too typical for the generation to come. And, we are both American.

A tear came to my eye during the Pearl Harbor trailer. A tear came to my eye as I saw those brave men fighting for their country. A tear came to my eye as I watched them, doing what they believed best. They were patriots. They were the Japanese Zero pilots. They were soldiers. They were fathers, bothers, and sons.

They fought for the glory of the empire and the emperor. Just because they did not win the war does not make what they have done wrong. They fought for what they believed in. So did we. No one was right. No one was wrong. We were just on opposing sides.

We entered into the war because of Pearl Harbor. If not for that surprise attack, our entrance would have been postponed or nonexistent. Without our entrance after Pearl Harbor, the war would not have been won as it was.

The Patriot.

I do not want to spoil this film.

I do not want to tell you the story.

Yes, we win the war.

Odds are, if you're reading thing, you know what takes place. You've read all of AICN's posting. I did. I followed this film from the first rumor. I followed this picture for well over the last year. I was not disappointed.

The Patriot is a beautiful and stirring film, capturing not just one story but many. It is the story of a father and a son. It is the story of freeman and a slave. It is the story of reverend and his faith. It is the story of officers and chivalry. It is the story of revenge and penance. It is the story of the birth of a nation.

The Patriot is beautiful. It is not the story of just a war. It is the story of a family. Everything is there, and everything is in its place. The film is the Chekhov Principle. If you use a rifle in Act Three, it is on the wall in Act One. If there is a rifle on the wall in Act One, it is used in Act Three. There is nothing extra. There is nothing less. It is self contained. It is a working world. The hatchet... The sewn flag... The tin soldiers... The north star... The tea and ink... The dogs... The diary... The French... I could go on. Everything that happens, happens for a reason.

I would say that certain actions are even, so much as, predictable. I doubt others would say so, but for one who writes, the progression is natural. Tell me that you did not know the name of the newly-born child. Tell me that you did not know that Tavington fell with his back to the sky for a reason.

It was a perfectly structured story.

The Patriot is about war and honor. It is about tactics and stratagem. It is about out-thinking your opponent rather than out-gunning him. This can be seen from Martin's first fight with the British to the final battle where all the cards are not shown. All the while, the child laughed and giggled. Yes, it is fun to see men die. It is fun to see hatchets swept across faces and children wield guns.

I found myself horrified to see children holding rifles. It was disturbing to see them with a want for blood. I could not fathom Martin's son, glad to have killed the Red Coats. Perhaps if I felt as he had, but war is a terrible thing.

War is a terrible beauty. It has power. It has power because men die. Soldiers spill blood and lay down their lives for an abstract. They are willing to die for a belief or a cause. It is this forfeit of life that makes war what it is. If the blood stopped, we would not care.

I don't believe in starting war. I don't believe in fighting, but I will fight. I will not fight for myself. I will not fight because I can. I will fight for this world. I will fight for the weak. I will fight for those who cannot.

We have no right to start war, but if we look upon an aggressor, we have every right to stop him.

We have not right to kill an innocent. We have no right to take the life of another. Yet, what is an innocent? Is an innocent an enlisted soldier? He does not make decisions. He obeys. Is an officer an innocent? He gives commands. Who is innocent? The enlisted man fights and takes lives. Is anyone that fights innocent? Who is your enemy? If the only aggressor is at the top, would an assassin's bullet end the war or create a martyr?

War is an intricate art.

All this is in The Patriot.

The British demand chivalry, forbidding Martin from killing officers. Yet, at the same time, the British slaughter the Continental wounded. Martin views things differently. His first shots go to officers, yet he spares the wounded. Martin's strategy leads to confusion and rapid ends to fighting. In the final battle, watch as the British line stands frozen with their commanding officer struck down by Martin's first bullet.

Martin only falters when the Red Coats use his own strategy against him, ambushing him and waiting around every possible corner.

It is a beautiful film. Still, the child before me saw nothing of brilliance. He only giggled and shrieked with delight as limbs were torn asunder.

Mel Gibson is not the immortal hero. He wants nothing of war. He cares not of a new nation. He fights for revenge. He fights so that the fighting ends. You will never forget the sight of him tearing into the mangled body of the lifeless Tory.

It is a beautiful film. It does not depict the British as an evil inhuman entity. Rather, Cornwallis is a man of honor and the ethics. Colonel Tavington is the complete antithesis to the General. He is a dragoon, devoid of feeling. He creates what Martin becomes.

I particularly enjoyed Rene Auberjonois performance of Reverend Oliver, a priest who takes up arms. "To tend to his flock, a shepherd must occasionally fend off the wolves." It makes me want to be a priest.

Cornwallis's aide and personal assistant is a man of striking features with hawklike eyes. All throughout the film, I knew him, but I knew not from where. He was familiar. I had spent hours watching him. I knew him intimately. But, who was he? Who was he? Peter Woodward. Yes... Galen.

The Patriot is a wonderful film. Martin speaks a line. "The innocent will die with the rest of us." It is true over and over. War does not care who she kills. Watch as the officer petitioning Tavington to spare the wounded Continentals is the first struck down by Martin's bullet.

If you spare a man's life, he will only get up to shoot you in the back.

The Patriot is powerful. Martin's son, wishing only to be a fighter, recants, crying upon viewing the slaughter from afar. There are no heroes. No, there are. Gabriel returns. Fueled by hatred, he attacks. It is Martin, come to his senses, who is reason. Still, Gabriel will have satisfaction. It is this that leads to his downfall. One of the most moving shots of the entire film is of Oliver's death. Falling, his rifle escapes into the air. Plucked from the blue, Gabriel turns it to Tavington.

It is a wonderful movie.

It is so many stories.

The French, so testing of patience, become saviors. They fight along side the Continentals. It is the story of change that fuels The Patriot. Major Jean Villeneuve (Tchéky Karyo), the French commander becomes so much. Martin could not stand him through the first years, but as he learns, Villeneuvehe becomes so much. Together, they fought. Fueled by the need to close old wounds with British blood, they attack. It is in this final assault that valor is proved. A nation is born.

Williams's score is different. It composed of fife and drum. It is of period themes and instruments. It is wonderful.

It is an excellent film. Its portrayal of violence is stark and raw. We are not desensitized. We feel. Our hearts pound. I could feel the beating beneath my chest. Still, the child before me only laughed.

We see war in static lines. We see cannon and mortar. We see guerrilla militias. We see cavalry. We see blades used to thrust and to cut. Forever, it has been debated. Is the sword a thrusting weapon or a cutting weapon? The cavalry sword shows the power of the cut. The blade is not unwavering. Rather, it must bend to survive. The blade must be brittle, but the rear must be able to absorb the strike.

The katana was engineered to kill with its first strike.

You will hate Tavington. He a soldier killing but only for the pleasure of it. He is the dark side of war. He is an animal wanting only to cut the throat and bathe in the glorious red. You will hate him.

Martin did not want to fight. He was haunted of memories from the past. He did not want to repeat his sins. He did not want to fight again. He was forced. All that he loved was slaughtered. He had let inaction take the British to his doorstep and burn it. No more. He would not let it happen to another. He would stop it. He would make the British unable to kill. He would fight for something inside his heart. He knew not what it was. It was love. It was love for family and land. It was love for country. It was patriotism.

The child before me walked away unchanged. He probably wanted to go out and kill a man. Soft minds. It is not fair that they cannot see.

Movies do not change us. It is something, inside us, that allows us to be changed. We must open ourselves to understanding. We must not be afraid to think and see. We must ask questions. We must dare to stand. If we do not speak, nothing will change. If we do not move, we will die. Our nation was not built by people who sat quietly and did not think. Our nation will not continue unless men, strong in mind, step to the front to guard the flock. Lambs cannot lead. A shepherd must be ever-vigilant and sage.

A leader must know the value of life and horror of war. He must not want to lose life. He must want to guard and protect what is behind him and fight for those who cannot.

Walking out of The Patriot, I was sure of one thing.

We're American.
We were born in fire.
And, by God, we will die in fire.

---

Peter Tatara
7.1.2000

Dairy Farmers For Quebec's Independence