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The Patriot Customer Reviews (49 - 51 of 119 Reviews)

Great movie
While this movie may be historically incorrect, that should not stop you from watching it. It doesn't matter too much to me if it is not correct, I just enjoy an excellent movie. The Patriot is an excellent movie because of its perfect storyline, flawless acting, and authentic uniforms.

The story starts with Benjamin Martin and his family at their house in South Carolina. They travel to Charleston to see how the levy to allow South Carolina to go to war against the British turns out. Benjamin, having seen much of war, is against the levy. When the levy passes, his oldest son, Gabriel, signs up against his father's wishes. Eventually, Benjamin is dragged into the war as his family becomes involved. He begins a guerrilla war with great effectivness. The story heads out from there and can get very sad at points, but it is definately well written.

The acting done by Mel Gibson (Benjamin Martin), Gabriel Martin (Heath Ledger), and many others is absolutely flawless. They say their lines in a very convincing way. I have not noticed a single slip-up by any of the cast.

The detail made to the uniforms and weapons is fantastic. The British uniforms are well detailed along with the muskets. The Colonials uniforms are also highly detailed and look authentic. All the buildings are perfect for the time because they used real plantations and houses.

This movie deserves your time and money. It is a great movie even if it is historically incorrect. The Patriot has all the parts necessary for a wonderful film.

MG tries to update "Braveheart" for 1776...
Ben Martin ("Mel Gibson") is a scarred vet of the French and Indian War who resists and then enters the revolutionary war in this movie that seems at times an update of the superior "Braveheart".

A happily settled widower in Carolina, Martin stays aloof of the revolutionary cause, mostly because of his distaste for any government (serving a tyrant 3000 miles away beats serving one ruling from down the block) but also because he's still haunted by the brutalities of the older war. The war comes to him, hot on the heels of his fiery son-turned Continental soldier. Although the British forces in the Carolinas are led by sage and otherwise humane general Cornwallis, the Tories' brutal side is embodied by one charachter - the sadistic Colonel Tavington. In his first confrontation with the colonel, Martin's eldest son is captured, while the youngest is cruelly shot. Martin joins the revolutionary effort, amassing a scraggly horde of swamp fighters who pick the redcoats off from behind trees while the Continentals' army struggles vainly out in the open against the superior might of the redcoats. The revolution's only hope is to keep the enemy forces in Carolina - which has numbers, weapons and Cornwallis on its side - from linking up to the British Army in NY and choking Washington into defeat. The French have promised a blockade and their own military support, but nothing materializes quickly. Martin doesn't play by British rules, refusing to line up his meager and swampy forces as cannon fodder for the British. Martin's early successes galvanize the Colonial's hopes, but also rouse the British, and soon invite more personal tragedy for Martin and his family. Col. Tavington doesn't play by the rules either. Realizing his military tactics (which include annihilating whole towns suspected of abetting the Continentals' guerrilas) will prevent him from returning to England, he sets on a path that will give him his own fiefdom in America ("let's talk about....Ohio"). With the Continental's position improving and becoming more desperate at the same time, the stage is set for a climactic battle where Martin will face Tavington and the might of the British Empire without a swamp to hide behind.

Historically, the flick is suspect. There are no rich slave owners (Martin's slaves were released and remain as his tenants), and white soldiers erase their prejudice against black patriots as soon as the two have shared a battle. As for the flick's nominal villain, it's hard to take the evil Tavingotn at face value: were there as evil a character as Tavington fighting in the colonies, would the script have had to invent a fictional composite?
"The Patriot" follows "Braveheart" very closely, but the story does go its own direction at times, and there's more of a story to the bit players - tough guerrila soldiers who find themselves quite emotionally vulnerable when their families are victimized, or other white soldiers who learn that black soldiers can be just as valiant as themselves and should be free. The British aren't the uniformly snearing and evil crew that faced the scots in that older film. While patriotism is upfront, the film doesn't come off jingoistic. Unlike "Braveheart", Gibson's character here tends to embody a cause more often than a person who just happens to be critical to the cause. All-in-all, good for a night when you're in the mood for an epic, but nothing great is on.

The most biast and historically incorrent film ever made!
The acting is poor, the story is both historically incorrent and increadibly bias, and at times the film is so cringing corny that you have to either turn away or be physically sick. Mel Gibson (australian) seems to have some sort of issue with the British looking at both this poor excuse for a film and braveheart. He tries to exibit them as an evil empire comitting constant atrocities (which never actually happened). Seeing that most of us are from british origins and also from the same gene pool, along with the fact that their probably are only real allies, we should really give them more respect, obviously films like this dont help...

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