Product Description

Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Rene Auberjonois, Joely Richardson, Jason IsaacsDirector: Roland Emmerich

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4742 in DVD
• Brand: Blu-ray Action & Adventure
• Released on: 2007-07-02
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Formats: Dubbed, PAL
• Original language: English
• Dubbed in: Polish, French, Czech
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .26 pounds
• Running time: 175 minutes

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, Amazon.com

Synopsis
Mel Gibson stars in this action-packed historical drama from the director of Independence Day and Godzilla. Gibson portrays Benjamin Martin, an unassuming man who is forced to join the American Revolution when the British threaten to take his farm away from him. Together with his patriotic son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), the pair faces the vicious Redcoats with a heroism that reflects the stubborn pride of a young country's most dedicated supporters. The Patriot is a sweeping epic adventure that sheds light on America's past, and at the same time entertains audiences.

Customer Reviews

Specifications
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

A nice film worth buying
Both video and audio are excellent.The story is proably not historically correct, and yet who knows. After all,there is only one really bad englishman in the film, the rest are quite normal.So Mr. Ball calm down.I am danish, my forefathers the Wikings, did'nt behave so well either, forgive them.
No, it is a nice film. Good actors and splendid on Blu-Ray. I think most people will enjoy The Patriot, if they are born on the Planet Earth.

Pleasantly surprised
I'll admit that I was determined not to like this before watching it, due to:

- Hollywood's willingness to play fast and loose with history where the English are concerned, either diminishing heroism (U-571) or exaggerating villainy (Braveheart).

- my utter detestation of the vile Mel Gibson. Someone who denigrates both the English and Jews is never going to be a friend of mine.

- one horrible incident that I'd heard about in this film (see later).

And yet....I'd have to recommend this, largely for the gorgeous cinematography (by the great Caleb Deschanel), wonderful production design and stirring John Williams score.

Having made the point early on that this was a war largely about taxation rather than more high-falutin' ideals, the script - by Saving Private Ryan's Robert Rodat - soon follows that film's outline of making muddled points about honour while marking time until the next big setpiece. As noted elsewhere, it's really a standard revenge plot with a historical backdrop.

The English - apart from the pantomime villain (an overrated performance by Jason Isaacs) - aren't generally painted that badly...although I could have done without the scene where Cornwallis (the dependably excellent Tom Wilkinson) is given 'plausible deniability' (horrible Americanism) about the atrocities that his subordinate has got planned.

Speaking of which...and this is the horrible incident mentioned earlier: if I were a German, like Roland Emmerich, common decency would not allow me to film a scene where the evil soldiers burning people alive in their place of worship are English. Ever heard of Kristallnacht, Roland?

Another couple of grumbles:

- much as I normally like Tcheky Karyo, I could have done without the reminder of how France routinely interfered in our business...but at least that's historically accurate, unlike...

- the laughably idyllic picture painted of race relations in South Carolina in 1776. A soon-to-be-Confederate state, 90 years before emancipation? Give me a break.

- far too much waving of American flags near the end.

Gibson is his usual irritating self, wavering between impotent gibbering rage, forced and unconvincing humility / civility, and relish in extreme violence. I'm still not a fan.

Heath Ledger was still in wide-faced pretty-boy mode here and doesn't make much impression.

Very different from Emmerich's usual sub-Spielbergian direction (zoom in on looks of horror or wonder as doom or impressive spectacle respectively heads into one's vicinity).

Good battle scenes, with no juddery camerawork (hang your head in shame, Ridley Scott) and judicious use of slow-motion. Although I respect this change of pace and look, I'm still looking forward to his return to large-scale planet-trashing in '2012' (with extra points for casting John Cusack).

Overall...I wanted to hate it, but I don't. Unlike its star.