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The Patriot Customer Reviews (73 - 75 of 119 Reviews)

An Instant Classic
Unlike the turgid, derivative disasters that were INDEPENDENCE DAY and GODZILLA, director Roland Emmerich's THE PATRIOT is prestige filmmaking from the first frame, both a riveting wartime extravaganza and an involving familial drama that will garner deserved attention in the awards season. Without displaying any evidence that he was capable of doing so, Emmerich has transcended his exploitation-film roots and turned screenwriter Robert Rodat's -- who also wrote the flawed, but solid screenplay for SAVING PRIVATE RYAN -- into a top-notch production. Mel Gibson, in the title role, leads a superb cast that is more than equal to the task of animating American history.

Though it runs nearly three hours (ample room for mistakes aplenty), THE PATRIOT possesses none of the cornball tendencies of the director's other work. The film sweeps up the viewer and carries them effortlessly from the quiet, homespun beginning on the plantation of Gibson's character to the bloody killing field of Saratoga. Along the way there is violence -- and lots of, so leave the kids out of this adventure -- love, hate and tragedy. Emmerich's in-house special effects group brings sprawling battles to vivid life, resurrects landscapes that have long since vanished and, in one too short sequence, even takes the film to the waves in a pitched sea assault.

So well-drawn are the even the smaller actors on this broad canvas that emotional investment runs high, far beyond what one would expect, given Emmerich's body of work thus far. Rather than pummel the audience with scene after scene of detached carnage, THE PATRIOT creates a very real sense of dread, waste and pain as the American Revolution plays out on the screen. Every bullet hurts, every cannonball is a thing of terror and every character, down to the cameo level, actually matters, live or die.

In a summer-film landscape scattered with corpses (M:I-2, SHAFT, etc.), THE PATRIOT is truly something different. Telling its story with fire and style, the film has something more important than slam-bang thrills on its mind and delivers on every level with action, history and a surprising amount of heart.

Visually stunning war epic (4 1/2 stars)
I'm not too much for war movies. The only war movies I really liked were "The Thin Red Line" and "Three Kings" (I haven't seen "Apocalypse Now" yet). The only reason I went to see "The Patriot" is because, when I found out that Roland Emmerich directed it, I gazed upon the film's poster with a sense of humorous irony tickling my funny bone: The guys who made "Independence Day" are making a movie about Independence Day. That just seemed too perfect for me to ignore. So I antied up and walked to the box office (by myself, frown), paid my ticket and walked into one of the stadium seating theaters. I sat down, watched the previews and laughed hysterically at the movie theater's ridiculous promotion music, then I proceeded to kick back and enjoy a terrific movie going experience. "The Patriot" is, like "Saving Private Ryan," very realistic in its depiction of war, very lushly photographed, and very well acted. Mel Gibson, as always, is charismatic and heroic in the lead role.

"The Patriot" is obviously about the American Revolution. As the film opens, we see life on a farm in one of the southern colonies. Mel Gibson's character is attempting to build yet another rocking chair that turns out to be a hilarious disaster. The mail comes, and we find out that his oldest son (Heath Ledger) wants to become part of the Continental Army. Gibson refuses to let him join. The relationship between Gibson and Ledger is immediately established to be one of a son who sees his father as over-protective instead of enlightened and experienced in the calamity of war. Gibson's character is very experienced in war. He is still reverred as one of the great heroes of a battle that he won almost single-handedly. The man knows how to fight, but when it comes to fighting for a cause that is, he agrees, great, but also suicide, and taking care of his family, he chooses family. His wife has already died, and he doesn't wish to leave his children fatherless as well. Anyway, as is expected, Gibson's son gets his own way, and it isn't until the war comes literally into his family's own backyard, leaving him with a dead son and a burning house that he decides to fight. And we understand immediately why this man is seen as such a hero: He can kick Redcoat butt when he wants to. He kills twenty men almost by himself before our very eyes. WOW! (Proposed match-up: Mel Gibson's "The Patriot" character versus Russell Crowe in "Gladiator." Whaddya think?)

Robert Rodat, who wrote "Saving Private Ryan," also wrote "The Patriot," and he does a job that is on a par with his previous work, but he ends up surpassing himself with the addition of a splendid villain, played by Jason Issacs, who is a renegade Colonel of the Redcoat army. (Another match-up: Jason Issacs versus Joaquin Phoenix) I loved this movie through and through. Some may say that its pace is a little too slow, but movies like this are intentionally built that way. Besides, the payoff at the end is way to good to cast this movie aside. The characters are interesting, the supporting cast is great, the battle sequences are expertly executed, and visuals are stunning. Bottom line: "The Patriot" delivers.

An inferior copy of Braveheart
I made the mistake of watching "The Patriot" for the first time just after rewatching "Braveheart," next to which the former pales by comparison. Gibson does his usual competent job in portraying Benjamin Martin, a former soldier and widowed father torn between his perceived responsibilities to family and community, and haunted by the memory of his own capacity for violence. However, the rest of the characters appeared one dimensional and uninteresting to me, particularly the evil colonel, who is a cardboard cutout villain with no redeeming qualities (the writers don't even bother to delve into his motivations for the atrocities he commits to set himself up as Martin's nemesis). The movie dragged at times, as well, despite the beautiful trappings; the dialogue lacked sparkle, and the "humorous" scenes, such as the one involving the ink... just weren't my cup of tea.

I must admit that "The Patriot" inspired me to crack a few dusty volumes of my encyclopedia and old U.S. history textbook to re-educate myself on the real participants in the Revolutionary War. But if you want a moving and compelling story about a reluctant hero's courageous fight for freedom, skip this movie and watch Gibson's powerful performance in "Braveheart" instead.

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