Rating: 
Summary: the facts, please
Review: Little about this movie appealed to me. The characters sounded more like modern Americans rather than Rev War folks. Their politics reflected modern concerns of social equality and cooperative politics. Not that I don't want these thigns for ourselves, but being a US History major, I assure you people didn't think like this back then. The battle scenes struck me as the mythical guerilla minute man exposes, which indeed happened but not the way nor to the extent Mel envisions. I think it is a shame when directors have to make history what they would prefer it to have been, rather than display it for what it was. Mel Gibson clearly dislikes people who misread their history to support bigoted ideas, so then why does he continue to misread history to do justice to his own ideas? That question haunts me when I walk out of his movies, as it does most history lovers.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good Entertainment
Review: Isn't it funny how the critics that raved about The Crying Game just hate The Patriot! In the world of political correctness where the word "Patriotism" has become a dirty word, Mel Gibson has successfully sidestepped Hollywood to give us a quality film with an important message. The Patriot reminds us that brave men and women gave everything, in the face of overwhelming odds, to create the greatest nation the world has known. The film has stunning visual effects, a great story line, great acting. There is no Hollywood Bolshevism in this film. Buy it!
Rating: 
Summary: A very good movie
Review: I really overall liked this film. I am a history nut, so this type of movie impresses me easily. I did have some problems with some of the relationships in the movie. I just have a hard time putting Mel Gibson in this type of film. He appears more of a modern day person than someone who lived 220+ years ago. I just don't feel he was the proper person to cast in this role. The film locations seemed to me to be more modern than the colonial period. Some of the homes that were used were of the type built in the 1830s - 1850s and not of the revolutionary period. I guess I am picking it apart, but I was entertained by the film anyway.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Movie, Good Price
Review: This story is akin to Braveheart in that it stars Mel Gibson in another epic movie, and that they go whomp the English. Also like Braveheart, that acting is quite good, the visuals are amazing, and, of course, all of the nit pickers out there found something wrong with it. Movies are meant to be entertaining, not 3 hour long documentaries!
I really like this movie. The only thing I would have changed was the pacing of the film. It still could have been very good if the director had chopped 45 minutes or so from the film. There were some scenes that I thought were uneeded.
At ... (which is one of the cheapest new-movie DVD's I've seen) The Patriot is a very entertaining war epic worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: Positive Proof the South Shared the American Revolution
Review: Probably one of the better American Revolution films of the last couple decades. Mel Gibson portrays South Carolina plantation owner Benjamin Martin who is reluctantly drawn into the conflict. His plantation burned and son murdered, Martin takes on the role similar to that of "Mad Max" as a one-man commando versus the British army. Later joining the regular Continental Army, Martin and his band win over the population and pin down the Redcoats in a series of hit and run engagements. Despite the screen-novelized drama and characters, the film is fairly true to the overall military action in the Carolinas. The South Carolina locations are gorgeous. The film has a 165-minute running time and is presented in wide screen.
Rating: 
Summary: Why is this so overrated?
Review: This is the type of film that normally I would give 1 star to. The absolutely fantastic battle scenes can redeem it by 1 star. They are historically acurrate in every single way (and I am quite a history buff) with all the blood, muzzle-to-muzzle tactics, and emotion to make them classic. The rest of the film just sucks. It is filled with cliche after cliche, from the misplaced poorly developed romance between Martin's son and the absolutely ridiculous Colonel Tavington who was so cliched and unrealistic I almost laughed at him. For historical info, Francis Marion, the man upon whom Gibson's character is based, shot civilians for sport and was a vicious racist. The real Colonel Tavington was a benevelont scholar who never did any of the gruesome things his character depicts in the movie. Ahh, Hollywood. The dialogue is also jumbled (no historical speak at all) and the revenge plot is disjointed and poorly executed. The Americans are lionized and stereotypical, and the British are hell-spawned and stereotypical. There are some things in here not for the faint of heart, but for me, and I hope for most, this was a dissapointment. And by the way, why IS this movie so overrated?
Rating:
Summary: Accurate Enough for Me!
Review: Why should Mel Gibson be villified if his "Patriot" is not 100% historically accurate? This is a MOVIE, for Heaven's Sake, not a Ken Burns PBS documentary. But let's be honest about it: there never has been a war that didn't feature undue cruelty, barbarism, malice, murder and mayhem. If these events depicted didn't happen EXACTLY and ENTIRELY to one group of people, you can be pretty sure that portions of them happened to others. This was actually the first Mel Gibson movie I've ever seen, and I'm glad I caught him finally!
Rating:
Summary: Braveheart goes to the revolution
Review: French and Indian war hero goes home to farm and to forget the atrocities of war. By the time of the Revolutionary War, he loses his wife, loses his son, and then apparently almost singlehandedly wins the war.
Mel Gibson has charisma but he has a limited range, with his acting and his choice of roles. "Patriot" is painfully predictable and, like "Braveheart", needlessly violent and graphic. The villain is a monster; the starry-eyed youths are sugary; the superpatriot is slow to anger but, when he blows, he becomes a one-man army. Gibson did a much better job as the lonely hero in other movies and I'm not sure he has done a really good move since "Road Warrior", almost twenty years ago.
The special effects are great. The battle scenes are well-orchestrated. The history is questionable. This is not for the weak stomaches. A better work from this period, although just as bloody, is "Last of the Mohicans". Irishman (or is he English?) Daniel Day-Lewis plays a better American hero than Australian (okay, American-born) Gibson.
Rating:
Summary: Don't listen to liberal whining, this film is GOOD!!!
Review: For starters, allot of the critics of this film complain its not factual (name a Hollywood film that is) and ~shudder~ kids are depicted using rifles killing British soldiers!!! Ignore the hand-wringing bleeding heart types that don't understand the second amendment and enjoy a film that has great action, good acting and excellant cinematography. Yes the plot takes liberties with the American Revolution, but probably realistically depicts certian elements of it like the frontline battle tactics of going toe to toe with muskets, scary stuff! Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger are excellant as Father & Son going up against the Redcoats, and the supporting cast are all great. The DVD has a nice Widescreen transfer, and if you have a nice surround system the cannon blasts will vibrate your pictures off the wall! ;-) The extras are a tad sparse, but the one on digging through the old uniforms and trying to get the look of the time down was interesting. One last thing.. even though this is fiction, if you dont sit through this film and feel some kind of pride of the origins of this country or some kind of Patriotism you are indeed hard-hearted.
Rating:
Summary: Spectacular!
Review: 'The Patriot' is fantastic, a truly great film. Heart-wreching and moving, but still packed with action, this movie is sure to keep all audiences entertained! Great acting by Mel Gibson and the young Heath Ledger. Mel is really an amazing actor. He can go from being a war hero in 'The Patriot' to be an egotistical jerk in the comedy 'What Women Want'! Heath Ledger was great, he fit his role perfectly. The sets, costumes, and historical information is excellent. The dialogue and script is smart, emotional, and suspenseful. One of the best movies of the year, excellent...
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