Rating: 
Summary: Great Story
Review: Despite this movies good acting, good casting, beautiful scenery and special effects, there is still a great story to be learned. It is a story about the bond of family and how important it is to fight to protect them. One of Gibson's best films in my mind and a must have for any DVD library.
Rating: 
Summary: Save us all
Review: Negative points: This was horrific. Yes, Yes, so the Brits colonised the US,the Patriot makes them appear as if they are, as Jimmy Price, rightfully put it, the Gestapo. I suppose the historical inaccuracies annoy me because i am a history fanatic but it doesnt stop there. Black people were made to look like subordinate fools in this film. The blacks in this film should be shot. Heath Ledger? Fool of the year. He was only in this film for his supposed good looks. He has proven nothing from what I can see. Positive points: The costumes were fantastic and who ever styled this film did their homework.
Jason Isaacs. He is great. Paradigm of Evil.
Rating:
Summary: Braveheart in the New World...
Review: It seems that Mel Gibson seems to think that the one thing that makes a new picture better than his last picture is a higher body count. Rack up an astonishing 182 dead bodies in The Patriot. This includes death by all manner of devices 'civilised' and otherwise, including a beheading by cannonfire. Did such things happen? Indeed. Do such things continue to happen around the world? Well, there are fewer tomahawk axings (save at the occasional baseball game) but, yes, alas, we still live in a violent world. Does a movie like The Patriot gorify, er, I mean, glorify it too much? I thought this was a good movie. I could have done without the more than 1-dead-body-per-minute body count, but I thought this was an interesting tale. --Double standards in movies--
One thing that irritates me, if you will permit me a brief digression, is that this epic film competes, in epic terms, with the earlier summer release Gladiator. One criticism of Gladiator I heard over and over was that it was not true to the history of the time. I have yet to hear that criticism levelled at The Patriot, which is just as fictional while being based in a real-world scenario. Of course, another parallel with Gladiator that I couldn't help but notice is that of a major villain (the emperor Commodus in G, and the despicable Tavington (played admirably by Jason Isaacs) here) taunting our hero to try to make him lose his cool, only to be rebuffed and get his come-uppance later. Ah, formulas aren't just for the chemistry lab... --Basic Plot--
Mel Gibson turns in his usual good performance as Benjamin Martin (how colonial a name is that?), a widowed single father of a large brood of children, who had had enough of war in the French and Indian War (perhaps America's most forgotten war), reluctantly goes along with his idealistic son as he determines the best way to preserve his family (his personal definition of and attachment to liberty) is to drive the British out. There is a dark secret in Martin's past (which I won't reveal here). Alas, I didn't think it was THAT dark, but then, in colonial times, well... Of course, the British (in this film, and in real life) had no reason to think that they could ever lose this war (the loss of the colonies is perhaps best likened to America's failure in Vietnam -- how can a superpower, and Britain the strongest superpower of the time, lose a war against underequipped, ill-trained, poorly disciplined... well, you get the drift). The battlefield drama, the struggle to decide what is right and wrong, the fight with the inner demons and the past, make this an interesting psychological drama despite the pile of dead bodies in the background. --Production notes--
The costs were staggering, but this held all the elements for a summer blockbuster -- star power, compelling theme (ID 4 also grabbed the July holiday slot, and did well, and shares many of the same people in production with The Patriot). Many have described this as the American Braveheart -- I wonder, if Gibson were not in, if that would be true? Gibson claims not to have given much advice to the filmmakers of The Patriot, whereas he was in charge of Braveheart. If the battlefield scenes look similar, that is because battlefield scenes do look similar, over time (and across films). --Historical notes--
This movie shows in stark terms some of the conditions and costs of the American Revolution/War with the Colonies. It is perhaps one of the more regrettable wars in human history, much more akin to the American Civil War a century later, as it pitted relatives and friends against each other. Just as North and South had much more in common than that which divided them, so to did the British and Colonists have more in common than one would think. What would the world be like today had Benjamin Franklin's diplomacy been well received in London, and the British hierarchy been responsive to including colonial representation in the government, on some level? Alas, we'll never know.
Rating:
Summary: Not Even Mel Gibson Can Save This One!!
Review: Oh, the humanity! Why God, why?!! This movie had so much potential, but squandered it on stupid Hollywood fantasy! The problems are so innumerable I can't possibly delve into all of them, but let me state a few, if I may. First of all, this movie has no grasp of history whatsoever. Other than giving an occaisional nod to an actual figure from the American Revolution (whom they usually villify for no reason or remake into John Wayne) the writers obviously just tried to remember what they learned in grade school. The British are portrayed as the gestapo, murdering women and children indescriminately and bumbling around the colonies just trying to break things and drink tea. This isn't even in the same galaxy of the truth. And I won't even get into Mel's pre-pubecent sons taking out a platoon of the world's finest soldiers! Puh-lease! The treatment of slavery in the movie is God-awful -- most of the slaves actually sided with the British because of their offer of freedom. Not so in Patriotland. And can anybody explain the reason that all of the main characters took a vacation in the middle of the fight and went to live with the aforementioned slaves? The scene on the beach reminded me of the party the Ewoks held at the end of "Return of the Jedi". The movie ends in a battle that's an apparent combination of Cowpens and Guilford Courthouse -- two battles that were months and miles apart in the real world. And, of course the good guy kills the bad guy in an extremely gross way. This is just the tip of the iceberg, unfortunately. The script is formulaic, the performances are not exactly Oscar material, and Heath Ledger is in it. Speaking of him, the one saving grace in this movie is the scene where he died. I almost jumped out of my seat and cheered. In any case, if you watch this movie, please don't think that that's the way the American Revolution really was. Please?
Rating:
Summary: The American Revolution brought to life!!!
Review: Having read other reviews here, I am curious as to why people think this is unreal?, it is one of the most realistic & authentic movies about the Revolution, our history books only tell so much about this particular time, just because you didn't read certain aspects of this movie in history class, doesn't mean that some of it didn't happen, Set in 1776 in South Carolina during a time in which the British attempted to take over the eastern seaboard with their war against the settlers & I guess you could say decendents or deserters, the film clearly depicts a time in which the freedoms of this country was founded upon, Mel Gibson is Benjamin, a man who has seen war up close & personal in the french & indian war, & knows first hand its horrors, here he has settled for a normal quiet life with his seven children after his wife has died, in town, a meeting is being held in which British occupying forces will soon be upon them, Benjamin totally opposes the inpending war, that is until British forces invade his home & attack his family led by Captain Tavigton, played by Jason Isaacs(Armageddon) who is ruthless & brutal in his pursuit for victory,& a villian you just love to hate & can't wait for him to get his, Benjamin finally takes matters into his own hands & avengingly kills as many British troops as he can, he finally decides to take up arms against the British & leads a militia against the British, like Kevin Costner's "Dances with Wolves" this film really shows the beauty of as many landscapes as it can, & the strengh of men & the quest for the meaning of life & all we hold dear, Gibson gives one of the best performances of his career as a man with personal loss & patriotism, the viewer feels his anguish & his unrelenting behavoir to preserve the freedoms we have today, & that we take for granted, without those like him in this time, we might have all been British today, it was the ordinary men who fought alongside the Colonials that won our Democracy that we have today, & this film really makes that point clear, even if the history books don't, watching it, you realize that human behavoir hasn't changed much in 200 years, but is a winner & depicts the Revolutionary War in a positive light with a lot of accuracy, even if history don't, & one of Gibson's best movies!!
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good
Review: Good movie...but the unstoppable Mel Gibson thing gets a little old. Enertaining, good action.
Rating:
Summary: Specactular Patriotic Patriot!
Review: So some say it was not centered wholey on SC's part in Revolutionary War, well then go rent or better yet, write a documentary! This was fiction based on fact. All the actors were grand, esp of course, Gibson as well as Ledger, but Richardson and Brenner held their own in this company of men. My husband and I were very impressed with The Patriot!
Rating: 
Summary: God bless Australia
Review: Plucky and unusually enlightened Australian farmer saves downtrodden Americans from villainous Brits.
To misquote Henry Ford "Hollywood History is bunk"
Rating:
Summary: One of the best film I ever seen!
Review: I loved very much this movie.
It's never boring, there is a lot of action and suspense too.
The movie is very realistic and interesting. It shows how brave were the Americans for their liberty.
The actors act very well.
The costumes are perfect and guide the viewer to another time and place. The cast is masterful at what they do, and the writers have truly made a movie that has brought the story full circle as well as developed a plot making the audience think about the true value of family, and patriotism, and how the two work together
The Patriot is a movie about a man named Ben (Mel Gibson), a hero of the French and Indian War. A man who just wants to raise his seven children in peace. But it's not going to be that way. The Revolutionary War is starting and his eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger) enlists to fight for his country and his belief that all men are created equal. The war still seems far away until the day when it comes too close to home for Ben's comfort. In a rage, Ben and two of his young sons kill over twenty British officers. Ben's unique and somewhat savage way of fighting is described by a survivor of the battle. "It was like he was a ghost... one moment he was there, the next, he wasn't" This earns him the nickname "The Ghost" and the wrath of the British officers. Sending his young children to live with their Aunt, he joins the war, gathering men to fight with him. Using tequnices that surprise and mock the British, they begin to turn the war around in their favor. The Patriot shows Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger at their best. This movie shows a side to the American Revolution that can not be found in the history books. It is the portrayal of a family, torn by war, and the sacrifices they had made for America's liberty.
You will enjoyed the patriot like me, I think, so buy it!
Rating:
Summary: The Dictionary Definition of Ignorance
Review: First, let me say that this movie is about as accurate and respectful to British, Canadian and American history as Monty Python and the Holy Grail is to the history of the Grail. The scary...no, TERRIFYING difference is that this movie is meant to be taken seriously as everything that is good, true and real about what America is. The writers and directors of this movie chewed up and swallowed the most important event of your history, the very violent birth of your Nation, and defecated out a revenge-driven, Tomahawk-wielding, human flesh-butchering, "Patriot." And what a lucky coincidence that, in the midst of a gigantic slave-whipping machine, we find one cute little farm, with an incredibly good looking "Hero of the Black Slaves". Here he is, living in harmony with the four or five slaves out of God knows how many that he freed, automatically overlooking, if not justifying the mistreatment of all American slaves for the remainder of the movie. Oh, and General Washingtom decrees that all slaves who risk their lives for the country that enslaved them and stare a row of muskets in the face will be just as free as the rest of us! God bless America!
Please don't get me wrong. I am not anti-American. It just angers, baffles and scares me that any patriotic American could actually take in such a sickeningly twisted view of history without feeling outraged, betrayed and violated by Hollywood as many of the the Canadians and Britons who watched it obviously are. Benjamin Martin is their best definition of what a patriotic American is? So many reviewers have written "This is just entertainment! Who cares if it's historically accurate? It doesn't need to be completely faithful to its historical background to be entertaining, does it?" Let me reword these statements to suit The Patriot:
"My country's history and heritage are just entertainment! Who cares if the wrongful depiction of Britons as merciless, ultra-violent scumbags and the erasing of slavery and other blackmarks from my Country's history are used to boost my country's already swelling (American) reputation as the Perfect Nation and Savior of the World, as well as increasing the (outside world) view of America as arrogant, ignorant and founded and built on principles of violence? A movie about the very creation of the country I take such fierce pride in doesn't need to be historically accurate and truthful to show America at its best, does it? I will close by saying that anyone in America or the world who take pride in this movie need to think these questions over.
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