The Patriot (2000)

Director: Roland Emmerich

Writer: Robert Rodat

Composer: John Williams

Starring: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs, Chris Cooper, Tcheky Karyo, Rene Auberjonois, Lisa Brenner, Tom Wilkinson, Donal Logue, Leon Rippy, Adam Baldwin, Jay Arlen Jones

More info: IMDb

Tagline: What would you do if they destroyed your home, threatened your family. Where would you draw the line?

Plot: Peaceful farmer Benjamin Martin is driven to lead the Colonial Militia during the American Revolution when a sadistic British officer murders his son.

My rating: 8.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

I love this flick.  The cast is great, the story is fun and it's rare to see a film about the Revolutionary War.  Gibson is perfectly cast.  It was the first picture I saw with Jason Isaacs and boy did he make in impression!  He plays a great villain.   The first time I saw this I was a little bothered by everything surrounding the wedding.  It felt like there was too much of a break from the war.  While I understood why we were there (to set up something nasty later on), it felt like the picture was slowing down a little too much.  I've since come to accept it.  The action scenes are a lot of fun and I really dig the cannonball kills.  Nice.  Williams's score is a great addition.  I've had the extended cut Blu-ray for years and I finally got to, the first time seeing this cut.  It's only ten minutes longer than the theatrical cut (making it five minutes shy of three hours).  I noticed a few little moments that were added.  What I recognized as new didn't add to the story so much as it added to the characters and one even gave Tavington (Isaacs) some humanity which was welcome.  And that's one thing that I like about this picture how well they balance the drama and humor.  It's not like you need a lot of extras but the Columbia Blu-ray comes with a couple of behind the scenes featuretts and possible more but stupid Microsoft makes it tough to get a good Blu experience on a desktop so all I get out of a Blu is the movie.  I watched this on the big screen in the living room so don't get all upitty thinking I watched this picture from my computer.