This film is average, that is unless you're American..

Rating: 6/10 (3 January 2006)

What a colossal bore. Its a film that takes its ideas, mulls over them but just wants to give you a little, not a lot. Patton conceivably was a great man, with great flaws. He was determined, like this film to get his goals achieved. However, unfortunately he was halted by fate, as was this film from any genuine ingenuity.
The film's flaws stem mostly from its pace. It drags out a message that could be conveyed in a fraction of the screen time. Yes, he was an aggressive and difficult character, yes he was admirable for his ambition and conviction and yes he was a pompous, overbearing and ultimately hypocritical human. Why does Schaffner have to take so long illustrating this? At first it seemed mature and honest, we see Patton's abrasive nature and obstinacy, his arrogant refusal to submit to the system. Unfortunately then we see the same point reiterated on numerous occasions and through the same initial omniscient viewpoint, we never get any other angle on all this. All that we are treated to is the same perspective that eventually insinuates that Schaffner wanted us to feel sympathy for an egomaniac who loved war, and festered the whole time to his wholehearted dedication to it.
Although Scott's performance is truly breathtaking; his presence and charisma really manage to keep us interested to watch the film to the end. He never can diversify the one-sided material he was given. We just get treated to the generic and repetitive view of how Patton was unfairly treated and vilified by his superiors. Objectivity just seems to be flung far away for Patton to roll over in his tank.
Good biographies show the many facets of an individual, their strengths and vulnerabilities; strong biographies like 'Raging Bull' concentrate on how the qualities and dysfunctions interweave with those surrounding them and how their morphed personality shapes their future. 'Patton' unravels itself more to be an wholesome tribute to a psychotic and driven madmen,rather than an analytical piece of characterisation. Its glorification of war is offensive and ridiculous, and it wants to invoke pity and empathy for a supposed 'legend' who was really a very apprehensible individual. He is rewarded for being brutal, egotistical - not only on the battlefield but in the audience's eyes as well because of the partiality of the narrative. It chooses to take sides with Patton, to depict his pomposity as an approvable characteristic and to compress his fallible traits as excusable. It avoids a balanced depiction and chooses to become a cheerleader for devotion and loyalty to Patton's type of firebrand patriotism.
Pity would have been more forthcoming had Schaffner opted for a more sagacious viewpoint; one that chose to focus more on his skewed values and hone in on them rather than dedicate 3 hours of film to underplaying Patton's zealousness and portraying him as an admirable and amiable fundamentalist. Scott's brilliance rather than Schaffner's incapability are what really gives this film a renowned reputation. It simply comes across as frivolous piece of US patriotism masked as an honest portrayal of an unbalanced, crazy and disastrous humanbeing.
The film's ultimate purpose is to evoke empathy and sentimentality for a person who should be lauded for his determination and rebellious nature, and not criticised for his amazingly warped view on life. Because Patton was a victor, he has been canonised as a saint of the American right; which is all this film seems to want to achieve. It eschews real quality through its monotone narrative and dishonest subject matter. Its for romantic rightwingers and nobody else.