Mel Gibson gripping in Revolution epic> `Patriot’ grisly, melodramatic, masterful

THE PATRIOT. Directed by Roland Emerich. Written by Robert Rodat. 160 minutes. Rated R.

In “The Patriot,” Mel Gibson teams up with director Roland Emerich (“Independence Day,” “Godzilla”) to mount an enormous, big-budget epic of the American Revolution.

In spite of taking almost three hours to tell their story, Emerich, Gibson and screenwriter Robert Rodat (“Saving Private Ryan”) nevertheless prove they’re well up to the task, waving their muskets, firing their cannons and swinging their ponytails as effectively as D.W. Griffith did in his 1924 silent film, “America.”

Big on every level, “The Patriot” is a popcorn movie that works in spite of its melodrama, inflated running time and overt contrivances. It shamelessly stirs the emotions with the violence of the battlefield, the love of a family and the loyalties that fall somewhere in between.

Still, the film isn’t fluff. There are shadings that run deep — and that’s because the film pays close attention to the human aspects of war, which come through nicely in several moments that are surprisingly restrained for such a big, overblown Hollywood blockbuster.

The film stars Gibson as Benjamin Martin, a former hero of the French and Indian War, widower and father of seven who tries his best to keep his eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), out of the war against the British.

It doesn’t work. Gabriel is determined to enlist, which he does with a flip of his ponytail and a snub of his nose in spite of his father’s warnings.

Now, with his son at war, Benjamin predictably finds himself drawn onto the battlefield when Gabriel is injured, the Revolution heats up and an evil British colonel named Tavington (Jason Isaacs) targets the family — and makes things deadly personal.

As grisly as Gibson’s “Braveheart,” and featuring battle sequences as realistic as anything in “Saving Private Ryan,” this film comes to life in its violent deaths. It’s saturated in gore, which Emerich proves masterful at capturing. Throughout the battles — and there are many — he uses his camera like a well-oiled musket to seek out the action as it literally explodes on screen.

Ledger and Isaacs are strong, as are Joely Richardson, Chris Cooper and particularly Tom Wilkinson in supporting roles. But “The Patriot” works best because of Gibson, whose solid, often gripping performance gives the film the epic weight it needs. Grade: B+

On video

SCREAM 3. Directed by Wes Craven. Written by Ehren Kruger. 116 minutes. Rated R.

Those who haven’t seen Wes Craven’s “Scream” (1996) and “Scream 2” (1997) might be lost in his final installment in the series, “Scream 3,” but fans will appreciate how the film retains the essence of what makes the series work: a satisfying sense of irony underscored with horror violence; camp wedded to nauseating sentimentality; and a clever sense of humor sharpened with wit.

This time out, the formula has worn thin, but Craven nevertheless finds his footing in the muck, charging forward with such verve that the audience happily tags along in spite of the film’s anorexic characterizations and exhausted plot contrivances.

Once again, the story revolves around Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott, a misunderstood mess of wincing nerves who has used her experience in “Scream” and “Scream 2” to become a crisis intervention phone counselor for battered women. As noble as that profession is, Craven essentially overlooks it in favor of Sidney’s chief job, which is to turn on the waterworks and to look forever as if she’s on the verge of collapse.

Who can blame her? In four years, most of Sidney’s friends have been stabbed, hacked, butchered or bludgeoned to death by a host of psychotic killers in scary death masks.

“Scream 3” is no exception. The film — in keeping with the horror movie cliches it skewers — begins with a violent pair of murders before establishing that the action will not occur in Woodsboro, but in Hollywood, where production on “Stab 3,” a horror film based on the events in “Scream 2,” is under way.

When the film’s cast starts being killed in the same order they’re murdered in the screenplay of “Stab 3,” the police are hauled in, Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox Arquette) and Dewey Riley (David Arquette) start sleuthing, and Sidney herself appears with pepperbox in hand for the final showdown.

There are new characters here, but none quite as inviting s Parker Posey’s Jennifer Jolie, a goofy, slightly paranoid actress who has the difficult job of portraying Weathers in “Stab 3.” As she does in most of her films, Posey steals the show, particularly when she’s on screen opposite Courtney Cox Arquette, who, for reasons that remain unclear, has transformed herself to look like a cross between Cher, Cousin It and Witchiepoo.

Now that’s scary. Grade: B-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Thursdays in the NEWS, Tuesdays and Thursdays on NEWS CENTER at 5:30 and NEWS CENTER at 11, and Saturday and Sunday on NEWS CENTER Morning Report.