FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: The Patriot [DVD] [2000]

The Patriot [DVD] [2000]
enlarge	Director: Roland Emmerich Actors: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs, Chris Cooper Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Category: DVD List Price: ~~£19.99~~ Buy Used: £0.90 as of 21/11/2009 16:15 GMT details You Save: £19.09 (95%) New (22) Used (42) from £0.90 Seller: zoverstocks Rating: 58 reviews Sales Rank: 4052 Format: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL Languages: English (Original Language), Hungarian (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Hindi (Subtitled), Turkish (Subtitled), Danish (Subtitled), Icelandic (Subtitled), Bulgarian (Subtitled), Swedish (Subtitled), Hungarian (Subtitled), Polish (Subtitled), Arabic (Subtitled), Dutch (Subtitled), Finnish (Subtitled), Czech (Subtitled), Greek (Subtitled) Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Region: 2 Discs: 1 Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Number Of Discs: 1 Running Time: 158 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2 Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 EAN: 5035822044135 ASIN: B000052259 Theatrical Release Date: June 28, 2000 Release Date: January 8, 2001 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


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Editorial Reviews: Amazon.co.uk Review Aimed directly at a mainstream audience, IThe Patriot/I qualifies as respectable entertainment, but anyone expecting a definitive drama about the American Revolution should look elsewhere. Rising above the blatant crowd pleasing of IStargate/I, IIndependence Day/I and IGodzilla/I, 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 ISaving Private Ryan/I. 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, IThe Patriot/I 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 IBraveheart/I with an effectively brooding performance. --IJeff Shannon/I

Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 58 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...12 Next » A grand old-fashioned epic November 10, 2007 Trevor Willsmer (London, England) 6 out of 6 found this review helpful 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. br / br /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. br / br /Don't use it as a history lesson by any means, though it's not quite the travesty outraged tabloids have implied, but as a lavish, old-fashioned epic, complete with a cast of thousands (even if many of them are digital), glorious widescreen photography and a fine score by John Williams. The theatrical cut boasts a good array of extras, with some featurettes and trailers that were not carried over to the extended cut that is also available. br / whoah! February 6, 2004 matt seymour (rosyth,fife) 10 out of 13 found this review helpful there has been mixed reviews regarding the superbit format-essentially that you need a high defenition tv to really appreciate the improved digital transfer.well i have viewed this movie on a 32" tv and i was literally blown away! the picture is pin sharp and the soundtrack is amazing.using the dts option i was amazed at the clarity and depth of the soundtrack.i could hear every shot from the numerous battle scenes,my living room was immersed in true surround sound.the thing to remember with superbit is the inclusion of dts,which was never offered on the standard release in the uk by columbia tri-star.i cannot recommend the superbit format enough, for the inclusion of dts it gets a ten out of ten alone. Braveheart in the new world... January 6, 2006 Kurt Messick (London, SW1) 12 out of 24 found this review helpful It seemed for a time that Mel Gibson thought 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? pI thought this was a reasonably 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. p--Double standards in movies-- brOne thing that irritates me, if you will permit me a brief digression, is that this epic film competed 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 did not hear that criticism levelled at The Patriot, which is just as fictional while being based in a real-world scenario. pOf 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. pAh, formulas aren't just for the chemistry lab... p--Basic Plot-- brMel 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. pThere 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... pOf 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). pThe 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. p--Production notes-- brThe 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). p--Historical notes-- brThis 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. Could there have been a better way? pAlas, we'll never know. Breathtaking! January 10, 2001 7 out of 14 found this review helpful An epic! I loved every minute of it. I don't usually go for a history lesson whilst watching a movie but this was breathtaking. I don't really enjoy Mel Gibson's movies but his performance in this is excellent, buy it and enjoy. Fantastic! Emotional, poignant, moving, tender, thrilling, November 15, 2000 6 out of 12 found this review helpful This was a brilliant film. It was extremely moving and very poignant. It ranged from emotional to rage inducing, tear producing to funny. The action was up there with Saving Private Ryan. Many oscars should be awarded for this one! Showing reviews 1-5 of 58 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...12 Next »

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