Mel Gibson: Crazed Maniac or Justice Revolutionary
             Mel Gibson has played the American's greater good type characters. It started with Braveheart, the movie in which the dashing leading man plays Sir William Wallace, a 13th-century Scottish nobleman who fights to free his people from British rule. Next came Conspiracy Theory, in which Gibson plays a bumbling but likeable conspiracy nut. Finally, there was The Patriot, with Gibson drawn into the American Revolution when the British murder his son. Gibson has also play Hamlet that would make some believe that he has played a wide range of films. Don't be deceived look closely at the roles he has played. He is riding the line between crazed maniac and justice revolutionary. He is always fighting the system. In the films Payback and Hamlet he swerves toward the crazed maniac, but in films like Braveheart and The Patriot he leans toward the justice revolutionary.
             It was enough that he was white, strikingly handsome, and playing noble characters who risk all to fight the system whether that be tyrannical British officers, government bureaucrats, freedom-hating monarchists, or the mobsters from Payback. Nevertheless, the libraries of those on the greater good are overflowing with copies of these Mel Gibson films.
             Mel Gibson plays Benjamin Martin, a retired soldier turned farmer, in The Patriot. He is a father of seven, which plays a very important role in the film. His wife has passed away and he is left alone to raise the children himself. The character of Benjamin Martin was originally meant to be Francis Marion, but for the sake of telling the most exciting story and maybe escape some controversy, the filmmakers fictionalized the character and the story. They then added historical factors and the historic figures like Elijah Clarke, Brigadier General Daniel Morgan, Andrew Pickens and Thomas Sumter to the character of Benjamin Martin. Which in turn made the film inaccurate a...