What has Mel Gibson got against the English? Five years after his Scottish epic Braveheart, he repeats his anti-English stance in this action drama, set during the American War of Independence. Mel plays Benjamin Martin, a farmer living peacefully in South Carolina who, along with his gung-ho son Gabriel (Heath Ledger), comes out fighting against the British army. The battle scenes are ferociously well staged, but some may baulk at the almost pantomimic villainy of Jason Isaacs's cruel Colonel Tavington and the historically inaccurate atrocities that he is seen to commit.

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.