Review of The Patriot (2000) by Kyle20Ellis — 28 Mar 2022

I'll start with the good things, the scenery, costumes and cinematography are fabulous, the battle sequences are very well staged and the score is wonderful. However, everything else didn't work for me.

The film does suffer from a number of things(similar problems I had with Braveheart actually), and the historical inaccuracy is pretty much the least of its problems. This film does distort history, and badly, but it also suffers from too many subplots that prove superfluous in some cases, trite dialogue that make little impact and a truly pantomimic villain played by the usually excellent Jason Isaacs.

The direction is nothing special, the pacing is too slow and the film is 10 minutes too long. The acting is lacking too, Mel Gibson tries hard with a very one-dimensional and unlikeable character but he struggles.

In fact, only Heath Ledger gives a glimmer of hope and that is because he is the only character you feel sympathy for. Overall, I tried to like it, but too many flaws brought it down.