Notes
Story Synopsis:
Benjamin Martin (Gibson), was a hero in the French And Indian War, but guilt over his actions, and after the death of his wife, he makes a vow of pacifism and raises his children and works his South Carolina farm in solitude. That is, until against his wishes his idealistic son Gabriel (Ledger) joins the battle against the British. As the fighting spills onto his own land, threatening his family, Benjamin sees that he has no choice but to renounce his peaceful ways and, once again, become The Patriot in the Revolutionary War for independence. (Laurie Sevano)
DVD Picture:
The anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 DVD exhibits a beautiful picture with engrossing cinematography by Caleb Deschanel. Colors are bold, with the soldiers’ uniforms standing out with rich reds and vivid blues. Flesthtones are nicely balanced throughout. Some filters were used to soften interior scenes and help bring down light intensity and create a cold blue appearance for scenes at dusk. Other scenes are soflty stylized with a warm light that enhances the period of the picture, but harshly contrasts some of the graphic and bloody battle scenes. Despite the usage of filters, the imagery is sharp and finely detailed, at times so well defined that clothing textures are reproduced with distinction. Sometimes colors seem a bit exaggerated. Shadow delineation is nicely rendered, with a good gradation of visual information between darkness and picture black. Some of the earlier scenes appeared a little dark. Smoke is used quite a bit in this movie both on the battlefield and as a softening ambience for interiors. In these scenes, compression pixelization is minimal, if noticed at all. The picture is quite solid, with some fine film grain revealed. Source element artifacts are apparent throughout, but are minimally bothersome. The only occasional distraction I could find was the presence of edge enhancement, but its appearance over the nearly three hour movie did not make up a large percentage.
Soundtrack:
The Dolby® Digital 5.1-channel discrete soundtrack is an utterly impressive sonic presentation of mastery in imaging and sound design. Supervising sound editor Per Halberg, and re-recording mixers Kevin O’Connell and Greg P. Russell, along with the rest of the sound crew fully deserve credit for an outstanding sonic production of truly exemplary creativity, dynamics, and dimension. The fidelity is absolutely remarkable. To say that the soundstage is open and spacious throughout is an understatement. In many, if not most instances the listening space fully engulfs the listener into either the explosive fighting scenes or the fleeting moments of peace away from the battle lines. The selection of sound effects to render the bodily impact of bullets, combined with the unnerving visuals results in a motion picture experience that can be emotionally unsettling. These and the many other sound effects have been superbly recorded and integrated into the sound mix with downright visceral realism. The split surrounds are fully engaged as an essential component of the sophisticated, well-textured spatial sonic images. The use of a back surround channel decoder, such as the SMART Devices Center Surround 3X adapter will provide for rather dramatic enhancement and expansion of the soundstage rendered by the surrounds. Deep bass is, well, awesome! Low frequencies are delivered with deep, clean, powerful, often ominous rumbles to well below 25Hz throughout the soundfield. The intensity of the bass associated with cannon firings and explosions can be system-threatening at times, so caution is advised. The John Williams music score is one of the best recorded, with an engaging, wholly engrossing presence that effectively wraps all around the listener for optimal dramatic effect. Shawn Murphy’s achievement in recording, and mixing the score in eight channels is absolutely worthy of commendation. The only minus with the sound mix is the dialogue, with male voices tending to have an overly chesty presence which compromises spatial integration. The only regret with this 5.1 soundtrack is that the creativity that went into the original theatrical 8 channel SDDS mix won’t be fully appreciated here.
Nonetheless, this is one of the most outstanding and superb sound productions to date.
This Disc Contains The Following WSR-Rated Superb Qualities:
Reference Quality
Superb Music Score Recording Quality
Superb Sound Effects Recording Quality
Superb Cinematography
Superb Special Visual Effects Quality
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