Hacker Cinema
The Patriot
2000 · Film · 165 min
Directed by Roland Emmerich
After proving himself on the field of battle in the French and Indian War, Benjamin Martin wants nothing more to do with such things, preferring the simple life of a farmer. But when his son Gabriel enlists in the army to defend their new nation, America, against the British, Benjamin reluctantly returns to his old life to protect his son.
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10 comments on Hacker News
>. Of course there are films that celebrate a made up, white washed version of America's history, like say, Mel Gibson's The Patriot, but America was never censored and not released movies critical of its own history
Not quite: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/may/26/top-gun-for-hire-why-hollywood-is-the-us-militarys-best-wingman
The US military had them delete the US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the 2014 release of Godzilla - something pretty essential to the "lore".
Of course there are films that celebrate a made up, white washed version of America's history, like say, Mel Gibson's The Patriot, but America was never censored and not released movies critical of its own history.
It's not about placating the American market for financial success, it's that the government won't allow the movie to be released unless they add these elements in it, and Hollywood bows to this.
For your what-aboutism to work, you're going to need to find a movie that the US government interfered with, to fit its agenda, otherwise it would prevent the release of, and Hollywood going along with it.
It looks fun, this stuff has interested me for a long time.
My problem is that, simply, once you make your bag...then what?
I have casual interest in a lot of "make-y" stuff, but reality then clouds up the sun.
Sure, it would be neat to make, say, cabinets. But how many cabinets can I actually use? And tooling up to make a rolling cabinet with some drawers, that is a SINGLE cabinet, it all starts to get quite excessive.
Some places have things like carpentry clubs, etc., but they're fraught with liability issues. I don't know of a sewing club that would have a machine strong enough to sew a cordura bag that one can borrow.
Simply, the barrier to entry for a utility piece of kit is quite high. I don't think my friends want a bunch cabinets, or backpacks, or leather wallets, turned pens, etc. for Christmas gifts the next 10 years.
Indeed you have to enjoy the journey and the doing more so than the outcomes, but, even still, it's definitely a step up to get going.
At least with my computer musings, the garage and land fill doesn't fill up with borderline and failed attempts, or even the successes. Visions of Mel Gibson tossing his broken rocking chair into the corner of other failed rocking chairs in the movie 'The Patriot'.
> If we can be shown Pocahontas and The Patriot...
I don't think schools should include either of these, either, beyond "we're having a relaxing movie day as a treat". Certainly no one should base their understanding of American history on them.
Fictional dramas are shown in schools all the time, even if they're not an official part of the curriculum. If we can be shown Pocahontas and The Patriot (a film where among other things Mel Gibson slays 30+ British soldiers with a tomahawk of all things) we can be shown one that portrays American cruelties as well.
Does this story remind anyone else of David Manning?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Manning_(fictitious_writer)
Cause he was a fake 'expert' meant to shill products too. In that case, a fake movie critic created by Sony to sell its worst movies.
As it turned out, misleading customers that way was illegal, and hence as mentioned on the wiki page:
> On August 3, 2005, Sony made an out-of-court settlement and agreed to refund $5 each to dissatisfied customers who saw Hollow Man, The Animal, The Patriot, A Knight's Tale, or Vertical Limit in American theatres, as a result of Manning's reviews.
Wonder if something similar could happen here?
Skimmed through a few seconds of The Patriot on here. Unfortunately the quality was not very good, and there are no resolution options like normal YouTube videos.
Are they all this bad? Why can't we watch movies at the same quality we get on cable TV? Ad revenues are that much lower, or are the studios just clinging to old business models?
The people I met in SC were pretty decent folks...
re: Patriot, IMHO the most coherent, put-together film Mel Gibson ever did.
I meant no disrespect to SC. I've actually heard Charleston is a nice example of "New Urbanist" housing development and the southern charm and warm weather is hard to beat.
I just thought it was really funny that he cited the Patriot movie as a reason to move there. I like a lot of silly movies, but never thought to relocate because of them!
Ok, but SF and NY are world capitals, tech/biz hubs. Skateboarding was part of the cultural zeitgeist for decades. The Patriot was a big budget "B" movie that featured the carnage of a bunch of innocents. I actually like the movie as a guilty pleasure. To put it another way, I wouldn't move to Minnesota because of Wayne's World.