The Patriot [VHS]

Director: Roland Emmerich
Actors: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs, Chris Cooper
Studio: Sony Pictures

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

893 reviews
Sales Rank: 8,342

Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
Language: English (Unknown)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 165 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 4.2 x 1.1

ISBN: 0767858069
UPC: 043396057029
EAN: 9780767858069
ASIN: B00004XPQ6

Theatrical Release Date: June 28, 2000
Release Date: April 3, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
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 marvelous 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 honor 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

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 1-5 of 893

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Patriotism is Here March 5, 2010
Mark Talmadge (Flint Michigan)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

One of the very few movies that Mel Gibson was involved in that deserves a special kind of respect. It's transfer to Blu-ray must have been treated with delicate care as the transfer to High Definition looks even more beautiful than its DVD release. If there's one movie that you need to purchase on Blu-ray, I would highly recommend this one.

While I don't consider myself a Mel Gibson fan, this movie portrays the events of the Revolutionary War, back when the colonies fought for independence against the British Empire and this is one of the very few movies that the Blu-ray format was designed for. With such notables as Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger (before he died) in one of his few quality roles, films about the history of the United States have always intrigued me.

I couldn't recommend this movie high enough.

5 out of 5 stars

For all those haters of historical movies March 4, 2010
Adam M. Shillinger (Victorville,CA)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful

This is for all those people who complaine about historical movies...get over it!!! Your not watching a documentary..your watching a movie and Hollywood makes movies to entertain you..not educate you.You want to be educated then watch a documentary.Then if the documentary is inaccurate then you have to something to complaine about.I love movies like The Patriot,Young Guns,Troy,300,and Black Hawk Down but none of them are histoically accurate but very entertaining.So watch The Patroit...it is a great entertaining movie

3 out of 5 stars

An entertaining yet hollow look at the Revolution... March 2, 2010
Andrew Ellington (Mulholland Drive)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

I remember when I first saw this film, about two days after my wedding. My wife and I were lounging around the house for a week before we left for our honeymoon and so we spent a lot of time watching movies. Well, we never really say through a movie in it's entirety and so, a few years later, I found that I didn't really remember anything about this movie (outside of that gory hatchet murder scene).

So I watched it again.

The thing for me is that `The Patriot' is just not that great. There are a lot of films that circulate this genre, and you really have to stand up tall to be taken seriously. For me (and I understand that everyone is entitled to their own opinion), this movie hardly stands tall enough.

This is sad, because the performances here are all very, very good, at times broaching on fantastic. I am not a big Mel Gibson fan (in fact, I've only really ever lauded him in `Ransom') but I felt that he was outstanding here, truly balancing the political, emotional and parental aspects of this man. He found the grit within the script and used it to bring this character to life before our eyes. Heath Ledger (R.I.P.) is also wonderfully used here. He had just started building his career in 2000 and this is one of those performances that makes you stand back and take notice. Tom Wilkinson is always great (I love that man) and even though he doesn't have a huge role, his scenes are brilliantly executed. Even the token villain role is given an extra push through the eyes of Jason Isaacs, who chews scenery like you wouldn't believe, yet not in that regrettably clichéd way.

But, the films plot, which is little more than a revenge drama, takes this film down a few notches for me. Unlike `Gladiator', which came out this very same year and used a similar plot structure (to drastically superior effect), `The Patriot' doesn't seem to be able to use that element to its benefit. Instead, it comes off rather elementary and hollow.

The films direction is effective, and the battle scenes (while nothing overly impressive) are very well crafted. The savagery of certain scenes (like the aforementioned hacking) is also used in an effective and memorable fashion, and the cinematography adds layers of beauty to the films gritty core. It is entertaining (although I did find that it tended to drag in parts) but it falls short of being anything truly remarkable, despite all that it has going for it.

BTW, I'm not a history buff, and I don't pretend to be, so the historical inaccuracies that many have called this film out for don't really bother me (in fact, I didn't even really notice them). For me, this film wasn't claiming to be a history lesson (which was part of the problem, since the clichéd `revenge' formula should have been ditched for a more astute look at the war) so I didn't pick it apart for not being one.

5 out of 5 stars

BLU RAY VERSION January 15, 2010
AVID MOVIE WATCHER (USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

BLU-RAY VERSION IS WORTH BUYING. I DON'T NEED TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE MOVIE, OTHERS ALREADY HAVE. BUT, NOT TOO MANY PEOPLE TELL YOU IF IT IS WORTH UPGRADING FROM YOUR REGULAR DVD TO BLU-RAY. THIS ONE IS WORTH IT. COLORS ARE STUNNING AND SOUNDS GREAT.

5 out of 5 stars

Super service! December 29, 2009
D. Williams
0 out of 2 found this review helpful

I ordered this video for a Christmas surprise, and it arrived LONG before the stated delivery date, in perfect condition, and cheaper than the local Walmart. Yea!

Showing reviews 1-5 of 893

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