Editing The Patriot (2000 film) (section)

===Critical response===
On [[Rotten Tomatoes]], ''The Patriot'' holds an approval rating of 62% based on 139 reviews, with an average rating of 6.10/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "''The Patriot'' can be entertaining to watch, but it relies too much on formula and melodrama."<ref name="tomatoes">{{cite web|title= The Patriot (2000) |work=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1098149-patriot/ |access-date=February 16, 2025}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film has a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".<ref>{{cite web |title=The Patriot |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-patriot |website=[[Metacritic]] |access-date=October 19, 2021 }}</ref> Audiences surveyed by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film an average grade "A" on an A+ to F scale.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/ |title= PATRIOT, THE (2000) A |work= [[CinemaScore]] |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181220122629/https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/ |archive-date= 2018-12-20 }}</ref>

''[[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".<ref name="NYT">{{cite news|last=Mitchell|first=Elvis|author-link=Elvis Mitchell|title=Film Review; A Gentle Farmer Who's Good at Violence|date=June 28, 2000|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/library/film/062800patriot-film-review.html|access-date=November 20, 2014|url-status=live|archive-date=December 4, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221204012801/https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/28/movies/film-review-a-gentle-farmer-who-s-good-at-violence.html}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{cite news|last=Malanowski|first=Jamie|title=The Revolutionary War Is Lost on Hollywood|date=July 2, 2000|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/02/movies/film-the-revolutionary-war-is-lost-on-hollywood.html?scp=7&sq |access-date=May 31, 2009}}</ref> 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?"<ref>{{cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |date=June 28, 2000 |title=The Patriot |url=http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-patriot-2000 |access-date=January 25, 2024 |website=[[RogerEbert.com]]}}</ref>