The Patriot (1998)

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Blistering performances.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

There's something painfully new age about Steven Seagal movies when he was at the height of his fame in the mid 1990s . The irony was that he couldn't see the woods for the trees and insisted cut down the forest . People go to watch bad guys get mashed by the good guys in action movies . The problem was that while ON DEADLY GROUND the portrayal of good and bad was too black and white there by allowing the good guy to commit mass murder on the bad guys and getting away with it ( Yes the good guy in that film should have been charged with multiple murder regardless of his motives ) but the problem with THE PATRIOT is that logically there's no real idealogical difference between the villains and the hero in this movie Well first of all THE PATRIOT isn't as bad as most other Seagal movies such as ON DEADLY GROUND and I wouldn't say it's the worst film called THE PATRIOT whose accolade is held by the Mel Gibson star vehicle where he declares war on the goose stepping jackbooted Red Coats during the American Civil War but this is merely damning praise similar to saying a Junta of some banana republic is infinitely better than Adolph Hitler . It's a very strange film that often gives the impression that it wants to be a fast paced bio-thriller similar to say OUTBREAK or perhaps even the original version of THE CRAZIES with a very anti right wing / militarist agenda but any subtle and latent subtext is missing because it's a Steven Seagal movie which means new age methods to present day problems which are self contradictory similar to Prof Richard Dawkins hare brained schemes such as atheists for Jesus and the Brights Movement . In fact you're left with the feeling there's several different films trying to escape from the confusion Now I come to think of it Seagal would be at home with dull and confused movement . The villain of the piece is a militia leader called Floyd Chisolm who wants to see America return to the good old days of the founding fathers when America was built on free values . It's not difficult to believe that Seagal's character ( Apologies if I used the word character because it's Seagal playing Seagal ) agrees with Chisolm and says so towards the end . Before we reach this scene we're constantly shown Seagal riding around on a horse , hob nobbing with Native Americans , flower arranging ( No seriously he does ) and criticising the American bio-weapons division that he used to work for , so much so you wonder why don't Seagal and Chisolm join together and fight global corporate capitalism starting in Montana ? That's because Chisolm murders and kidnaps people and is greedy for power and Seagal isn't , so despite wanting to see a world where the industrial revolution didn't happen and negating all the good work that science has brought humanity in the last 200 hundred years and both sharing an unhealthy fetish for guns one's inherently good and one's inherently bad Like so many other films with an obvious message the message gets lost in the delivery . It does make the point that holistic medicine is good and that it insinuates modern medicine is bad because you know , it's controlled by ruthless corporations that might actually have a cure for everything but they don't want to produce cures because it's much more profitable to treat illness rather than cure it outright . And in a scene that bludgeons the audience over the head in its message we're told that " Viruses are soon going to be the smart bombs of the future " Right so if you release a virus in Afghanistan it'll wipe out of the Afghans opposed to NATO , jump next door to Pakistan and kill all the Taliban and their allies in Al-Queda . Wow that is smart . Smarter than most of this film in fact

"The Patriot" staring Steven Segal is a late 90's thriller/action movie that is not really a thriller and not really an action movie; rather it is Steven Segal playing Steven Segal by another name, but this time he is a Native American country doctor who kicks butt every now an again. Baring the obvious plot line holes, the movie itself is absolutely amazing in terms of the blatant disregard for character devolvement. From a marketing standpoint, I was left asking myself, "who in the world were they aiming at?" The bio-thriller plot-line is way off the mark for the middle America crowd and Segal as silk cowboy would never sell to anyone even if you deep fried him and put him between a kripsy-cream donut. The whole movie is just way out there, even for Segal fans, because it simply does not deliver on any level.

It seems that all people didn't like Steven Seagal: Just take a look at his nomination list, there are only razzie awards nominations (with one win) for him, but I think he didn't earn anything of it. I saw good movies with Steven Seagal, I saw bad movies with Steven Seagal. And THE PATRIOT (1998) is one of his best movies, nearly as good as UNDER SIEGE (1992) or HARD TO KILL (1990). THE PATRIOT shows his activities to protect nature. Surely, this movie is not a great one, and I must say that there is more violence than I like, and why must Seagal's best friend L. Q. Jones die the death of a victim? The role of Dr. McClaren is one of Seagal's best performances. He has, as always, a very good charisma. And in summary, THE PATRIOT is good entertainment-and with an average rating of only 4 points the most underrated movie of all time.Regards, Hans-Dieter

I must say, as the practitioner of an earth-based religion, that I was so totally enthralled with this movie, I was moved to tears at the end.Steven Seagal's acting style has changed over the years. He's gone from tough and ready hard core action to take an environmentally political stand on issues in which he believes. He is quoted here, at IMDb for having said the following..."Hollywood is a mercurial place where people are sort of (in the film business) a victim of their environment and how the environment changes. Movies that would be timely now, ten years from now would be passé and nobody would be interested in the subjects. All the movies that I have done I have not been in control of. Sometimes there is a contractual situation where you go to the studio and they kind of tell you which ones they want you to do. Be that as it may I have also been lucky in the sense that I have been able to make environmentally conscientious movies as well as politically conscientious movies. ABOVE THE LAW was a politically conscientious movie. ON DEADLY GROUND was environmentally conscientious so I want to keep making movies like that which are more geared with a certain entertainment value but also bring people forward into contemplation."Well, Mr. Seagal, you succeeded in accomplishing both, with "The Patriot." The action is fast enough to keep you involved in the plot. The plot is simple and easy to follow, concerning a "good old boy" with what seems like noble aspirations, until he releases a biological weapon deadly enough to kill off the entire US populace. Now, it's up to Dr. Wesley McClaren (Steven Seagal) to clean up the mess. Will he find the cure in time to save everyone he loves from annihilation?Watch it and see.Nice action and beautiful cinematography. Excellent footage of the mountains of the central northwest US. Strong acting ability demonstrated here through superb directing and some good fast-paced fight scenes. But beneath all that, you get the sense that Seagal's character loves the Earth and all Her greatness. He gives you the feeling that he respects Her and cherishes all that She is, and has to give. As a Pagan, I cannot help but feel a kinship of sorts with the lead character in this movie. "Kith and kin" means more than mere blood relations, you know. As this movie well demonstrates.It gets a 8.2/10 from....the Fiend :.