Despite George C. Scott's bravura performance...

Rating: 7/10 (26 January 2012)

...as the titular character, "Patton" has not really worn all that well over the years, and I say that as someone who saw the film in the theater back in the day (and loved it), and a good number of times thereafter on VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD. I re-watched it recently, was more than disappointed that it didn't measure up to memory, and have downgraded my rating of it accordingly. It's a good film, mind you, superior to many of its kind, but when Scott's not on screen, "Patton" is just another WWII movie suffering the usual after-the-fact inaccuracies. Never mind the use of anachronistic tanks and other equipment, or the simplistic and inaccurate portrayal of engagements like the Battle of El Guettar, the film simply stalls whenever Patton himself isn't the focus. The pacing is often slow, and truthfully, a half-hour or more could have been cut without significant loss of content. Despite a solid performance from Karl "The Streets of San Francisco" Malden, too much time is spent on General Omar Bradley; for instance, the entire opening sequence (post-Patton monologue) at Kasserine Pass is, in my mind, superfluous.
Nonetheless, a very good bio-film, and required viewing for Scott admirers, as well as students of the zeitgeist of a divided Vietnam War era United States. That "Patton" was President Nixon's self-admitted favorite film shortly before he commenced the secret and then not-so-secret war on Cambodia is food enough for thought.