Guts and glory

Rating: 6/10 (2 November 2016)

Patton starts with a big opening scene with the backdrop of a huge American flag as General Patton (George C Scott) gives an inspirational monologue to the audience. What a way to start the movie.
Patton was a much decorated warrior who loved the theatre of war, he believed in reincarnation as he said he was involved in some of the greatest battles of the past, an egoist who could inspire men to battle.
Patton also had problem following orders himself, he was self absorbed, deluded, often getting into trouble especially when he slapped a battle fatigued soldier recovering in a hospital which troubled his subsequent career.
Franklin J Schaffner's film won seven Oscars including best Picture. It is an epic film at times has a cast of thousands in the desert. It is a movie that was inspired by Lawrence of Arabia. It is a film about war but we do not see many battles. There is a sequence where Patton's base is being bombed by a warplane and he goes outside to shoot at it with his pistols. Another later sequence we see of Patton advancing in France but it is just him driving through on his jeep.
There are no side plots of heroic soldiers in close up battles. The film is about Patton and his many contradictions. It stands out because of Scott's performance, big and brash. He dominates the film only Karl Malden gets a whiff to be memorable, the British soldiers are portrayed as stiff bores.
The film was regarded as anti-war. It is not. There is a moment in this film when Patton exclaims 'I love it, God help me, I do love it. I love it more than my life.' The script was co-written by Francis Coppola, these lines would be later riffed by him for Apocalypse Now for Colonel Kilgore. Like Kilgore, Patton would walk to the battlefield knowing he will not die. As soldiers in his command remarked in real life, 'our blood, his glory.'
The film is beautifully shot for the big screen but it is a bloated epic clocking at nearly three hours long and at times it comes across as stodgy.