A fine epic about a "pure warrior."

Rating: 10/10 (21 October 2002)

The war epic was revived with Franklin Schaffner's admirable 'Patton.' Schaffner's control of his film is impressive, and the various campaign sequences are strikingly photographed through an audaciously wide lens...
George C. Scott was commonly referred to as a 'character actor' in view of his remarkably extensive range... Oddly for a character actor, Scott was almost always the same person on screen vigorous to the point of pugnacity, acting with his chin the way other actors do with their eyes-yet revealing, in his own eyes, unsuspected depths of humor and intelligence...
Now few actors have ever been so convincing in such a powerful and colorful character... Only Peter 0'Toole's eccentric T.E. Lawrence comes immediately to mind... Both, he and Scott, create their characters out of complementary contradictions... Lawrence detests the savagery of war but embraces it... Patton cannot separate the conduct of war from his own personal glorification, and both actors are given large canvases upon which to work...
Screenwriters Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North and director Franklin J. Schaffner introduce a 16th-century warrior lost in contemporary times... He is a brilliant and military historian, with a hazardous speech...
Magnificently uniformed, and wearing his ivory-handled pistol, George S. Patton steps up, against a backdrop of the Stars and Stripes, before an unseen gathering of soldiers defining himself in unambiguous terms as a man who revels in war... The scene is cut to a close shot of two scorpions crawling across the body of a dead soldier at the Kasserine Pass, Tunisia... The camera then pulls back to reveal a harsh look at American casualties with dozens of Arabs busily stripping more bodies...
The American Army has just suffered its first defeat at the hands of the Germans... Patton's first job is to restore the morale and discipline of the dispirited troops of his new command... His experience with tanks led General Dwight Eisenhower to place him in charge of one of the three task forces invading North Africa in 1943...
According to his theory of war, Patton would drive all the way to Palermo on the northern coast of Sicily, slicing the island in half... But his finest moment comes during the massive German counteroffensive in the Ardennes... By the time the Germans feared him above all other Allied generals...
Schaffner turns to the Germans for comments on Patton's abilities... They expect him to lead a major invasion... When he was sent to Corsica, the Germans were convinced he would lead an invasion of southern France... When he was sent to Cairo, they feared for an invasion through the Balkans...
Patton is seen reprimanded by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower for indiscreet political statements... As an able tactician who promotes himself to three-star general before it's officially approved by the U.S. Senate, Patton proves himself as the most effective American field commander of the European war... Behind his audacity lay an imaginative planning and a shrewd judgment... Patton knows that loyalty to a leader would inspire his men to take on objectives against all odds... His strict discipline, toughness, and disregard of classic military rules, contributed to his advance across France and Germany...
The modest and conscientious Omar Bradley, commander of the U.S. 12th Army Group, who had served under Patton in Africa and Sicily as a deputy commander, found Patton to be a superb combat general, but hotheaded, profane, and unpredictable... Bradley ends now as Patton's superior... It was soon apparent that the two make a superb team... Patton's dash and drive in the field is a perfect complement to Bradley's careful planning...
With the help of Bradley, Patton prepares to re-engage German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel... After he defeats Rommel's 10th Panzer Division at El Guettar thanks to his analysis of Rommel's published strategies, he shouts one of the greatest lines in war films: "Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read your book!" At the same time, his rivalry with his Field Marshal Montgomery (hero of El Alamein) becomes more intense... Patton was motivated by a pride to reach his target before his British colleague, sometimes not for the purpose of the Allies...
Karl Malden has the film's only other significant leading role, as the most capable, yet unpretentious general... Malden could be deduced from the number of major directors with whom he has worked... These include Cukor, Hathaway, Kazan, King, Preminger, Milestone, Vidor, Hitchcock, Brooks, Mulligan, Daves, Brando, Frankenheimer, Ford, Quine and Schaffner... In his best and most personal work he has succeeded in exploring depths of moral ambiguity rare in commercial cinema...
Schaffner illuminates various sides of Patton's remarkable personality, presenting a dashing extrovert and attractive general, with a compassionate side...
Touring an evacuation hospital in Sicily, Patton slaps an enlisted soldier twice calling him a 'yellow,' and threatens to shoot him, before two men forcibly remove him from the tent... The incident occurs because Patton's views of bravery and cowardice are so severely limited... The fighting general who has the imagination to write poetry and to believe that he has been reincarnated, in ancient Greece, at Carthage, and Moscow, cannot conceive of a psychological wound that he cannot see... The incident occurred after he prays at the bedside of one man severely injured... Patton whispers some words in his ear which the audience doesn't hear, then lays a medal on his pillow and gives him a gentle touch on his head... The portrait is so compelling that it's easy to overlook Patton's own final words in the film, "All glory is fleeting."
Franklin J. Schaffner's motion picture reveals an effective portrait of three men: Patton, Bradley, and the unseen Dwight Eisenhower... The film is a fine epic about 'a pure warrior, and a magnificent anachronism,' who loved war...
The Academy Awards saluted 'Patton' capturing eight Oscars, including best picture, best director, best actor (Scott declined his well deserved Oscar), best screenplay, best editing, and best production design...