Gary Wells

The film should be critiqued based on what it set out to accomplish. On that basis, I found it to do what it purported to do, to depict the inner struggles of one man, and a few of those near him. Overall, it treated the British rather sympathetically. British occupation was brutal on colonials, especially the women, where British and Hessian troops raped women at will; one instance recorded for court purposes was that of British soldiers gang raping a 13 year old girl in her home, for four nights in a row. Had that aspect of the revolution been depicted, it would have made the Hessian cavalry officer look tame, and would have justified further the slaughter of British troops, which they deserved.

If you are into stunts, this is a full feature film starring Tom Cruise doing stunts. If you can suspend common sense and plausibility, you'll probably enjoy it. It is, like the previous 3, a deviation from the first two, which were at least somewhat plausible. When someone is 500 ft down in arctic waters in just their underwear, you're not making it to the surface, and even if revived, you're not going to be on your feet and 100% in a matter of a few minutes. After all the fighting, shooting, and everything he goes through in the 72 hours, he emerges with a limp and a few bloody spots on his face. What 'made' the series from the beginning is missing; good writing and plausible action; things not requiring safety cables to be digitally removed later. You'll probably enjoy it. I got a bit tired of it, and the PC aspects.

The earliest seasons are the best; they are closer to the original books, which were about animals and dealing with Yorkshire farm personalities in the course of treating animals. As I feared, the series evolved into a soap opera more about people than animals, and by seasons 4-5 they were pretty much Downton Abby set in Yorkshire dales farms and were more about people and their problems than about animals being treated. If you binge watch you can see it more readily. It moves to emphasize people not vets and animals. It was a nice escape while it lasted, and then it began introducing me back into the world I was trying to escape.