Page 6 - The Patriot:
Mel Gibson strikes again Con't
A scene in which Benjamin Martin's young teenage sons Nathan and Samuel accompany
Martin in a rescue of his eldest son Gabriel has caused controversy. They shoot
at and wound British soldiers. What made the timing of the scene more difficult
is that the rescue scene is set four years after the opening scenes and yet
the same young actors are used.
The audience associates Nathan and Samuel with the ages given at the beginning
of the movie where they are somewhere between nine and eleven, rather than adding
three or four years to their age when the rescue takes place so they are around
twelve to fourteen. No matter the age, the depiction of the involvement of young
teenage boys in the Revolutionary War is accurate. They were used as spies,
messengers and, in some cases, snipers as young as thirteen. The British used
young boys as drummers marching with the troops.
This scene became a small battleground over gun advocacy. The NRA and right-wing
right-to-bear-arms groups obviously supported the inclusion of this scene, while
liberals and gun control advocates decried the scene as too graphic, setting
a poor example, and, though historically accurate, excessive and unnecessary
to the film's story. Director Roland Emmerich fought for the inclusion of the
scene, which may in part have cost the film a more marketable PG-13 rating.
An interesting aside to the controversies that whirled around the movie is the
virtual reversal of traditional positions on Hollywood films by liberal and
conservative groups over this film. Conservative and Christian groups and organizations
have opposed similar Hollywood films on the grounds of the excessive violence,
especially when children are involved, while liberal and free speech groups
have argued in favor of such content, on the basis of the First Amendment.
Yet with The Patriot, conservative groups, while not recommending viewing
for young children, approved of the movie because of its realistic yet negative
portrayal of the violence of war and its effects on those involved. They also
applauded the film's depiction of the personal sacrifices that Patriots made
to secure freedom for following generations. The film's lack of foul language
and references to God and faith through prayers and crosses were also praised.
Mel Gibson became the focus for much of the criticism, because he is a big movie
star whose name brings publicity attention. Roland Emmerich is not a big name
director like George Lucas or Steven Spielberg, while Robert Rodat is just the
screenwriter. Braveheart had been Gibson's film and many of the criticisms
about Gibson's character and historical revisions could be found in both movies.
Because The Patriot was the second recent film by Gibson that is considered
by some as anti-British, criticisms that accompanied Braveheart arose again
and multiplied. Maybe because one of Gibson's intervening films had been titled
Conspiracy Theory (1997), some claimed that Gibson is conspiring against
the British because of his American and Australian background.
