With the Fourth of July right around the corner, fortify yourself with an hour of cinematic fifes and drums. This week on “Picture Perfect,” we look ahead to Independence Day.

We’ll hear selections from the 2000 film, “The Patriot,” in which slow-burning pacifist Mel Gibson is pushed too far by ruthless British officer Jason Isaacs and reverts to his bloody French and Indian War ways. By the end of the film, he is literally waving the flag to John Williams’ triumphant score.

Then we’ll hear a suite from the 1942 Jack Benny-Ann Sheridan fixer-up comedy, “George Washington Slept Here,” based on the play by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman – not really about the Revolution, beyond the fact that the ramshackle Pennsylvania farm house purchased by a transplanted New York couple is alleged to have been the resting place of the Revolution’s most famous general. The music is by Adolph Deutsch.

The 1985 film, “Revolution,” seemed to have everything going for it. The director was Hugh Hudson, whose “Chariots of Fire” was the big winner at the 1981 Academy Awards; its star was Al Pacino; and its composer was John Corigliano, who went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Symphony No. 2 and an Academy Award for “The Red Violin.” Yet “Revolution” bombed horribly – so horribly that Pacino gave up making movies for the next four years. James Galway plays the flute and pennywhistle on the film’s soundtrack.

Finally, we’ll hear music from the longest continuously-shown film in cinematic history, “Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot,” created exclusively for the tourist attraction of Colonial Williamsburg. The film features future “Hawaii Five-O” star Jack Lord, and the score is by none other than Bernard Herrmann.

Here’s a clip from “Williamsburg,” with some of Herrmann’s music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0VXfVhenXQ

We celebrate Independence Day this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

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PHOTO: George Washington wagers he can crack a walnut with his bare hand in “Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot”