Publication Date: 06-30-2025

The Patriot (2000) review

Dir. Roland Emmerich

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

This review was originally written in March 2018, but never published to my original ProBoards website nor my official website until now.

It was country singer Aaron Tippin who said “you’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything.” It was director Roland Emmerich and writer Robert Rodat who turned that motto into The Patriot, a film that encapsulates the idea of rising to the occasion even if that occasion doesn’t fit your moral principles.

The Patriot follows Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson), a French and Indian War veteran trying to remain an uninvolved moderate as the Revolutionary War looms. He has seven children, his eldest named Gabriel (Heath Ledger), who saw his father’s immeasurable bravery culminate in a selfless duty that benefited the greater good, one of the many reasons he commits to joining the Continental Army. Martin recalls the monster he became during the French and Indian Wars and attempts to keep his distance even after sitting amongst angry citizens in a meeting with King George. The hunger for purpose and revenge is reawakening inside of Martin a group of British soldiers, led by Col. William Tavington (Jason Isaacs), arrest Gabriel, shoot one of his youngest songs, and send his home up in a fireball.

Martin is distraught, down but not out. He swiftly arms his surviving sons before catching up to the brigade that took Gabriel away, savagely killing all of the soldiers and freeing him from meeting his fate. It’s the death of his son and the sudden realization of his and his family’s vulnerability that leads to Martin’s warrior-side emerging once again. He aligns with his former commanding officer (Chris Cooper) and goes face-to-face with General Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson) in the process of building a militia of scrappy fighters keen on taking their freedoms from the hands of their oppressors. There are not many characters beyond Martin and Cornwallis. Jay Arlen Jones plays a slave in a role one could see manifesting into a

The Patriot is an emotionally broad and relentlessly charged epic, and Gibson serves as not only the main focus of the story, but the pillar of the film. Rodat’s fervently sentimental script works well because Gibson brings the necessary gravitas to the role. Without his strong and sturdy characterization, and the fact that we never lose sight on Martin’s actions, The Patriot would’ve fumbled in search of a focus and a competent character to which to attach its script. Gibson is a rock, and he supports the film especially when Emmerich and Rodat become too willing to capitalize on the blockbuster tendencies of this story.

The “blockbuster tendencies” in question is the plain fact that The Patriot doesn’t try to disguise the fact that it’s a movie that illustrates its characters in black and white. Martin, other members of the militia, and the Contentment Army are abjectly good, well-meaning men with the simple goal of liberty on their minds. The British are decorated but morally bankrupt whose fancy suits and orderly operations are no match for a sweaty, self-motivated group of rugged commoners. In many ways, it’s the story many Americans want to believe about the origin of their country, or the one they’ve framed themselves in place of high school history electives. It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that Emmerich (one of America’s greatest “disaster” filmmakers, who directed Independence Day before The Patriot and would go on to direct The Day After Tomorrow and 2012) didn’t make a historical biopic that is committed to accuracy in any particular way. Hollywood films do not have an obligation to be factually correct. But The Patriot is justifiably problematic in how uncritical it is of its simplistic view of the opposing sides in the film.

Even the film’s title is a bit questionable, as the concept of “patriotism” or nationalistic pride curiously seems to be replaced with concepts of parental guidance and being family-centered. Ideology doesn’t motivate Martin to fight, and even if the atrocities committed by the British fuel his fire to rebel, it’s muted to the point where it’s cloaked by Martin’s protectiveness over his family. The film shows Martin fighting for something bigger this time around, as opposed to when he fought in the French and Indian Wars, when he presumably didn’t have a family to consider, but that something bigger isn’t the ideas woven into the fabric of America that we might expect.

Despite these questionable elements, The Patriot and its lofty runtime is largely rewarding because the film never tries to be more than what it is in terms of being an emotionally charged epic. Its battle sequences are expertly choreographed, captured with a pristine eye for detail and combat thanks to veteran cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, while John Williams’ score exercises some restraint in letting some of the more climactic sequences breathe rather than be burdened by orchestration. The entire spectacle looks and feels like a lighter version of Braveheart, one that’s not as awe-inspiring nor as well-written as the other Gibson-led war film, but one that follows in its footsteps to make a similar picture that’s at least 70% as good.

The Patriot is as idealistic in its portrayal of good and evil as Martin initially is when he’s trying to go about a simple existence alongside his extended family. It loves the warrior spirit and embraces it to the extent that it can remain functional in its rejection of history and lend itself to being (expensive) entertainment. With that being said, the film would be much harder to praise if Gibson doesn’t give the material more heft than its script has, and if our desire for technically impressive and emotionally satisfying stories triumphed our (and Hollywood’s) desire to negate history. Maybe if we’re somewhat aware of our origins, or aware of it in a dramatized film, we won’t repeat all of it.

Starring: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Jason Isaacs, Chris Cooper, Tom Wilkinson, Joely Richardson, Jay Arlen Jones, Logan Lerman, and Adam Baldwin. Directed by: Roland Emmerich.