A Strange Combinition Of Good And Bad

Rating: 7/10 (25 May 2005)

I saw this the same night I saw THE HURRICANE a movie that claims to be a bio-pic on Rubin Carter but which is nothing more than total fabrication . PATTON is an entirely different kettle of fish and while not being entirely accurate ( I'll come to that later ) does at least have many accurate points
Undoubtedly the best aspect of the movie is George C Scott who is physically almost identical to George Patton . He captures the arrogant mannerisms of the American general very well and few and far between are movies where a performance like this dominates a movie . Ironically this is a case of where an Oscar for best actor was fully deserved and yet the recipient turned down the honour . There's also obviously a lot of thought gone into the screenplay as to where to begin and end the story . Do you start when Patton was a child and find out what motivated him to be a soldier ? Do you start when he fought in the American Expidionary force in France 1917-18 ? Do you finish the story with his death ? I think that writers Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H North have got the settings right with starting the story with the immediate aftermath of The Kasserine Pass and finishing the story while Patton was still alive . The screenplay itself is somewhat knowingly ironic as Patton spouts " America has never and will never lose a war " while it was becoming obvious in 1970 there was no way the US were going to be victors in Vietnam . It was a well known fact that Patton despised Monty and much of Patton's motives were of beating Montgomery as much as the Germans and this might have led to needless deaths of men under Patton's command . The screenplay while not exactly spelling this out does hint that his dislike of Monty led to Patton's reckless streak and the audience are left to make up their own mind on this issue . It was also well known that Patton wanted to throw back the Soviets from Eastern Europe ( Monty also had a hatred of communism but was far less vocal about it ) and there are conspiracy theories that the car accident that killed Patton wasn't an accident at all . Thankfully the screenwriters and producers have absolutely no time for any conspiracy theories of any kind
While being a good movie PATTON fails to be great one simply because niggling little faults creep into the movie like historical inaccuracies . In the aftermath the Germans discuss the battle of Kasserine Pass where " The Americans were led by the British general Anderson " Who was Anderson ? The Americans who were badly defeated at the battle were led by American general Lloyd Fredendall without doubt the worst allied general of the war and it was this that led to Patton being appointed to his post . Rommel is portrayed as having the utmost respect for Patton and his American troops but in reality this wasn't actually the case . Throughout the war Erwin Rommel had contempt for American equipment ( With good reason since German Panther and Tiger tanks were far superior to the American built Shermans and the same applied to preceding equipment ) and servicemen and counted Monty as his arch nemesis not Patton . Also as with most American war movies made round about this time the tank battles fought between Americans and Germans seem to be composed of both sides using American tanks built in the 1950s
All in all a bio-pic that while being better than many others isn't flawless but like I said if you want to see how NOT to make a bio-pic watch THE HURRICANE