Product: George C. Scott: The Last Days of Patton (1986)
Rating: 5.0
Patton's Last Battle
Actor George C. Scott delivers an encore performance of his most famous character: Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr. Just as the original "Patton" was based in part on Ladislas Farago's biography "Patton: Ordeal and Triumph," so too is the sequel based on Farago's second installment of the same title.It is ironic, perhaps that Scott seems tired in this follow-up role and does not deliver a tour de force comparable to his original performance. Then again, the real life Patton was also tired: relieved of command of his beloved Third Army for not being what today would be termed "politically correct," and instead placed in command of a "paper army" whose mission was to write the history of the Second WorldWar. Disgruntled with the turn his military career had taken, Patton was to return home, hang up his ivory-handled pistols for good and write a tell all memoir. A day of pheasant hunting in Germany was all that seperated Patton the soldier from Patton the civilian. The out-spoken general never made it. He suffered a broken neck en route in a silly fender-bender with an army 6 x 6 and died of complications twelve days later. In spite of Scott's subdued portrayal of Patton II, the scenes are superb; the supporting cast top-notch; and the story-line, including the usual amount of dramatic license, holds true to the facts. Throughout the film, the viewer is treated to flashbacks memories of Patton's earlier life as a child, as a young junior officer, and themes the first "Patton" dared not touch, such as Patton's supposed wartime affair with his wife's niece, a woman half the general's age. Unlike the first "Patton," these flashbacks give the film a true biographical feel. I was touched with the strength his wife Beatrice exhibited by her husband's side, reading to him from his favorite books by the likes of Napolean and other great captains while her injured husband lay with a head brace and fish hooks embedded in his scalp in an effort to support his shattered neck. If Scott gave us the mythical "Patton" in his first role, he also gave us the human "Patton" in his second. This DVD should be appart of the collection of anyone interested in this truely complex individual we have come to know simply as Patton.