The Patriot is a 2000 American epic historical war film directed by Roland Emmerich and written by Robert Rodat. The film stars Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs, Chris Cooper, and Tom Wilkinson. Set in Berkeley County, South Carolina, it follows Benjamin Martin (Gibson), an American colonist who is opposed to going to war with Great Britain but, along with his son Gabriel (Ledger), gets swept into the American Revolutionary War when his home life is disrupted, and one of his sons is murdered by a cruel British officer (Isaacs).
The film had its world premiere in Century City on June 27, 2000, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 30, 2000, by Sony Pictures Releasing. It received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics and grossed $215 million against a $110 million budget, and was nominated for three Academy Awards including Best Cinematography and Best Original Score.
The Patriot generated significant controversy due to its historical inaccuracies, in particular its fictionalized portrayal of British figures and atrocities. The portrayal of the protagonist, a composite character based on several persons including Francis Marion, was also criticized for whitewashing the real figures' own wartime conduct.
Plot
In 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, Benjamin Martin, a French and Indian War veteran and a widower with seven children, is called to Charles Town (Charleston, South Carolina) to vote in the South Carolina General Assembly on a levy supporting the Continental Army. Benjamin abstains, fearing war against Great Britain and not wanting to force others to fight when he himself would not. Still, the vote passes, and Benjamin's oldest son, Gabriel, joins the Continental Army against his father's wishes.
Four years later, in 1780, Charlestown was beseiged by the British Army, and a wounded Gabriel returns home carrying rebel dispatches. The Martins care for wounded British and American soldiers before British dragoons arrive, led by the ruthless Colonel William Tavington. Tavington press gangs the Martins' African-American former slaves into the army and arrests Gabriel as a spy. Gabriel's brother Thomas tries to free him, but Tavington kills Thomas, then orders the Martins' house burned and all the wounded Americans executed. After the British leave, Benjamin and two of his younger sons ambush the British convoy transporting Gabriel. They succeed in killing all the soldiers and rescuing Gabriel, but Benjamin's brutality frightens his sons.
Gabriel rejoins the Continentals, and Benjamin soon follows, leaving the younger children in the care of his sister-in-law, Charlotte. Benjamin meets his former commanding officer, Colonel Harry Burwell, who appoints him as colonel to raise a militia unit and places Gabriel under his father's command. Benjamin is tasked with weakening Lord Cornwallis' regiments through guerrilla warfare. French Major Jean Villeneuve helps train the militia and promises more French aid. Gabriel asks his father why Villeneuve and other militia often mention Fort Wilderness, and Benjamin tells him that while fighting in the British Army, Benjamin and his men discovered atrocities against British colonists by French soldiers in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Enraged, they caught up with the retreating French at Fort Wilderness and mercilessly slaughtered all but two of them. The two survivors had to present the severed heads of their comrades to the Cherokee, which convinced the tribe to betray the French. Though regarded as a hero, Benjamin never forgave himself.
Benjamin's militia ambushes many British patrols and supply caravans, including some of Cornwallis' personal effects and his two Great Danes, and burns bridges and ferries that Cornwallis needs. After Benjamin uses a ruse de guerre to free his captured men, Cornwallis allows Tavington to do everything possible to arrest him.
With the aid of Wilkins, a local Loyalist, Tavington has several militiamen's homes burned and their families executed. Benjamin's family flees Charlotte's plantation to live in a Gullah settlement with formerly enslaved residents. There, Gabriel marries his betrothed, Anne. Tavington's brigade raids Anne's town and assembles everyone in the church, including Anne; knowing that they are secretly aiding the militia, he demands the location of their camp. Despite one townsperson giving it away, Tavington burns the church, killing everyone inside. Upon discovering the tragedy, Gabriel and several other soldiers attack Tavington's encampment, where Tavington is slightly wounded by Gabriel but kills him before fleeing. Benjamin contemplates resignation, but after seeing the American flag Gabriel repaired, he is reminded of his son's patriotic dedication and decides to rejoin the others.
Benjamin devises a battlefield tactic that uses Cornwallis' pride against him. Benjamin's militia joins the Continental Army regiment and confronts Cornwallis' troops in a climactic battle. Benjamin and Tavington engage in personal combat. Tavington wounds Benjamin and prepares to deliver the coup de grâce, but Benjamin dodges the attack and impales Tavington, killing him. The battle becomes a Continental victory, and Cornwallis retreats.
Cornwallis is besieged at Yorktown, where his subordinate surrenders to the American and French forces. Afterwards, Benjamin returns to his family and discovers that his former militia is rebuilding his homestead in honor of Gabriel's dream of building a new world.
Cast
Production Script Screenwriter Robert Rodat wrote seventeen drafts of the script before there was an acceptable one. In an early version, Anne is pregnant with Gabriel's child when she dies in the burning church. Rodat wrote the script with Mel Gibson in mind for Benjamin Martin and gave the character six children to signal that preference to studio executives. After the birth of Gibson's seventh child, the script was changed so that Martin has seven children. Like the character William Wallace, which Gibson had portrayed in Braveheart five years earlier, Martin wants to live in peace until the murder of an innocent family member drives him to seek revenge on the British.
Casting Harrison Ford turned down the lead role of Benjamin Martin because he considered the film "too violent" and that "it boiled the American Revolution down to one guy wanting revenge." Gibson was paid a record salary of $25 million. Jude Law was offered the role of William Tavington, but turned it down, the role eventually went to Jason Isaacs after submitting an audition tape. Joshua Jackson, Elijah Wood, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Brad Renfro were considered to play Gabriel Martin. The producers and director narrowed their choices for the role of Gabriel to Ryan Phillippe and Heath Ledger, with Ledger chosen because Roland Emmerich thought he possessed "exuberant youth."
Filming The film's German director Emmerich said "these were characters I could relate to, and they were engaged in a conflict that had a significant outcome—the creation of the first modern democratic government."
The film was shot entirely on location in South Carolina, including Charleston, Rock Hill—for many of the battle scenes, and Lowrys—for the farm of Benjamin Martin, as well as nearby Fort Lawn. Filming began on September 7, 1999, and ended on January 20, 2000. Other scenes were filmed at Mansfield Plantation, an antebellum rice plantation in Georgetown, Middleton Place in Charleston, South Carolina, at the Cistern Yard on the campus of College of Charleston, and Hightower Hall and Homestead House at Brattonsville, South Carolina, along with the grounds of the Brattonsville Plantation in McConnells, South Carolina. Producer Mark Gordon said the production team "tried their best to be as authentic as possible" because "the backdrop was serious history," giving attention to details in period dress. Producer Dean Devlin and the film's costume designers examined actual Revolutionary War uniforms at the Smithsonian Institution prior to shooting.
Musical score
The musical score for The Patriot was composed and conducted by John Williams and was nominated for an Academy Award. David Arnold, who composed the scores to Emmerich's Stargate, Independence Day, and Godzilla, created a demo for The Patriot that was ultimately rejected. As a result, Arnold never returned to compose for any of Emmerich's subsequent films and was replaced by Harald Kloser and Thomas Wander.
Release Premiere The film had its world premiere in Century City on June 27, 2000, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 30, 2000, by Sony Pictures Releasing.
Home media The Patriot was released on DVD and VHS on October 24, 2000, a Blu-ray release followed on July 3, 2007. The film was later released on 4K UHD Blu-ray on May 22, 2018.
Reception Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes, The Patriot holds an approval rating of 62% based on 138 reviews. The site's critics consensus reads: "The Patriot can be entertaining to watch, but it relies too much on formula and melodrama." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade "A" on an A+ to F scale.
The New York Times critic Elvis Mitchell gave the film a generally negative review, although he praised its casting and called Mel Gibson "an astonishing actor", particularly for his "on-screen comfort and expansiveness". He said the film is a "gruesome hybrid, a mix of sentimentality and brutality". Jamie Malanowski, also writing in The New York Times, said The Patriot "will prove to many a satisfying way to spend a summer evening. It's got big battles and wrenching hand-to-hand combat, a courageous but conflicted hero and a dastardly and totally guilt-free villain, thrills, tenderness, sorrow, rage and a little bit of kissing". In his review of the film, the critic Roger Ebert wrote, "I enjoyed the strength and conviction of Gibson's performance, the sweep of the battle scenes, and the absurdity of the British caricatures. None of it has much to do with the historical reality of the Revolutionary War, but with such an enormous budget at risk, how could it?"
False reviews controversy A highly positive review was purportedly written by a critic named David Manning, who was credited to The Ridgefield Press, a small Connecticut weekly news publication. During an investigation into Manning's quotes, Newsweek reporter John Horn discovered that the newspaper had never heard of him. The story emerged at around the same time as an announcement that Sony had used employees posing as moviegoers in television commercials to praise the film. All of those occurrences raised questions and controversies about ethics in film promotion practices.
On the June 10, 2001 episode of Le Show, host Harry Shearer conducted an in-studio interview with Manning, whose "review" of the film was positive. The voice of Manning was provided by a computer voice synthesizer.
On August 3, 2005, Sony made an out-of-court settlement and agreed to refund $5 each to dissatisfied customers who saw that and four other films in American theaters as a result of Manning's reviews.
Box office