Lexmark3200
07-04-2005, 01:01 AM
In the tradition of this Fourth of July weekend holiday, I decided to take this Roland Emmerich take on the Revolutionary War off the shelf tonight and crank it through the system; this is a great film, suprisingly coming from the guy responsible for Godzilla, Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow.....although in many, many places very historically inaccurate.
I liked the film from the minute I left the theater seeing it that summer it debuted; and it was a very strange time for Emmerich to release a historic drama like this when he was in competition with summer "popcorn" blockbusters that were potentially damaging to ticket sales for his film. But aside from being a bit too long in length to sit through (you really have to be comfortable to sit through this entire film as it speeds up and slows down so many times), this is a cleverly crafted "Braveheart" or "Gladiator" type of "revenge" tale woven between the facts surrounding the Revolutionary War. Mel Gibson portrays Bejamin Martin, an ex soldier of the French and Indian War who refuses to fight again against the British when they march into the United States and try to take over the Carolinas, where Gibson and his family live. His wife is dead, and his sons are all he has; his life is thrown into turmoil once again when his oldest son (Heath Ledger) takes up arms and joins the Continental Army to fight the British against Gibson's wishes. When an evil, sadistic leader of an elite group of British soldiers (played by a creepy Jason Isaacs) shoots one of Gibson's younger sons during a standoff at his house, the rage Gibson has been trying to supress against fighting these British demons is let loose once again, and he goes after each and every one of them responsible for the murder, as well as attempts a rescue after Ledger has been kidnapped by the British to be hung as a spy.
As the film unravels, we witness an obvious showdown between Isaacs and Gibson coming toward the end, as Gibson is absolutely desperate for revenge over the death of his now two sons, after Isaacs kills Ledger in a hand-to-hand gun battle (we think Ledger has killed Isaacs by shooting him, but as he approaches Isaacs' body, Isaacs turns over and stabs and kills Ledger). This battle that Ledger went ahead and declared on Isaacs and his evil men resulted from the British soldiers trapping the townspeople, including his girlfriend, in a church and then burning it down, killing all inside. But Gibson and his militia he has formed to fight Lord Cornwallis (an actual figure from history) arrive too late after the fight between Isaacs and Ledger, and another one of his sons is dead......much like Russell Crowe's character in Gladiator, where his pent up rage against the man responsible for killing his son and wife builds and builds and builds in the character, the same thing happens with Mel Gibson's Benjamin Martin character, as in the final "Battle of Cowpens" scene, we see Isaacs and Gibson going at it with knives, guns, machetes and anything they can get their hands on to kill each other. Like I said, while historically inaccurate in many places, Roland Emmerich's The Patriot is really one of these well-crafted ultimate male revenge fantasies for righting something that was done wrong to someone and his family. Of course, Gibson kills Isaacs in the end, as he swore to do to him in an earlier scene when Isaacs asks him if his "stupid little boy" died after he shot him; the scene in which Gibson kills Isaacs is crafted perfectly, as Gibson is down on his knees, watching the rebels battle the British through his injured eyes, with Isaacs behind him with a sword hissing "Kill me before the war is over, will you? It seems you are not the better man......" and as he swings the sword to cut off Gibson's head, Gibson ducks and sticks a knife right into Isaacs, gets back onto his feet and says to him "You're right......my sons were better men..." as he sticks a short metal weapon into his neck. This smaked of the end of Gladiator, but hey, you gotta love it.......
The battle sequences are pretty accurate, though, with the British marching through the rolling hillsides of the Carolinas, firing their cannons against the American militia and rebel armies --- and we get to see a lot of this through Emmerich's eyes. One can only imagine living in those times --- looking out your front window to see rows of soldiers shooting muskets at each other and cannons blowing people's heads off; which brings me to another aspect of The Patriot --- there is quite a bit of gore in this film, which is documented in a special effects featurette on the disc.....we see a guy's head come completely off from a cannon, we see a guy's complete leg come off from a cannon, we see soldiers being cared for by the inept medical technology back then --- that is, taking knives to cut off dangling body parts. Its pretty greusome, and Emmerich captures this well.
This was a departure for the man who usually does summer popcorn "leave your brain at the door" material like Independence Day and the awful Godzilla; but to me, it is one of Emmerich's best works to date, and is always a favorite to pull off my shelf from my collection. Sometimes the pacing of the film can slow to a crawl when there are no battle scenes going on; there are a couple of sub plots regarding Gibson falling in love with his wife's sister, his son Ledger getting married before he is killed, Gibson's youngest daughter not wanting to talk to him for some reason, a ridiculous background support about a French military man (the bad guy from the first Bad Boys film) helping Gibson's militia, and more which really slows this film down and could have easily been edited out to cut down on the picture's lengthy run time, because with all its praise, it DOES get a bit hard to sit through after awhile. Columbia/TriStar did a good job with this Special Edition DVD, given the fact that there is a SUPERBIT version available of this film with a supposedly better video transfer and a reportedly awesome DTS mix. Lets take a look at what we get on THIS disc:
VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS:
DIGITALLY MASTERED DUAL LAYER ANAMORPHIC 2:35:1 WIDESCREEN TRANSFER
There are moments on this DVD when the lush, brilliant greens of the Carolina hillsides are jumping off the screen and looking beautiful and clean, and then there are times on this print where you can see some problems --- some pixelation and video noise find their way into darker scenes, but then quickly dissapear --- on the whole, a very nice looking transfer from Columbia. I never saw the SUPERBIT version, so I cannot comment on how much better, if at all, the video was improved from this Special Edition version. But what we have here is not bad to look at at all.
AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS:
DIGITALLY MASTERED ENGLISH DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1, FRENCH DOLBY SURROUND, SUBTITLES IN ENGLISH AND FRENCH
This is one of the best examples of what Dolby Digital can do through a surround system ---- and not in the ferrocious way that titles like Bad Boys II rip through a system, but in creating atmosphere, this Dolby 5.1 track is downright awesome. EVERY bullet, cannon blast, scream from a soldier is perfectly rendered in the appopriate channel on this mix; listen carefully during the scene where Gibson and his younger sons are hiding in the forrest after his older son, Ledger, is kidnapped by the British, and they are attempting to free him --- once they begin shooting at the British soldiers and the soldiers shoot back --- look out and take cover because you are going to feel as if you are RIGHT THERE in that scene. Bullets RIP through the surrounds, soldiers yell and scream from the surrounds, too, making you feel as if they are right behind you --- great audio work here. There is also tons of LFE on this track, whenever a cannon is fired, it will rock your walls ---- perhaps not with the might of the Jurassic Park DTS bass track, but there is a definite "heft" to this mix, and bass is always present. The battle sequences, of course, sound best, but there is just so much going on in this mix, it seems like every scene has some kind of surround usage --- we hear birds chirping, horses stampeeding, and voices yelling and talking through the surround channels almost CONSTANTLY on this Dolby mix. VERY nice job by Columbia; if there were any complaints at all from me, it would be that the overall volume power of the track is a tad bit lower than I would have liked, requiring a bit more amplifier power to get going, and also the fact that some VERY VERY mild hints of distortion came through during certain dialogue scenes when the character playing Lord Cornwallis was speaking. But that was it.
Like I said about the video transfer, I dont know if the DTS track on the SUPERBIT version of The Patriot improves this Dolby Digital mix, but it sure would be hard to. From what I have read, video and audio are improved on the SUPERBIT version, but to what extent, I dont know. One day perhaps I will get around to buying the SUPERBIT and selling this version.
This Special Edition (unlike the stripped-down SUPERBIT edition) came packed with:
-Director Roland Emmerich & Producer Dean Devlin Commentary
-Visual Effects Interactive Featurette
-Battlefield Featurette: "The Art of War"
-The True Patriots Featurette
-Conceptual Art to Film Comparisons
-Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary by Filmmakers
-Photo Galleries
-DVD ROM Weblink
-Theatrical Trailers
-Talent Files
-Interactive Menus with Animation
-Production Notes
-Scene Selections with Motion Images
HAPPY 4th EVERYONE!!
I liked the film from the minute I left the theater seeing it that summer it debuted; and it was a very strange time for Emmerich to release a historic drama like this when he was in competition with summer "popcorn" blockbusters that were potentially damaging to ticket sales for his film. But aside from being a bit too long in length to sit through (you really have to be comfortable to sit through this entire film as it speeds up and slows down so many times), this is a cleverly crafted "Braveheart" or "Gladiator" type of "revenge" tale woven between the facts surrounding the Revolutionary War. Mel Gibson portrays Bejamin Martin, an ex soldier of the French and Indian War who refuses to fight again against the British when they march into the United States and try to take over the Carolinas, where Gibson and his family live. His wife is dead, and his sons are all he has; his life is thrown into turmoil once again when his oldest son (Heath Ledger) takes up arms and joins the Continental Army to fight the British against Gibson's wishes. When an evil, sadistic leader of an elite group of British soldiers (played by a creepy Jason Isaacs) shoots one of Gibson's younger sons during a standoff at his house, the rage Gibson has been trying to supress against fighting these British demons is let loose once again, and he goes after each and every one of them responsible for the murder, as well as attempts a rescue after Ledger has been kidnapped by the British to be hung as a spy.
As the film unravels, we witness an obvious showdown between Isaacs and Gibson coming toward the end, as Gibson is absolutely desperate for revenge over the death of his now two sons, after Isaacs kills Ledger in a hand-to-hand gun battle (we think Ledger has killed Isaacs by shooting him, but as he approaches Isaacs' body, Isaacs turns over and stabs and kills Ledger). This battle that Ledger went ahead and declared on Isaacs and his evil men resulted from the British soldiers trapping the townspeople, including his girlfriend, in a church and then burning it down, killing all inside. But Gibson and his militia he has formed to fight Lord Cornwallis (an actual figure from history) arrive too late after the fight between Isaacs and Ledger, and another one of his sons is dead......much like Russell Crowe's character in Gladiator, where his pent up rage against the man responsible for killing his son and wife builds and builds and builds in the character, the same thing happens with Mel Gibson's Benjamin Martin character, as in the final "Battle of Cowpens" scene, we see Isaacs and Gibson going at it with knives, guns, machetes and anything they can get their hands on to kill each other. Like I said, while historically inaccurate in many places, Roland Emmerich's The Patriot is really one of these well-crafted ultimate male revenge fantasies for righting something that was done wrong to someone and his family. Of course, Gibson kills Isaacs in the end, as he swore to do to him in an earlier scene when Isaacs asks him if his "stupid little boy" died after he shot him; the scene in which Gibson kills Isaacs is crafted perfectly, as Gibson is down on his knees, watching the rebels battle the British through his injured eyes, with Isaacs behind him with a sword hissing "Kill me before the war is over, will you? It seems you are not the better man......" and as he swings the sword to cut off Gibson's head, Gibson ducks and sticks a knife right into Isaacs, gets back onto his feet and says to him "You're right......my sons were better men..." as he sticks a short metal weapon into his neck. This smaked of the end of Gladiator, but hey, you gotta love it.......
The battle sequences are pretty accurate, though, with the British marching through the rolling hillsides of the Carolinas, firing their cannons against the American militia and rebel armies --- and we get to see a lot of this through Emmerich's eyes. One can only imagine living in those times --- looking out your front window to see rows of soldiers shooting muskets at each other and cannons blowing people's heads off; which brings me to another aspect of The Patriot --- there is quite a bit of gore in this film, which is documented in a special effects featurette on the disc.....we see a guy's head come completely off from a cannon, we see a guy's complete leg come off from a cannon, we see soldiers being cared for by the inept medical technology back then --- that is, taking knives to cut off dangling body parts. Its pretty greusome, and Emmerich captures this well.
This was a departure for the man who usually does summer popcorn "leave your brain at the door" material like Independence Day and the awful Godzilla; but to me, it is one of Emmerich's best works to date, and is always a favorite to pull off my shelf from my collection. Sometimes the pacing of the film can slow to a crawl when there are no battle scenes going on; there are a couple of sub plots regarding Gibson falling in love with his wife's sister, his son Ledger getting married before he is killed, Gibson's youngest daughter not wanting to talk to him for some reason, a ridiculous background support about a French military man (the bad guy from the first Bad Boys film) helping Gibson's militia, and more which really slows this film down and could have easily been edited out to cut down on the picture's lengthy run time, because with all its praise, it DOES get a bit hard to sit through after awhile. Columbia/TriStar did a good job with this Special Edition DVD, given the fact that there is a SUPERBIT version available of this film with a supposedly better video transfer and a reportedly awesome DTS mix. Lets take a look at what we get on THIS disc:
VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS:
DIGITALLY MASTERED DUAL LAYER ANAMORPHIC 2:35:1 WIDESCREEN TRANSFER
There are moments on this DVD when the lush, brilliant greens of the Carolina hillsides are jumping off the screen and looking beautiful and clean, and then there are times on this print where you can see some problems --- some pixelation and video noise find their way into darker scenes, but then quickly dissapear --- on the whole, a very nice looking transfer from Columbia. I never saw the SUPERBIT version, so I cannot comment on how much better, if at all, the video was improved from this Special Edition version. But what we have here is not bad to look at at all.
AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS:
DIGITALLY MASTERED ENGLISH DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1, FRENCH DOLBY SURROUND, SUBTITLES IN ENGLISH AND FRENCH
This is one of the best examples of what Dolby Digital can do through a surround system ---- and not in the ferrocious way that titles like Bad Boys II rip through a system, but in creating atmosphere, this Dolby 5.1 track is downright awesome. EVERY bullet, cannon blast, scream from a soldier is perfectly rendered in the appopriate channel on this mix; listen carefully during the scene where Gibson and his younger sons are hiding in the forrest after his older son, Ledger, is kidnapped by the British, and they are attempting to free him --- once they begin shooting at the British soldiers and the soldiers shoot back --- look out and take cover because you are going to feel as if you are RIGHT THERE in that scene. Bullets RIP through the surrounds, soldiers yell and scream from the surrounds, too, making you feel as if they are right behind you --- great audio work here. There is also tons of LFE on this track, whenever a cannon is fired, it will rock your walls ---- perhaps not with the might of the Jurassic Park DTS bass track, but there is a definite "heft" to this mix, and bass is always present. The battle sequences, of course, sound best, but there is just so much going on in this mix, it seems like every scene has some kind of surround usage --- we hear birds chirping, horses stampeeding, and voices yelling and talking through the surround channels almost CONSTANTLY on this Dolby mix. VERY nice job by Columbia; if there were any complaints at all from me, it would be that the overall volume power of the track is a tad bit lower than I would have liked, requiring a bit more amplifier power to get going, and also the fact that some VERY VERY mild hints of distortion came through during certain dialogue scenes when the character playing Lord Cornwallis was speaking. But that was it.
Like I said about the video transfer, I dont know if the DTS track on the SUPERBIT version of The Patriot improves this Dolby Digital mix, but it sure would be hard to. From what I have read, video and audio are improved on the SUPERBIT version, but to what extent, I dont know. One day perhaps I will get around to buying the SUPERBIT and selling this version.
This Special Edition (unlike the stripped-down SUPERBIT edition) came packed with:
-Director Roland Emmerich & Producer Dean Devlin Commentary
-Visual Effects Interactive Featurette
-Battlefield Featurette: "The Art of War"
-The True Patriots Featurette
-Conceptual Art to Film Comparisons
-Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary by Filmmakers
-Photo Galleries
-DVD ROM Weblink
-Theatrical Trailers
-Talent Files
-Interactive Menus with Animation
-Production Notes
-Scene Selections with Motion Images
HAPPY 4th EVERYONE!!