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Patriot, The
Sony Pictures Entertainment

Patriot, The reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 63 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
6.6 out of 10
based on 35 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 18 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for strong war violence

Starring Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs, Chris Cooper, Tom Wilkinson, and Donal Logue

In this story of the American Revolution, Gibson plays a pacifist turned warrior. Gibson joins his son (Ledger) in a bitter and personal battle for independence after experiencing the iron fist of a cold-blooded British officer.


GENRE(S): War  
WRITTEN BY: Robert Rodat  
DIRECTED BY: Roland Emmerich  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: October 24, 2000 
Video: October 24, 2000 
Theatrical: June 28, 2000 
RUNNING TIME: 164 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

Received three 2001 Oscar nominations, including Best Cinematography.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

90
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
This bloody celebration finally gives the American Revolution the epic it deserves.
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90
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
A thunderous spectacle.
80
Time Richard Schickel
It has everything you want in an epic: sweep, scope, wild reversals of fortune and plenty of bold, basic emotions.
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80
Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson
Sentimental, overbearing, flag-waving--and a crowd-pleaser.
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80
Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
Doesn't try too hard to be anything other than a vicarious experience that makes you crave the satisfaction you know you'll get when the hero gets his revenge.
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75
Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan
If Emmerich had any sense, he would have ceded the direction of the battle scenes to his star.
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75
USA Today Mike Clark
Emmerich might have had a masterpiece, but he'll have to settle for what comes close to being a must-see movie today.
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75
Boston Globe Jay Carr
It's often corny, but it's never boring, and it'll sweep you up in its momentum if you give it a chance.
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75
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The best movie I've seen about the Revolutionary War.
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75
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It is rousing and entertaining, and you get your money's worth.
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75
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
It's big, exciting, ambitious, and it makes you cry in all the right places.
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75
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
What might have been a treat for history buffs and a refresher course for the rest of us turns into just another occasion to watch Gibson shoot guns, swing tomahawks, and wreak other kinds of havoc on enemies we've been primed to hate.
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75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Has a flag-waving dumbness at its core.
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70
Newsweek David Ansen
There's no denying that Emmerich's film, though a good half hour too long, keeps us watching.
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70
Variety Todd McCarthy
Has some emotional pull and isn't stuffy and dull.
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70
TNT RoughCut J. Rentilly
Only so much (pop)cornball tubthumping, a sweeping, occasionally stirring, always gorgeous bit of action-figure history.
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70
Washington Post Desson Thomson
Mostly, the movie is riveting, well-done fare -- the stuff of Hollywood epic adventure.
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70
Slate David Edelstein
It's depressing that this first movie in years to dramatize the American Revolution has so little to do with the politics of secession and so much to do with pop-culture themes of vigilantism.
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67
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
"We, the people" have never been big fans of movies about the American Revolutionary War. The Patriot, however, appears to be the movie that will break that historical jinx.
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67
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
It's a death-wish revenge thriller posing as a lavishly pastoral historical epic.
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63
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
As a whole, though, the movie is much less magnetic or believable than its star.
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63
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Far from the smart historical epic some might have expected, is just another feisty summer shoot-'em-up.
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63
New York Post Jonathan Foreman
While the film contains some terrific, realistically bloody battle scenes, it has a distinctly Germanic feel, both in its epic heaviness and in the peculiar way it revises the history of the American Revolution.
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60
Film.com Robert Horton
Gibson's performance is robbed of his customary humor, and he flounders around in search of the character's core.
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60
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Patriot reflects on nothing, except perhaps that the American Revolution was a golden opportunity for Mel Gibson to go postal.
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60
The New York Times A.O. Scott
Shamelessly stirring, brandishing Mr. Gibson's anguished masculinity like a musket. It may be effective, but you leave the theater feeling used.
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50
Portland Oregonian Bob Thomas
Seems likely to stir rebuttal from historians, especially those on the other side of the pond.
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50
San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
The Patriot makes the Revolutionary War look like super-produced studio footage of the L.A. riots.
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50
Village Voice J. Hoberman
A movie of cornball sentiment, humorously anachronistic dialogue, and expensive Colonial Williamsburg sets.
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50
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The film is long, empty and bogus.
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50
Film.com Sean Means
Trots out more flag-waving wartime cliches than any movie since John Wayne's "The Alamo."
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50
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Does benefit from Gibson's charisma...Whether it is quite good enough is another question.
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50
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Undeniably handsome..., but no cliché is left unturned, right down to the spray of toy soldiers falling from the hand of a dead child. Everything old isn't new again.
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44
Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson
Whatever extraordinary ingredients are necessary to fashion a 1776 home run, this movie doesn't have them.
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38
Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday
Overblown sanctimony and sentimentalism as corny as the Fourth of July.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 6.6 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Cat gave it a1:
Terrible movie...the best part was the costumes. Virtually plotless, blatantly pandering, and more like the real Mel Gibson than the real American Revolution, shall we say.

Jon A gave it a1:
The dialog is so embarressingly corny that my father and i laughed at scenes that were suppose to be heartbreaking. some of the action scenes were alright looking but we've seen it all before, truly awful.

Paul H gave it a0:
I really really hated this movie, that's the only thing i can even think to say about it.

Aaron N. gave it a2:
Embarrasingly bad, wildly ahistorical look at the Revolution. Utterly predictable plot, absurdly P.C. characters (Mel's character doesn't actually own slaves, they "just work for him"), and the less said about the "Club Med" scenes the better. A complete disaster.

[Anonymous] gave it an8:
Stong and sometimes charming. If you like violence, Gibson delivers is quite well when he chops a British officer liek a butcher.

tyler gave it a10:
It was Great! Is the only way to discribe a movie as good as this!!!

George W. gave it a 10:
I only saw the edited TV version but it was stil awsome!!! i mean, whats cooler than one guy kill like ten brits in 60 sec's? nothing.

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