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The Story
Retired Captain Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) is a war hero from the French and Indian war. Though he made himself a hero in the battle of Fort Wilderness by doing the unspeakable, he feels shame as expressed in his words in the opening credits: "I have long feared... that my sins would return to visit me. And the cost is more than I can bear."
The story begins years later at Martin's South Carolina home at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. He is raising seven children by himself since he lost his wife years before. Called to attend a colony meeting, he refuses to fight in a war that he would threaten his family's safety. When asked about his principles, he replies "I'm a parent. I haven't got the luxury of principles." However, when South Carolina votes in favor of joining the other colonies in the war against the British, his oldest son Gabriel (Heath Ledger) enlists in the Continental army, even though Martin tries to stop his son from doing so.
Two years later, the battles continue to rage on and one is literally fought in front of his home. While taking care of the wounded soldiers from both sides of the conflict, a cruel British Colonel flips Martin's world upside-down with his cold, brutal actions. After the tragic incidence at his home. Martin realizes that the only way to protect his family is to join the war effort to win America's freedom. He leads a small team of Militia, comprised of his fellow farmer neighbors and attempts to hold the British off until the French soldier comes to our aid.
The battle scenes are well orchestrated and realistically portrayed, though it got pretty gory at times. Though the movie is 2 hours and 45 minutes long, its gripping and emotionally charged plot makes the viewing experience very enjoyable. Mel Gibson delivers another awesome performance, as good as his performance in
Braveheart. Heath Ledger, playing the idealistic patriot's son, gave an excellent performance.
The Extras
Though The Patriot Superbit
Deluxe DVD omits the audio commentary by director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean
Devlin that was included in the Special
Edition original release, it does contain a fair amount of bonus
material on its second disc. Carried over from the previous Special
Edition release are: a visual effects featurette, "The Art of War" featurette, "The True Patriots" featurette, and photo
galleries. New to this Superbit Deluxe edition are: seven deleted
scenes with optional commentary and subtitles, conceptual art-to-film
comparisons of 13 scenes, two theatrical trailers, and talent files.
The visual effects featurette shows "how a patriot loses his head" and "recruiting a digital army" with audio commentary by Stuart Robertson, visual effects supervisor. Though the visual effects are intriguing, this featurette does not show how these visual effects scenes were actually created. It would have been interesting had they gotten into the details.
The nine-minute featurette "The Art of War" is a historically accurate and insightful look at the battlefield tactics during the American Revolutionary War, as well as re-counts of the challenges in filming the battle scenes. The ten-minute featurette "The True Patriots" discusses the historical research that went into making the "The Patriot" historically accurate. The Smithsonian Institute played a crucial role in accurately re-creating the period through detailed costume design, along with the musket and helmet. It also explains the real-world people that comprises the various principal characters and personalities in the movie.
The photo gallery shows a number of still photos during the making of the feature film.
Video & Audio
As I expected, the image quality of this anamorphic
widescreen Superbit DVD is
excellent, paying tribute to the beautiful cinematography of on-location scenes around South Carolina. The colors are accurate and
saturated, while shadow detail is superb. The higher bit rate video
transfer that is hallmark of all Superbit releases makes the color a little
more vibrant and the picture quality more finely detailed in certain
scenes. But the differences are generally subtle, and the result
depends a lot on the quality of your home theater system.
What is most noticeable in this Superbit transfer is the
quality of the DTS 5.1 surround soundtrack.
In DTS, the surround sound channels seem better defined with improved resolution and detail.
One scene where this is evident is Chapter 4, when Gabriel comes home.
The cannon blasts in the surround sound channels seem better resolved and
more realistic. The bass frequencies resonate deep in the surround
channels if you have full-range loudspeakers. The Dolby
Digital 5.1 soundtrack is good, but it does not begin to match the DTS
soundtrack's level of visceral impact and fine detail, as reproduced by a
high performance home theater system.
Conclusion
The Patriot is a gripping, emotionally charged drama about the sacrifices made by our patriots to win the freedom that each of us enjoys today. The story is very emotionally charged and you can't help but be engaged in this movie. I highly recommended this
Superbit Deluxe DVD for fans of epic dramas. This is a DVD that is a worthy addition for your
collection.
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United We Stand
