Patton - The Oscar Project Part XLIII

The 1970’s starts with a film that reminded me a lot of one of the early films of the 60’s. “Patton” tells the story of General Patton and his command during the second World War. The way the story plays out is very similar to the way that “Lawrence of Arabia” plays out. Both feature strong military leaders that end up being ignored by the government by the end of the film. Except this one featured an American leader as opposed to a British one.

“Patton” of course opens with his famous speech in front of the American flag. It is meant to be a version of his pep talk that he would give the third Army. We then learn about his command and his harsh rules. Eventually we also see how effective he is at his command. He leads his army across Africa and is able to make quite a bit of headway in Sicily before he is relieved for threatening a soldier suffering from shellshock. However it is shown that Germany is so afraid of Patton that they believe that he will lead the invasion. He is given a dummy command to distract Germany while the invasion of Normandy takes place. Eventually he does get a command in Europe and is able to drive it as far as he can go. But he constantly says the wrong things to the press and upsets leaders from other countries, and is quietly removed from command again.

This was another actor driven movie. It was George C. Scott’s performance as Patton that really sells this movie. Director Franklin Schnaffner did a good job of directing, but since I couldn’t help but compare the film to “Lawrence of Arabia” I can’t help but feel that he came up short compared to the excellent job that was done with that film. Making the film live and die by the performance of Scott. And he nailed that performance. History buffs complain that it is not completely accurate to Patton. But I contend that it is how Germany and the United States viewed Patton. I think that it was more critical to meet that image than to try and fit what the man was precisely, given the context of the movie.

Overall I think “Patton” makes for a pretty decent biopic. My only complaint is that it doesn’t tell a complete story. I would have liked a more complete ending. Still I give it 4 out of 5 stars.