Patton [Blu-ray]

Patton [Blu-ray] Review

There are times when an actor gets to a play a role he was born to play. Such is the case with George C. Scott, who plays the iconic general. The film chronicles Patton's war years, as he was a man solely built for war, and does it rather well. Scott captures Patton perfectly. I remember watching this on television with my family and my aunt and uncle's family. Afterward my uncle commented that Scott so captured Patton that at one point he was going to go through the screen and say "Goddammit, Cobleigh, go and put on a decent uniform, you slacker. And don't let me catch you like that again!" Patton has only two major flaws: One, General Omar Bradley (Karl Malden in a great performance) is seen as Patton's friend. In reality he hated George. Patton was a far better general and informed Bradley that he thought Hitler would attack through the Ardennes, as her had in 1940. Bradley pooh-poohed it, and we all know what happened. Then it was left up to Patton to pull Bradley's cookies out of the fire. The other miscue in the film concerns the equipment. Patton is using M-24 Chaffee light tanks (introduced in 1944, but not really widely used in battle until the Korean War) and the Germans are using M47 and 48 tanks (nicknamed "Pattons", ironically). If a movie such as Kelly's Heroes, made the same year, can feature Shermans, why couldn't this high-budget, "important" picture? The Sherman was the prominent American tank of the war. As for the German tanks, I can understand not featuring Tigers (there is only one surviving Tiger), but they could have used Stugs, or Mark IVs. In fact, most of the Afrika Corps' armor consisted of Mark IVs. Other than that, it's a great movie. Michael Bates is wonderful as General Montgomery, and is the spitting image of him, even down to the voice. Monty and Patton, being both egomaniacs, were naturally in competition, but both agreed on one thing: they didn't like Ike. After one order Patton received from Ike, his disgust was written on his face, to which Montgomery replied. "George, if you get an order you don't like, why don't you simply do what I do? Ignore it." But by no means ignore this movie.

Patton [Blu-ray] Overview

A critically acclaimed film that won a total of eight 1970 Academy Awards (Including Best Picture), Patton is a riveting portrait of one of the 20th century's greatest military geniuses. One of it's Oscars went to George Patton, the only Allied general truly feared by the Nazis. Charismatic and Flamboyant, Patton designed his own uniforms, sported ivory-handled six-shooters, and believed he was a warrior in past lives. He outmanuevered Rommel in Africa, and after D-Day led his troops in an unstoppable campaign across Europe. But he was rebellious as well insight and poignancy, his own volatile personailty was one enemy he could never defeat.

Patton [Blu-ray] Specifications

One of the greatest screen biographies ever produced, this monumental film runs nearly three hours, won seven Academy Awards, and gave George C. Scott the greatest role of his career. It was released in 1970 when protest against the Vietnam War still raged at home and abroad, and many critics and moviegoers struggled to reconcile current events with the movie's glorification of Gen. George S. Patton as a crazy-brave genius of World War II.

How could a movie so huge in scope and so fascinated by its subject be considered an anti-war film? The simple truth is that it's not--Patton is less about World War II than about the rise and fall of a man whose life was literally defined by war, and who felt lost and lonely without the grand-scale pursuit of an enemy. George C. Scott embodies his role so fully, so convincingly, that we can't help but be drawn to and fascinated by Patton as a man who is simultaneously bound for hell and glory. The film's opening monologue alone is a masterful display of acting and character analysis, and everything that follows is sheer brilliance on the part of Scott and director Franklin J. Schaffner.

Filmed on an epic scale at literally dozens of European locations, Patton does not embrace war as a noble pursuit, nor does it deny the reality of war as a breeding ground for heroes. Through the awesome achievement of Scott's performance and the film's grand ambition, Patton shows all the complexities of a man who accepted his role in life and (like Scott) played it to the hilt. --Jeff Shannon

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