Yeah, I thought it was good - AND I'm a Brit

Rating: 7/10 (6 October 2016)

Mel Gibson's second stab at fighting the British follows on the success of BRAVEHEART for a historical epic that feels both similar and different to the Scots blockbuster. Once again, Gibson plays a family man who has no interest in war and fighting who faces personal loss and turns into a vengeance-fuelled fighter determined to make the enemy pay for their actions. THE PATRIOT doesn't have the scope, drive or excellent scenery of BRAVEHEART, but it is still a very well made movie. Despite the three hour running time the story is never less than engaging and the focus on an individual family (with the War of Independence as the background) makes it more than watchable.
I watched this on my Blu-ray player and was struck by the quality of the visuals and the excellent scope of the battle sequences. While not particularly gory, the bouts seem brutal and realistic, with the kind of money behind them to make them feel authentic (something the low-budget SHARPE adventures that ITV made could never achieve). Still, this isn't really an action or war film per se, and for the most part we stick with Gibson and either his family members or his men (there's a Robin Hood feel to the militia as they hide out in the swamps from the enemy).
One of the things that makes it so watchable is Gibson himself, reaching new levels of emotion as the guy struggling with overwhelming loss and his desire for revenge. He's backed up by a stalwart cast, with fine turns from Chris Cooper, Joely Richardson, Tcheky Karyo, and Rene Auberjonois as his allies and Tom Wilkinson and Jason Isaacs as the dastardly British. To be, the script isn't perfect, and historical accuracy is low on the list of priorities (the church burning never happened – at least in this war – while Benjamin Martin was far from the clean-cut good guy he's made out to be here). Nevertheless this is director Roland Emmerich's most mature and accomplished film, an old-fashioned war epic full of entertainment.