DVD Review: The Patriots

As outlined in writer/director Eric Rochant’s Cannes Film Festival award-nominated 1994 film, The Patriots -- much like David Fincher’s Fight Club -- the first rule of the Mossad seems to be that you do not talk about the Mossad. And, the second rule of the Mossad seems to go even further — if you’re ever asked about the Mossad, there is no Mossad. And these are probably the very reasons there are few movies about the Mossad, which Wikipedia explains is not only “the Hebrew word for institute or institution” but is also the “national intelligence agency of Israel.”

However, while it’s no doubt an important organization, it’s not quite the cloak-and-dagger corporation one would assume from Rochant’s film nor the secretive “men wailing on each other” experience to be found in Fight Club but a super cool, far-reaching, covert organization that serves as “Israel’s equivalent to the C.I.A,” as the DVD box for The Patriots explains.

Furthermore, in a year where Adam Sandler played a Mossad agent turned hairdresser in You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was to discover that here in the twenty-first century the Mossad (like any corporation or organization from the C.I.A. to Hello Kitty) actually greets visitors with their very own website. Although instead of adorable Sanrio characters, the Mossad's official site (which also has a link for career opportunities for those of you budding spies out there) states that their purpose is “to collect information, analyze intelligence, and perform special covert operations beyond its borders.”

And while my prior experience with the Mossad only consisted of Sandler’s comedy and Steven Spielberg’s brilliant yet highly controversial Oscar-nominated film Munich, as a fan of spy films, I was eager to check out the recent SKD USA and KOCH Entertainment release of Rochant’s film. The Patriots earned him a Golden Palme nomination upon its screening at Cannes and also garnered its female newcomer Sandrine Kimberlane a Cesar nomination for the Most Promising Actress of that particular year. However, unlike the high tech world of Jason Bourne or the decades-spanning CIA epics such as The Good Shepherd or the far superior made-for-TNT miniseries The Company, Russian red scares and computer hacking are replaced by good, old-fashioned shoe leather and low-tech still and video cameras for the '80s setting of The Patriots.

Article Author: Jen Johans

Jen is a life-long film buff frequently dubbed a "Walking Movie Encyclopedia.” While earning a degree in Film Studies, she joined AFI and IFP. A three-time national award-winning writer, Jen also runs her site Film Intuition as well as its Review …

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