Its a good score. For me though, The Patriot is Williams' "Mt Everest"!

I thought it was a great score, but I was distracted by parts that sound like
Nessun dorma
. Still, the score is one of the best parts of the movie.

This score is as close as any composer can get to perfection.

I urge you to listen to the atonal music he did for the Vietnam sequence. I think the three films he scored for Oliver are some of his best scores. Born On The Forth, JFK, and Nixon. The piece he wrote for JFK title Arlington is a powerful piece.

"Manipulative" is the most overused word to describe a film score. Nearly every element of a film from its cinematography to its sound design is designed to "manipulate" an audience.
I thought the film was brilliantly scored. The "syrupy" tone of the music is intentional, it represents Kovic's naive view of America. Its placement in the more graphic scenes is almost ironic; creating a contrast between Kovic's beliefs and the harsh realities of war.
I wish there were more scores like Born of the Fourth of July. Scores that take an active role in shaping their movies, rather than creating sonic wallpaper.

I would agree, I thought it fit incredibly well for the first part of the movie and then became trite as Ron's innocent perspective changed. I hate to criticize the master, but simply augmenting instrumentation/tempo/ etc. with the same tireless theme did nothing to augment the progression of mood of the movie.

I thought it was great and think it's one of his more underrated scores.