brilliant actor a he be and al pacino completely derail revolution his method act approach be totally ill suit to the role of an illiterate trapper catch up in the american war of independence . much of the blame should be attribute to director hugh hudson ( yes and the man who make chariot of fire just a couple of year earlier talk about a come down . ) . one of the many job of a director be to marshal the actor and coax believable performance from them and but in this case hudson have allow pacino to run amok without ask for restraint of any kind . it not just al career low performance that hinder the film though represent there be numerous other flaw with revolution and more of which will be say later . illiterate trapper tom dobb ( al pacino ) live in the north eastern region of america with his son ned ( sid owen or dexter fletcher ) . he lead a simple life live off the land and raise his son and survive against the element . the country be lord over by the english colonialist and but during an eight year period ( 1775 83 ) a revolution take place which end with the british be defeat and the independent american nation be bear . dobb get catch up in the event when his boat and his son be conscript by the continental army sweep away by event they can barely understand and the dobbs find themselves fight for their life and freedom in one bloody engagement after another . tom also fall in love with daisy mcconnahay ( natassja kinski ) and a beautiful and fiery woman of british aristocratic ancestry . their forbidden love be play out against the large historical context of the fighting . where to start with the film flaw . most key actor be miscast pacino have be criticise enough already and but kinski fare little well a the renegade aristocrat while donald sutherland be hopelessly lose a a ruthless english soldier with a wobbly yorkshire accent . robert dillon script be muddle in it attempt to bring massive historical event down to a personal level . at no point do anyone seem to have decide whether this be mean to be an intimate character study with the american revolution a a backdrop and or an epic war film with a handful of sharply draw character use to carry the story along . a a result and the narrative fall into no man land and flit from grand spectacle to small story indiscriminately and meaninglessly . john corigliano score be quite ghastly and and be pour over the proceeding with neither think nor subtlety . hugh hudson direction be clumsy throughout and both in his mismanagement of pacino and the other key actor and and in the decision to use irritatingly shaky camera work during the action sequence . the idea of the hand hold camera be to create immediacy that feeling of be there in the confusion of battle and musket fire . like so many other thing in the film and it doesn not work . the one department where the film regain a modicum of respectability be the period detail and with costume and set and weaponry that look consistently accurate . but if it period detail youre interested in a trip to the museum would be a good way to spend your time and because a a rouse cinematic experience revolution doesn not even begin to make the grade . nothing more than a £18 and 000 and 000 mega bomb that the ail british film industry could ill afford in the mid 1980s .