Great performance by a truly underrated actor

Rating: 10/10 (26 January 2007)

Not much else I can add to all the favorable comments about this movie. "Patton" is definitely George C. Scott's greatest performance, and was truly Oscar-worthy. It's funny that George C. Scott has never received the acclaim he deserves as one of our best actors. He wasn't a "big star" type, like Clark Gable, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, etc., but he was an excellent actor who could completely submerge his persona into that of the character he was portraying. To me this is the mark of a truly great actor, as opposed to a "movie star". Marlon Brando has often been hailed as America's best actor, but I think Scott beats him hands-down.
George C. Scott's entire career shows an astonishing breadth and depth, and he could convincingly portray characters who were in no way alike. Next to this, the "big stars" of Hollywood always seemed to be themselves, merely playing a different character. Scott was equally convincing as General Patton, as an aging con-artist in "The Film-Flam Man", as Sherlock Holmes (or at least a guy who thought he was Holmes)in "They Might Be Giants", as a flamboyant Air Force general in "Dr. Strangelove", as a seedy wheeler-dealer in "The Hustler", as a chilling Ebinezer Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol", as a burnt-out boozy doctor in "The Hospital", as a retired British Army officer turned detective in "The List of Adrian Messenger", or as a hard-bitten veteran LAPD cop in "The New Centurians". Other solid efforts that immediately come to mind include "Petulia", "Anatomy of a Murder", "The Changling", and "The Day of the Dolphin" (he was about the best thing in that otherwise very mediocre movie). By contrast, Brando peaked early in a few convincing roles, then went downhill fast with one ludicrous performance after another (anyone care to remember such pics as "Reflections in a Golden Eye"? "Desiree"? "A Countess from Hong Kong"? "Teahouse of the August Moon"? just to name a few).
Perhaps George C. Scott never received his due as a great actor because he was so much an "outsider" (including his famous refusal of the Oscar for "Patton"); maybe the Hollywood-types never forgave him for not acting beholden to them. At any rate "Patton", like many other George C. Scott movies, is definitely "must see" cinema!