FunWiki: ThePatriot

The Patriot

A slightly controversial work of historical FICTION (not documentary, as apparently many critics expected) about a plantation owner who leads a group of local men to become effective guerrilla fighters in the militia. Very dramatic and well-acted with some really good fight and battle scenes (not on par with Saving Private Ryan, though). The villain gives an especially good preformance, being both cruel and professional at the same time. People who are Revisionists (basically, bitter about America) seem not to like this movie, but maybe that's just the internet trolls and Spike Lee. Go figure.

AlexBobbs thought it was well-done and dramatic, but too long. The rather trite and cliche romantic subplots should have been axed from the script entirely to shorten the length by 10-15 minutes. The rest was good, though.

KimEspinoza had the pleasure of seeing this movie with the Zhen brothers. She thinks that the movie was not too bad, but there was a particularly bloody scene which was overdone. There were some cute people in it, which made it enjoyable enough to watch. For the most part it was interesting, but it sometimes made me a little uncomfortable with the whole killing is the right thing to do business. At least it questioned that a wee bit. I would recommend it if you don't know what to see and nothing else is being raved about.

JoeFrosh just saw the last part, but thought that it tried to be too dramatic, with the slow motion and the serious music and everyone trying to say profound things. It was interesting to hear some British reviewer bash it.

CurtisVinson thought the movie was fairly interesting and not trite enough to make me wince more frequently than every half-hour or so. I couldn't accurately predict who would die from the very beginning of the movie, a pleasant suprise. The acting was decent, though it varied in quality. The battles were not glaringly wrong from a historical perspective and were appropriately bloody and brutal, though the firearms were susiciously accurate for the period, death wasn't quite random enough, and there wasn't any disease. I agree with AlexBobbs that the movie was too long and in definite need of more cutting. I haven't seen Braveheart, the movie to which this is often compared, but I've heard it was a better movie.

NateCappallo enjoyed the movie. It was exciting and it seemed like I couldn't wait to see Mel Gibson outwitting those evil British some more. The battle scenes and other similar scenes were very enjoyable, but there wasn't an overwhelming amount of depth in the movie. A good movie, but not one for the best ever list.

CategoryMovie