The Patriot
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) | Release Date: June 28, 2000 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Rolling StonePeter Travers
A thunderous spectacle.
90
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
This bloody celebration finally gives the American Revolution the epic it deserves. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
Doesn't try too hard to be anything other than a vicarious experience that makes you crave the satisfaction you know you'll get when the hero gets his revenge. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Schickel
It has everything you want in an epic: sweep, scope, wild reversals of fortune and plenty of bold, basic emotions. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
Sentimental, overbearing, flag-waving--and a crowd-pleaser. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerDesmond Ryan
If Emmerich had any sense, he would have ceded the direction of the battle scenes to his star. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Has a flag-waving dumbness at its core. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It is rousing and entertaining, and you get your money's worth. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
It's big, exciting, ambitious, and it makes you cry in all the right places. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
What might have been a treat for history buffs and a refresher course for the rest of us turns into just another occasion to watch Gibson shoot guns, swing tomahawks, and wreak other kinds of havoc on enemies we've been primed to hate. Read full review
75
USA TodayMike Clark
Emmerich might have had a masterpiece, but he'll have to settle for what comes close to being a must-see movie today. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeJay Carr
It's often corny, but it's never boring, and it'll sweep you up in its momentum if you give it a chance. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The best movie I've seen about the Revolutionary War. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
It's depressing that this first movie in years to dramatize the American Revolution has so little to do with the politics of secession and so much to do with pop-culture themes of vigilantism. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Mostly, the movie is riveting, well-done fare -- the stuff of Hollywood epic adventure. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Has some emotional pull and isn't stuffy and dull. Read full review
70
TNT RoughCutJ. Rentilly
Only so much (pop)cornball tubthumping, a sweeping, occasionally stirring, always gorgeous bit of action-figure history. Read full review
70
NewsweekDavid Ansen
There's no denying that Emmerich's film, though a good half hour too long, keeps us watching. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
"We, the people" have never been big fans of movies about the American Revolutionary War. The Patriot, however, appears to be the movie that will break that historical jinx. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
It's a death-wish revenge thriller posing as a lavishly pastoral historical epic. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Far from the smart historical epic some might have expected, is just another feisty summer shoot-'em-up. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
As a whole, though, the movie is much less magnetic or believable than its star. Read full review
63
New York PostJonathan Foreman
While the film contains some terrific, realistically bloody battle scenes, it has a distinctly Germanic feel, both in its epic heaviness and in the peculiar way it revises the history of the American Revolution. Read full review
60
Film.comRobert Horton
Gibson's performance is robbed of his customary humor, and he flounders around in search of the character's core. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Patriot reflects on nothing, except perhaps that the American Revolution was a golden opportunity for Mel Gibson to go postal. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Shamelessly stirring, brandishing Mr. Gibson's anguished masculinity like a musket. It may be effective, but you leave the theater feeling used. Read full review
50
Film.comSean Means
Trots out more flag-waving wartime cliches than any movie since John Wayne's "The Alamo." Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Does benefit from Gibson's charisma...Whether it is quite good enough is another question. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
A movie of cornball sentiment, humorously anachronistic dialogue, and expensive Colonial Williamsburg sets. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The film is long, empty and bogus. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianBob Thomas
Seems likely to stir rebuttal from historians, especially those on the other side of the pond. Read full review
50
San Francisco ExaminerWesley Morris
The Patriot makes the Revolutionary War look like super-produced studio footage of the L.A. riots. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Undeniably handsome..., but no cliché is left unturned, right down to the spray of toy soldiers falling from the hand of a dead child. Everything old isn't new again. Read full review
44
Mr. ShowbizMichael Atkinson
Whatever extraordinary ingredients are necessary to fashion a 1776 home run, this movie doesn't have them. Read full review
38
Baltimore SunAnn Hornaday
Overblown sanctimony and sentimentalism as corny as the Fourth of July. Read full review
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