Former war hero Mel Gibson wants to live a life of peace before the typically villainous Brits force him to return to battle. Be in no doubt, every moment of his war is captured in graphic detail on a fine transfer to DVD.

Historical inaccuracies aside, "The Patriot" contains many impressive sequences, all of which have a biting realism on disc. Heads are blown off, limbs fly, and blood spills without a drop of it lost in a razor sharp picture.

And while the images of war ravage your retina, the 5.1 sound mix will savage any weaker amps out there. The bullet shots pierce the speakers much like the opening of the "Saving Private Ryan" DVD. But even more impressive are the cannonballs that zoom overhead from the rear speakers before lodging deep into your sub woofer.

Creating the epic look of a large-scale war takes a lot of time and trouble, and plenty of that is in evidence in the many extra features on the disc. One of these allows you to compare the conceptual art to the finished scene. But far more interesting is the 'Visual Effects' featurette. Supervisor Stuart Robinson takes you through the process of creating a digital army, and also blowing a man's head off. Let's just say that the latter is somewhat more memorable.

Also on the disc is a feature commentary by director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin. They tend to concentrate on the characterisation more than any other aspects of the movie, although Emmerich helpfully points out the Columbia logo at the beginning. Thanks for that, Roland.

And if you want more, there's plenty extra including swoonsome photo galleries of Aussies, Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger. Something for both old and young then.

Chapters: 28
Ratio: 2.35:1
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Extra Features: Scene selection, four featurettes: 'The Art of War', 'The True Patriots', 'Conceptual Art to Film Comparison', 'Visual Effects', deleted scenes, feature commentary from director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin, two trailers, 10 stills galleries, cast and crew selected filmographies, animated menus, multiple languages, subtitles, English for the hearing impaired.