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Before an intellectual comes and lectures about how nuanced history is yeah man, I get it. I took history and I do know a thing or two as well. I fully understand Americans were not angelic saint-like beings and the British were not a bunch of Lord Voldemorts running around America during this time period. It's a movie.

Likely spoilers.

'The Patriot' was not bad, I found it to be executed well, but fairly basic. Which is not a bad thing necessarily. There was a lot to enjoy in this movie, especially the visuals, it felt like a Revolutionary War painting come to life. It felt dramatic, yet pretty wholesome in many ways. Benjamin Martin's story is tragic but a bit predictable as a movie watcher. As a father, I still felt for him of course, the guy just couldn't catch a break!

Col. William Tavington and Benjamin Martin have a classic good guy-bad guy relationship. I wouldn't call their dynamic an all-timer but it was definitely a notch above satisfactory. They did a good job at feeling like opposites for the most part. Their final battle was perhaps my favorite part of the whole movie, 10/10 scene! Knowing that Jason Issacs plays Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter absolutely enhances his villainous energy for me. I know his Lucius role came after this film but if anything it just adds a cool retroactive layer to the role in my opinion and it just aged well! What a great actor Issacs is! Him saying 'my lord' in a non Potter film kinda cracked me up in a fun way!

The slower pace of the battles in 'The Patriot' felt unique and exciting, and as far as I know, realistic. What a time, a mixture of slow pace gun battles mixed with bladed battles in close quarters, truly wild stuff. A taste of the future and a blast from the past meeting up together at a specific moment in time.

I was born and raised in one of the original Thirteen Colonies (born in the 1990's I'm obviously not immortal or a time traveler HA) and I appreciated this movie a lot. The buildings, clothing, furniture and just the vibe matched a lot of what I saw in museums growing up. It really tapped into some childhood memories and I appreciate my public school for allowing me to see these places at a young age. I definitely felt an unexpected sense of nostalgia watching 'The Patriot', can't say I saw that coming! I still want to visit some of these historic places I haven't been to and revisit them as an adult. In general this movie inspired me to actually visit more history museums in general.

Besides museums though, a lot of extremely old buildings that I saw in 'The Patriot' still exist today around my area simply looking around, especially on back roads and countrysides. As I get older I really have a better appreciation for just how old some of the buildings are in general. Of course these buildings aren't like, European old like many sites across the pond are but, it's still pretty cool. Even some bridges and whatnot are quite old and still stand today, of course likely worked on a bit, or a lot I'd imagine. As a youngster it's very easy to feel disconnected from the Revolutionary time period but perspective changes big time as life goes on.

I always find it quite wild to properly think about just how not far away the Revolutionary War really was. If a man fought in the Revolutionary War in his very early 20's and he and his children all lived strong lives into their 90's, I mean the Revolutionary war was only like a handful of generations ago. The connection is really not that unimaginably distant. As a kid it's borderline impossible to really appreciate that. Then when you look at a lot of history as a whole and time in general, it's a pretty trippy thing to ponder.

Yes, all in all 'The Patriot' was fairly basic and predictable, but I did find it beautiful in many ways and the simplicity was kind of nice. I appreciate and love that I was born and raised in America and while it's not always easy, every day I do try to take advantage of the opportunity this country offers, which is to like, live a good life and hopefully prosper while helping those around me. Doing the best I can, anyway. I didn't always see what was in front of me as a younger man but, I'd like to assume I'm growing wiser (finally) and I do want to live a good life, all I have to do is give an honest effort and earn it. It's not going to be handed to me.

I'll give 'The Patriot' an 8.5/10