The Patriot
| The Patriot | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Roland Emmerich |
| Produced by | Dean Devlin Mark Gordon Gary Levinsohn |
| Written by | Robert Rodat |
| Starring | Mel Gibson Heath Ledger Joely Richardson Jason Isaacs Chris Cooper Tchéky Karyo |
| Music by | John Williams |
| Cinematography | Caleb Deschanel |
| Editing by | David Brenner |
| Release date(s) | 2000 |
| Running time | 168 min. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
The Patriot is a Conservative movie about the American Revolution.
Plot
Benjamin Martin, who lost his wife, lives together with his seven children. He voted against the War with Great Britain. But his son Gabriel joins the American army, without permission of his father. The British arrest Gabriel and burn down the farm of Benjamin Martin. His father freed him and they create an army to fight the Britains. The British colonel William Tavington pursues and fight him.
David Manning Controversy
This film was one of five films that were involved in a scandal by its parent company, Sony Pictures, involving being "reviewed" by a fictitious critic named David Manning in an attempt to increase marketability, the others including Hollow Man, The Animal, A Knight's Tale, and Vertical Limit.
A highly positive review was purportedly written by a critic named David Manning, who was credited to The Ridgefield Press, a small Connecticut weekly news publication. During an investigation into Manning's quotes, Newsweek reporter John Horn discovered that the newspaper had never heard of him.[1] The story emerged at around the same time as an announcement that Sony had used employees posing as moviegoers in television commercials to praise the film. These occurrences, in tandem, raised questions and controversy about ethics in movie marketing practices.
On June 10, 2001, the episode of Le Show, host Harry Shearer conducted an in-studio interview with Manning, whose "review" of the film was positive. The voice of Manning was provided by a computer voice synthesizer.[2]
On August 3, 2005, Sony made an out-of-court settlement and agreed to refund $5 each to dissatisfied customers who saw this and four other films in American theatres, as a result of Manning's reviews.[3]
See also
References
- ↑ The Reviewer Who Wasn't There. Newsweek (June 2, 2001). Retrieved on October 3, 2014.
- ↑ Shearer, Harry (June 10, 2001). le Show. HarryShearer.com. Archived from the original on May 30, 2008. Retrieved on January 5, 2009.
- ↑ "Sony to pay $1.5m for film hoax," Irish Independent, August 5, 2005.
