Product Details

• Actors: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs, Chris Cooper
• Directors: Roland Emmerich
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: April 3, 2001
• Run Time: 165 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (890 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004XPQ6
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #354 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #1 in	Video > Action & Adventure > Action Stars > Mel Gibson
  #4 in	Video > Drama > Military & War
  #17 in	Video > Military & War

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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

164 of 175 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Now with the cherry on top!!!!, May 12, 2006

By	Frankland S. Strickland (Memphis, Tennessee) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Patriot (Extended Cut) (DVD)

My review for the original version of "The Patriot" can be found under its respective title. This review is merely for those who may already own the movie and are wondering if it's worth buying a second time around for an additional 10 minutes of footage. For those who have never bought this title, then I can say emphatically to choose this version. For those who already own it . . . well . . . I suppose you'll need to read on and decide.

First of all (thank goodness), the extra 10 minutes of footage are not merely tacked on as "Deleted Scenes" at the end of the movie. In fact, it would be nearly impossible to do so since some of the extra footage is not found in separate scenes, but rather additional footage of already established scenes. In these situations, the extra footage may be as long as an additional minute or as little as a few seconds. How do I know? Well, for one, I'm a high school history teacher and show it every year during our unit on the Revolutionary War. Given that I teach five classes a day of the same subject, I'd say I've gotten quite familiar with the movie.

Now, one particular extension of a scene is quite riveting in that Benjamin Martin's youngest children get their first taste of the horrors of war prior to the death of Thomas. This comes just before the evening when Gabriel stumbles home after being wounded in a nearby battle. Something (the viewer is unaware) catches the attention of the Martin children and they stride over to a nearby creek/river to investigate. What they discover are the bodies of several soldiers floating downstream. Martin then comes over and ushers the children back into the house.

Another noteworthy scene extension is found in the "ambush" scene following the death of Thomas--you know, the famous "aim small, miss small" scene. Well, in the original edited version of the film we soon observe the infamous Tavington interviewing a dying witness of the event in a battlefield tent hospital. It is in this scene that the witness compares who we know as Benjamin Martin to a ghost. The problem is, as far as we knew, there were no survivors. We had to accept at face value that perhaps one must have escaped. In this version of the film we now know the facts! You see, after Martin does his bloody hack job on a would-be escapee, the camera pans in on one particular Redcoat as he lays wounded in a nearby swamp. We then get a peek at what he sees through his one dying eye: an eerie glimpse of Martin flitting through the dim light of the heavily-wooded forest. Then the camera focuses again on the bloodied face of this dying witness. It is not long thereafter that we discover that this poor chap actually survives (he's the one in the hospital tent).

One particular scene left off the original is the burial of Thomas. Although the scene is short, it nevertheless reiterates that Benjamin Martin has a tender, loving side (remember, a few scenes before he was hacking and slashing away at every Redcoat in sight).

Of particular note are the additional scenes involving Cornwallis and Tavington. Here, the viewer witnesses Cornwallis scolding Tavington in the presence of other officers --- the viewer should be delighted to see the arrogant and villainous Tavington being humiliated in front of others. In the scene, Cornwallis sarcastically remarks that Tavington has earned himself the nickname "The Butcher." This scene is important in that it helps establish and underscore the motive Tavington has for eliminating "The Ghost," Benjamin Martin. Further dialogue between the two is found later in the movie as well.

In short, the additional footage is not just added fluff. Indeed, the additional footage adds substance to every scene where it was originally found. Now, if the original version is a perennial favorite of yours, then by all means go out and get it. If, on the other hand, you may only watch it once in a blue moon then you could probably live without it.

27 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Blu-Ray Title, September 25, 2007

By	VFT - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Patriot (Extended Cut) [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

As the dreaded format war continues (Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD) I find myself on the Blu-Ray side of the fence because of my purchase of the PS3. I'll be honest, without having purchased the PS3 I would not have adopted either format and would have been content with standard DVD movies.

But now that I have a Blu-Ray player and a 1080p HDTV, I have been hooked and want more. I have been careful in my selection of Blu-Ray Titles, picking up only movies I have yet to watch or great movies that I want to see in HD.

The Patriot did not disappoint. The colors of the movie jump out of the screen and when you can see the fibers flying off of the British soldiers uniforms into the wind as they wait for battle, you know you are watching a great HiDef movie.

Most of the extended scenes do not add to the story and you will understand why they were cut out in the first place.

I've been disappointed in some of the Blu-ray discs I've purchased in the past month, especially when my purchases are the second or third time I will have bought that movie. (VHS, DVD, DVD SE/CE/DC)

But I must say that The Patriot is well worth seeing on Blu-Ray.

31 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a masterpiece of fiction..., September 25, 2000

By	Adrian A. Shelton (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Patriot (Special Edition) (DVD)

Okay, I don't know why all the negative criticism about this movie. First, let me tell folks that this is a movie you should look at without expecting it to totally change your life or your outlook on it. It is not a history lesson; it is based loosely on some facts, but basically it is fiction with the backdrop of the American Revolution, and how great that was, and so is this movie. Mel Gibson was excellent. There were other people in the movie who also played their roles superbly. It is a brutally real story of war in people's own backyards and towns, and focuses on one man's struggle to protect his family from the horrors of the war around them. Whoever says this movie blows has expected way too much from a movie like this, and expects a movie to just dramatically alter their feelings. Don't listen to the criticism; see the movie for yourselves, and then decide based on the storyline itself, not its historical inaccuracies. And all props go out to director Roland Emmerich!