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The Patriot (2000)
Starring: Mel Gibson Director: Roland Emmerich
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.
The Patriot
(DVD) - 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.
Additional Features
Like the movie itself, there's little in the supplementary materials for The Patriot that requires more than one viewing, but they're interesting while they last.
"The Art of War" featurette purports to be a study of the film's elaborate battle logistics, but it offers only a cursory appreciation of sequence planning and stunt work.
The "True Patriots" featurette is much better, examining the painstaking efforts toward authenticity in production design, artillery, and costuming. The visual effects featurette offers a study of several pivotal shots, displayed in triptych fashion (to show how effects are layered together from separate elements) and narrated by visual effects supervisor Stuart Robertson.
Generous photo galleries are included, featuring shots of the primary cast, sets, and costumes (the last matched by a gallery of conceptual drawings), and the feature-length commentary by director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin is worthwhile, if not altogether essential.
Other Formats: VHS,
VHS
subtitled in Spanish
The
Patriot (Superbit Deluxe Collection) (2000)
-- Mel Gibson; DVD Keep Case The Patriot (2000)
Encoding: Region 1 (US and Canada only) PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement
(RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on
RCE, click here.
Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby
Rated: Not for sale to persons under age 18.
Studio: Columbia/Tristar Studios
DVD Features:
- Commentary by director Roland Emmerich and Producer Dean Devlin
- Production notes
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Theatrical trailer(s)
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Visual Effects Interactive Featurette
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Battlefield Featurette - The Art of War
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Authenticity Featurette "True Patriots"
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Conceptual Designs
- Talent Files
- Scene Selections with Motion Images
Widescreen anamorphic format
Other Formats: VHS,
VHS
subtitled in Spanish
The
Patriot (Superbit Deluxe Collection) (2000)
-- Mel Gibson; DVD Keep Case
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