Hero or megalomaniac? You decide.

Rating: Null/10 (2 September 2002)

One of the great strengths of this film is that it leaves the viewer room to make his own judgments about the character of General George S. Patton. Was he really abusing that private or was he right to "shame a coward"? The movie doesn't manipulate you either way. You pity the private, but you also feel the weight of commanding an army in battle. Did he unnecessarily the lives of his men in a quest for glory, or did he save lives by being aggressive? Did he really live past lives? Even that is up in the air.
You'll find both things to love about him and things to hate. He appears to be a conqueror cut from the cloth of Caesar or Alexander the Great, yet he also appears to be a maniac hell-bent on making war for his own reasons -- and maybe those are the same thing in the end.