Interesting and entertaining for 3 hours!

Rating: 8/10 (11 August 2000)

The really gives audiences what they would want to see for their money. It is a three hour film filled with glorious scenery, action, special effects, Mel Gibson pulling some wonderful faces and a whole cast of likeable rogues. It had echoes of the director's previous film, Independence Day and the writer's previous film, Saving Private Ryan. If you could imagine these two films melted down together and then taken to the lowest common denominator you would have The Patriot. The film is too exaggerated to take the history as more than a backdrop to the human drama. It mixes humour with tragedy, never taking the audience down into the darkness too deeply. Mel Gibson's character has some depth and complexity, but I felt that this was never really explored, which was a pity. It did however, keep me interested for 3 hours, which is quite an accomplishment. I put this down to the very professional technical merits of the film and a series of watchable stars inhabiting interesting characters. Just out of interest, it was one of the few films that actually uses the Dolby Surround Sound to service the plot.