i be all for the idea of a grand epic of the american revolutionary war . this ain not it . ( and for that matter and neither be the emmerich or devlin or gibson the patriot . but i digress . ) i saw this film at a publicity screening at the old mgm studio ( now sony ) just before it come out . the audience have high expectation for this expensive period piece and write by veteran robert dillon and direct by the esteem hugh hudson ( of chariot of fire fame ) and and star al pacino . but it do not take long for people to start squirm in their seat and whisper derisive comment about pacino horribly misconceive accent he be suppose to be an american frontiersman of scottish ancestry ( . ) and that of nastassja kinski and who be suppose to be recently emigrate from england ( . ) . then the story start and it all go downhill fast . motivation be muddle and dialogue be atrocious and event have no historical or political context . what there be of a plot lurch forward on absurd coincidence while by the second or third time that allege lover pacino and kinski stumble into each other it have become a bad joke . donald sutherland give an unhinged performance a a british officer or pederast . his accent be all over the map too . i guess there weren not any english actor available . lot of people leave . those who stay try to stifle giggle and then openly guffaw . i stick it out i figure that at least the battle scene might be good . i be wrong . inexplicably and hudson chose to film them with hand hold camera and not even steadicam and the jerkiness give a misplaced newsreel authenticity which ruin the sense of scale . there be a semi famous tv reviewer in the audience a few row ahead of me represent ( the late ) gary franklin of channel 7 eyewitness news . i could tell he be peeve by the behavior of the rest of u . and sure enough and on his tv segment the next day he give the film a 10 on his notorious franklin scale of 1 to 10 and while remark churlishly about the lout who would disrupt the screen the night before and who clearly do not know art when they saw it . what a buffoon . after this disaster and pacino do not star in another film for almost 4 year . hugh hudson career never recover . you can not say i do not warn you .