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From Amazon.co.uk
Aimed directly at a mainstream audience, The Patriot qualifies as respectable entertainment, but anyone expecting a definitive drama about the American Revolution should look elsewhere. Rising above the blatant crowd pleasing of Stargate, Independence Day and Godzilla, director Roland Emmerich crafts a marvellous re-creation of South Carolina in the late 1770s (aided immeasurably by cinematographer Caleb Deschanel), and Robert Rodat's screenplay offers the same balance of epic scale and emotional urgency that elevated his earlier script for Saving Private Ryan. Unfortunately, Emmerich embraces clichés and hackneyed melodrama that a more gifted director would have avoided. Instead of attempting a truly great film about the most pivotal years of American history, Emmerich settles for a standard revenge plot with the Revolutionary War as an incidental backdrop. On those terms, the film is engrossing and sufficiently intelligent, especially when militia leader Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) cagily negotiates with British General Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson) in one of the most rewarding scenes. For the most part, the story concerns Martin's anguished quest for revenge against ruthless redcoat Colonel Tavington (played with snide relish by Jason Isaacs), and the rise to manhood of Martin's eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), whose battlefield honour exceeds even that of his brutally volatile father. At its best, The Patriot conveys the horror of war among innocent civilians, and the epic battle scenes, while by no means masterful, are graphically intense and impressive. And although Ledger's love interest (Lisa Brenner) is too bland to register much emotion, the focus on family (which frequently relegates the war to background history) provides a suitable vehicle for Gibson, who matches his achievement in Braveheart with an effectively brooding performance. --Jeff Shannon
Product Description
South Carolina, 1776. Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson), a plantation owner and ex-soldier, refuses to join his countrymen in the battle for American Independence. However, when one of his sons is killed and another is wounded, Benjamin is forced to enter the fray in order to protect those he loves. He is given a command by his old friend Colonel Harry Burwell (Chris Cooper) and begins to mount a campaign against the notorious British officer William Tavington (Jason Isaacs).
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 24 people found the following review helpful
By Matty
Format:Blu-ray
Good movie - but not as good as Braveheart.
All official EU-Languages are as subtitles on this Blu Ray beside Italian, German and the Baltic Languageas.
I can't understand Columbia Pictures why Italian and German are missing....
Audio: English PCM 5.1, Czech 5.1, French 5.1, Polish 5.1
Subtitles: Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finish, French, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean, Norwegain, Polish, Portuguese, Romnanina, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
Special Features:
- The Art of war featurette
- The true patriots featurette
EAN: 5050629044119
All official EU-Languages are as subtitles on this Blu Ray beside Italian, German and the Baltic Languageas.
I can't understand Columbia Pictures why Italian and German are missing....
Audio: English PCM 5.1, Czech 5.1, French 5.1, Polish 5.1
Subtitles: Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finish, French, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean, Norwegain, Polish, Portuguese, Romnanina, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
Special Features:
- The Art of war featurette
- The true patriots featurette
EAN: 5050629044119
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Okay, I'm going to nail my colors to the mast here: not only do I like Roland Emmerich's The Patriot, but I also think it's also a damn good film, and not just because so many films about the Revolutionary War are so pitifully bad (Revolution, cough cough). While it is driven by the simplistic revenge motif that all American epics seem to need to stand a chance at the box-office, it does give a good sense of the slow progress of the war as it deteriorated from a `civilized' confrontation waged according to the rules of battle to an increasing vicious guerrilla war for survival. The battles are convincingly brutal and for perhaps the first time in a movie it shows how cannonballs were really used - not as explosives but to smash their way through the flesh and bone of the opposing ranks of soldiers.
Yes, it glosses over the real Swamp Fox's racism in favor of an idealized vision of racial harmony and it invents a church-burning incident redolent of old anti-Nazi propaganda films (revenge on Herr Director's part, perhaps?), but it's not quite as simplistic as that. For much of the first half Mel Gibson's character takes no prisoners himself, taking genuine pleasure in killing surrendering British troops until he persuaded to stop more for propaganda reasons than moral ones. Similarly, it points out that this was initially very much a civil war, with colonial settlers divided among themselves over where their loyalties lay (people tend to forget that rather than Americans vs. British, it was British vs. British at that time). Certainly history gets a better deal here than it did in Gibson's own Braveheart. And give it credit for at least not having Gibson stab the bad guy with Old Glory.... Read more ›
Yes, it glosses over the real Swamp Fox's racism in favor of an idealized vision of racial harmony and it invents a church-burning incident redolent of old anti-Nazi propaganda films (revenge on Herr Director's part, perhaps?), but it's not quite as simplistic as that. For much of the first half Mel Gibson's character takes no prisoners himself, taking genuine pleasure in killing surrendering British troops until he persuaded to stop more for propaganda reasons than moral ones. Similarly, it points out that this was initially very much a civil war, with colonial settlers divided among themselves over where their loyalties lay (people tend to forget that rather than Americans vs. British, it was British vs. British at that time). Certainly history gets a better deal here than it did in Gibson's own Braveheart. And give it credit for at least not having Gibson stab the bad guy with Old Glory.... Read more ›
28 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
As the biographer of a Scots officer killed in the Southern Campaigns of the American War, and having visited one of the locations during filming in 1999, I can say this film is historically hysterical. The script is trite, every plot 'twist' more or less signposted in neon lights, and the white-washing (I use that word deliberately) of slavery and the attribution of WW2 SS atrocities to the British Legion despicable and morally irresponsible. The geography is a little odd and the chronology is off-beam (the British occupying Charleston in 1778 instead of 1780? The battle of Cowpens in October 1780, instead of Jan. '81? ). There's the usual confusion of referring to 'England' and 'the English' when 'Britain' and 'British' are meant, which really annoys the rest of us over here! Even the uniforms of the Legion (a Loyal American unit) have been changed from green to red with green facings so US audiences will know which side they're on! - exactly as happened in Alan Alda's comedy 'Sweet Liberty'! 'The Patriot' is a flag-waving farrago (literally - there's a lot of homing-in on flags and crosses, and a flag gets used in what I'd've thought the US would consider a most disrespectful way versus a hapless SFX horse!). It's deeply offensive to those of us whose families suffered at the hands of the real-life equivalent of the film's 'heroes'. It has also annoyed the fellow-citizens and family of the former Liverpool MP on whom the anti-hero is clearly meant to be based, who was by no means as bad as Rebel propaganda and the film portrayed...... Read more ›
40 of 51 people found the following review helpful
By "crockster"
Format:DVD
Oh my Lord God... What went into this movie?? Money that would have been better spent writing a better script, hiring a better cast, creating an interesting story and of course not an american flag in sight, which actually wasn’t around at this time, but anyway…. This film is shallow, contrived, biased, historically incorrect (to say that it was inaccurate would be an understatement), patriotic (for all the wrong reasons), fake, possesses poor special effects, has bad, BAD acting, totally unrealistic scenes and actions. But apart from all this the film's all right.
I just don't see how anyone can appreciate this film, it truly is very, VERY bad. It just is totally fake; Let's shoot a Brit from 200yds away with a Musket, yea good one. Let's throw a tomahawk from a range of 30 or more feet past the head of my son and into the head of the bad Brit who is hiding behind and didn't even see the axe coming...
Honestly, this film is full of unrealistic rubbish. For you to enjoy this film, you can't have had much experience in what a good action film actually is, e.g. Last of the Mohicans/ Gladiator, and to a certain extent Jean d'Arc or Black Hawk Down. This does not even compare to any of the above. It is not even in the slightest bit moving or sad or exciting, the plot is simple: American avenges murder of family member and kills lots of Brits, survives, kills the baddy and it's all happy ever after. No sub-lying intelligent plot, like Jean d'Arc, No surprises nor shocks to the system (like Gladiator), a truly bland adaptation of a thoroughly worn out action genre.
I just don't see how anyone can appreciate this film, it truly is very, VERY bad. It just is totally fake; Let's shoot a Brit from 200yds away with a Musket, yea good one. Let's throw a tomahawk from a range of 30 or more feet past the head of my son and into the head of the bad Brit who is hiding behind and didn't even see the axe coming...
Honestly, this film is full of unrealistic rubbish. For you to enjoy this film, you can't have had much experience in what a good action film actually is, e.g. Last of the Mohicans/ Gladiator, and to a certain extent Jean d'Arc or Black Hawk Down. This does not even compare to any of the above. It is not even in the slightest bit moving or sad or exciting, the plot is simple: American avenges murder of family member and kills lots of Brits, survives, kills the baddy and it's all happy ever after. No sub-lying intelligent plot, like Jean d'Arc, No surprises nor shocks to the system (like Gladiator), a truly bland adaptation of a thoroughly worn out action genre.
The direction of this film is poor indeed; battle scenes are contrived rubbish, and unimaginative. This film has nothing new, nothing that hasn't been done before.
... Read more ›
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3.8 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good film
My husband loves this stuff!! It's not really my kind of film, but it was bought for him and it does the job.
Published 22 hours ago by Sas thompson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant Film
A really powerful and meaningful film, packed full of action. I really enjoyed this film and would recommend it to anyone that hasnt seen it
Published 22 days ago by CL
5.0 out of 5 stars
the Patriot
I only bought the dvd to replace an old film in the VHS format but I think this is a great film.
Published 25 days ago by joplaw171
5.0 out of 5 stars
effects of civil war
l chose this rating because l thought it was justified. The story of how the American civil war devided even families. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Bygone
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fine Film
The DVD itself was fine. The packaging was badly broken but we were able to overcome this obstacle with a new container. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Dianne
5.0 out of 5 stars
greatest movie ever
Love this movie watched it over and over great story great actor's it's just really good and very quick delivery 10 out of 10
Published 2 months ago by julie milli
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sad but good film
Both big fans of Heath Ledger and Mel Gibson, Brillaint film, sad but really enjoy and never get bored of it.
Published 2 months ago by Charley
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another old VHS film l lost
Another old VHS film l had in my old collection and so slowly replacing all my old favourite VHS tapes into DVDs
Published 4 months ago by Peter Dowling
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superior!
s i m p l y d o e s n ' t g e t a n y b e t t e r !
Published 4 months ago by Christian Edlmayer
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mel!
Mel Gibson is great - plus you get Heath Ledger! Pity he is no longer with us. A good film with something for everyone - tears and laughter, war, peace and love!
Published 5 months ago by Sue Stephens
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