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The Patriot - Superbit Deluxe Edition

Mel Gibson returns to his "Braveheart" roots as a colonial father in the American Revolution epic "The Patriot," which aims at crowd-pleasing status and, for the most part, gets there. No doubt people are falling all over themselves with laughter at the thought of producer Dean Devlin and director Roland Emmerich, the creators of "Independence Day" and "Godzilla," creating a movie based on American history; I, too, had my reservations about its accuracy. ***

The central story is a fictionalized centerpiece for the emotional charge of the historical events of the American Revolution, taking us into the life of Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson), who lives in South Carolina with his three sons and young daughter. His eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), anxious to join the American soldiers, defies his father's wishes and goes off to battle. When the fighting hits close to home, Martin's home is destroyed, one of his sons murdered, and his heart is hardened with revenge. ***

The revenge tactic has been done before, of course, yet it still has a certain amount of zeal to it when applied here. As Martin begins rallying a rag-tag battalion to rally against the British, he comes closer to his target, Colonel Tavington (Jason Isaacs), the man responsible for his son's death. Meanwhile, the movie branches off into separate storylines, including a love angle between Gabriel and young Anne Howard (Lisa Brenner), and another between Martin and Charlotte Selton (Joely Richardson), his former wife's sister. ***

There are those that will grumble about the inclusion of such plotlines, and they have every reason to. These stories tend to take our attention from the nonfictional aspects of the movie, but what they succeed in doing in providing a small core of emotion that's less than what you would find in "Braveheart," for example, but still suffices as passable entertainment. ***

This is due in major part to the movie's cast, especially Gibson, who reverts to his performance as William Wallace and creates another brutally gratifying character in Benjamin Martin. Ledger plays his son Gabriel with all the teenage defiance and loyalty that is needed to make the father/son angle work, while also sharing a warm chemistry with Brenner. Isaacs steals the show, however, matching Gibson's heroic stature with a performance that bleeds of snide superiority. ***

The action scenes that make up most of the historical content of "The Patriot" are rousing and patriotic, and one is able to forgive the film's lack of accuracy and attention to true events. Such sequences evoke the horrors of war with chilling potency, while also portraying the effects of war on soldiers civilians alike. The sequence of events will create a wave of cynicism among historians, but this is not a movie concerned with correctness. ***

As a history lesson, this is a mere Weekly Reader lesson on the Revolutionary War, with a contrived fictional plot to bring home the reality of our past. As pure movie magic, "The Patriot" is a booming success, hitting us with stunning action setpieces and perfect acting, human drama and serviceable emotion that works in more ways than expected. It's no "Saving Private Ryan," but it gets the job done.

Making a name for itself in the DVD industry, Superbit has had its ups and downs. "The Patriot" is a definite up, however, featuring sound quality that will have your system booming and shaking. The music is well-recorded, wrapping elegantly into the surrounds and front channels, while never overpowering dialogue or sound effects. Deep bass is especially powerful during battle sequences, and each cannonball can literally be felt. The images feature warm, balanced colors, natural fleshtones, and clarity that surpasses the previous release.

As with the Superbit Deluxe release of "Hollow Man," "The Patriot" features two discs, one for the Superbit edition of the movie, the other for the special features from the previous release. The only supplement that has been lost in the transfer is the audio commentary, left out to make room for the enhanced soundtracks on the movie disc. The featurette "The Art of War" goes behind the technical aspects of the battle scenes, revealing the choreography, weapons training, and small details that went into getting the authenticity just right. "The True Patriots" is the standard all-encompassing featurette, also discussing the lengths the moviemakers went to to capture the time and place without flaw. The visual effects of various sequences are broken down into plates in the interactive section, with commentary by the filmmakers, and the concept art to film comparisons show what was conceived in contrast to what made it to the movie. The deleted scenes are interesting to watch, and the commentary provided with them is equally engaging.