The emotionally charged adventure "The Patriot" tells the story of Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson), a reluctant hero who is swept into the American Revolution when the war reaches his farm and the British endanger what he holds most dear. He takes up arms alongside his idealistic patriot son, Gabriel, and leads a rebel American Militia into battle against a relentless and overwhelming Redcoat army. In the process, he discovers that the only way to protect his family is to fight for a young nation's liberty. But his dark past haunts him.

   In 1763, the lengthy French and Indian War ended. England controlled Canada and all the territory between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. In many ways, the men who lived on and fought for this land had stronger ties to it and to each other than to Britain. The hardy settlers formed Great Britain's 13 colonies in the New World. After years of warfare, they reclaim their ordinary lives in the burgeoning cities and countryside.

   Benjamin Martin is one of these men. Once a ferocious warrior, he's made a hero by his comrades, but leaves his brutality behind him and returns to his home in South Carolina. He marries a fine woman who bears him seven children and under her influence, he trades his violent past for a peaceful future on his sprawling plantation. But the cost of Pax Britannia is high and the young colonies are not willing to pay the price. A series of taxes are demanded: the Currency, Sugar, Stamp and Quartering Acts come in rapid succession; the draconian "Intolerable Acts" follow. The colonists strenuously object to the notion of "taxation without representation" and the threat to their rights of self-government. The Boston Harbor becomes a vat of tea. Another conflict, this time with England, is inevitable.

   Benjamin Martin is not so sure. While the British yoke bristles, he is not anxious to return to battle. He has different goals now. His wife has died in childbirth, leaving him the sole caretaker of his brood of children. Tragedy, responsibility and the sins of his past have transformed him. A somber, restrained man, his facade belies a troubled soul. The horrors of combat haunt him still. His savage acts in the previous war gnaw at his conscience.

   His eldest son Gabriel harbors no such doubts. The radical speeches, pamphlets and newsletters that begin in the cities and pews and traverse the colonies make an impression on the young man. War is coming and the cause, the new and independent country, is just. In defiance of his father, he joins the fight and inadvertently brings it to his family's doorstep.