Patton (film)
Patton (UK: Patton: Lust for Glory) is a 1970 epic biographical film which tells the story of General George S. Patton during World War II. It stars George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Michael Bates, and Karl Michael Vogler. It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, and written by Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North. It won seven Academy Awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture.
The opening monologue, delivered by Scott with an enormous American flag behind him, remains an iconic and often quoted image in film. Despite the rise of the Vietnam protest movement and a decline in interest in World War II movies, the film became a success and an American classic.
In 2003 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Scott's performance won him an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1971. He famously refused to accept it --the first actor, though not the last, to do so.
The film won six additional Academy Awards, for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Picture, Best Sound and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced. It was nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Effects, Special Visual Effects and Best Music, Original Score.
In 2006, the Writers
Guild of America selected the adapted screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund
North as the 94th best screenplay of all time. The screenplay was based upon the
biographies A Soldier's Story by General Omar Bradley, and Patton: Ordeal and
Triumph by Ladislas Farago.
Patton opened with Scott's rendering of General Patton's famous military "Pep Talk" to members of the Third Army, set against a huge American flag. The movie writers had to tone down Patton's actual words and statements throughout the film in order to get a PG rating; in the opening monologue, the word "fornicating" replaced "fucking" when criticizing the Saturday Evening Post newspaper. Interestingly, Scott's gravelly voice is practically the opposite of Patton's, which is reported as having been "strangely high-pitched".
During his speech, Patton states (in real life and in the film) that "Americans have never lost and will never lose a war." Historian Shelby Foote observed that this claim was astonishing, as Patton's grandfather had fought for the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War; as the product of a Southern upbringing, Patton would have been well aware of this.
When Scott learned that the speech would open the film, he refused to do it, as he believed that it would overshadow the rest of his performance.[citation needed] So director Frank Schaffner lied and assured him that it would be shown at the end. It was shot in a basement room.
All
the medals and decorations shown on Patton's uniform in the monologue are authentic
replicas of those actually awarded to Patton. However, the general never wore
all of them in public. Patton wore them all on only one occasion, in his backyard
in Virginia at the request of his wife, who wanted a picture of him with all his
medals. The producers used a copy of this photo to help recreate this "look"
for the opening scene. Also, the ivory-handled revolvers Scott wears in this scene
are in fact Patton's, borrowed from the Patton museum.
Plot
The film documents the story of General George S. Patton (George C. Scott) during World War II, beginning with his taking charge of demoralized American forces in North Africa after the disastrous Battle of the Kasserine Pass. He participates in the invasion of Sicily and races against the equally egotistical British General Bernard Law Montgomery to capture the Sicilian port of Messina. After he beats Montgomery into the city, he is relieved of command for slapping a shell-shocked soldier in an Army hospital. This incident, along with his tendency to speak his mind to the press, gets the general in trouble with Washington and he is sidelined from the Invasion of Normandy. Later, he begs his former subordinate, General Omar Bradley (Karl Malden), for a command before the war ends. He is given the U.S. Third Army, and distinguishes himself by sweeping across France and later relieving the vital town of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. Later, Patton smashes through the German "West Wall" and drives into Germany itself.
The
movie depicts some of Patton's more controversial actions, for example his remarks
following the fall of Germany, casually comparing many average Nazis to American
Republicans and Democrats, and remarking to a British crowd that America and Great
Britain would dominate the post-war world, which the press finds insulting to
the Russians. He also believes in reincarnation, while remaining a devout Christian.
At one point in the movie, during the North Africa campaign, Patton takes his
staff on an unexpected detour to the site of the ancient Battle of Zama. There
he reminisces about the battle, insisting to Omar Bradley that he was there. Although
he is shown to be a military genius, the film does not try to conceal Patton's
darker, elitist and brutal aspects.
Anachronistic
props
In common with most contemporary war films, Patton used very few actual
World War II vintage tanks, except in archival newsreel footage. The film's tanks
were supplied by the Spanish Army, which assisted the production. They included
M41 Walker Bulldog, M46 Patton and M47 Patton tanks for the American side, M24
Chaffee tanks for the British, and M48 Patton tanks for the Germans. Of these
machines, only the M24 Chaffee design had served in WW2, although not for the
British. In reality, General Patton commanded a mixture of M-4 Shermans and, very
late in the war, M-26 Pershings.
Spanish CASA 2.111 airplanes were also used in several scenes. These were heavily modified versions of the German Heinkel He 111, which had been used extensively by the Luftwaffe in World War II. They can be recognized by their engine nacelles, which have a prominent airscoop directly under the propellor, whereas the Heinkel's airscoop was set further back.
In addition, 1950s M38 Jeeps can be seen, and 1960s M35 cargo trucks were used (for both American and German trucks).
A map of Europe shown in the background in one scene displays post-war national boundaries.
Cast
George C. Scott - Gen. George S. Patton Jr.
Karl Malden
- Gen. Omar N. Bradley
Stephen Young - Capt. Chester B. Hansen
Michael
Strong - Brig. Gen. Hobart Carver
Carey Loftin - Gen. Bradley's driver (as
Cary Loftin)
Albert Dumortier - Moroccan Minister
Frank Latimore - Lt.
Col. Henry Davenport
Morgan Paull - Capt. Richard N. Jenson
Karl Michael Vogler - Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
Bill Hickman - Gen.
Patton's driver
Pat Zurica - 1st Lt. Alexander Stiller (as Patrick J. Zurica)
James Edwards - Sgt. William George Meeks
Lawrence Dobkin - Col. Gaston
Bell
David Bauer - Lt. Gen. Harry Buford
John Barrie - Air Vice-Marshal
Sir Arthur Coningham
Richard Münch - Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl (as Richard
Muench)
Siegfried Rauch - Capt. Oskar Steiger
Michael Bates - Field
Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery
Paul Stevens - Lt. Col. Charles R. Codman
Gerald Flood - Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder
Jack Gwillim - Gen. Sir Harold Alexander
Ed Binns - Maj. Gen. Walter Bedell
Smith (as Edward Binns)
Peter Barkworth - Col. John Welkin
Lionel Murton
- Third Army chaplain
David Healy - Clergyman
Sandy Kevin - Correspondent
Douglas Wilmer - Maj. Gen. Francis de Guingand
John
Doucette - Maj. Gen. Lucian K. Truscott
Tim Considine - Soldier who gets
slapped
Abraxas Aaran - Willy
Clint Ritchie - Tank captain
Alan
MacNaughton - British briefing officer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Brandon Brady - Lt. Young
Charles
Dennis - Soldier
Paul Frees - Voice
Hellmut Lange - Maj. Dorian von
Haarenwege
Harry Morgan - Senator
Bruce Rhodewalt - Cynical wounded
soldier
Errors
While serving to illuminate the tension
between Patton and Montgomery, there was no competitive race for either to capture
Messina before the other. Montgomery actually suggested on July 24 that Patton
take Messina since he was in a better position to do so.
In one scene, General Patton incorrectly cites Frederick the Great as saying, "L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace!" ("Daring, daring - always daring!") This actually originated with Georges Danton.
There is a scene with a black Packard in wartime Britain that is a 1948 post war model.
Patton's
iconic opening and speech before a giant flag has been parodied and copied in
numerous films, political cartoons and television shows.
The Simpsons episode
"Bart the General" was based on this movie. In another episode, "Secrets
of a Successful Marriage", Homer spews a nonsensical string of Patton quotes.
In an early run of the comic strip Bloom County, Milo Bloom's grandfather
coaches a pee-wee football team in the guise of General Patton, equating football
with warfare.
The opening Stars and Stripes image was also used in pop band
The The's video for the single "Heartland", from its Infected album.
The third film in the Smokey and the Bandit franchise started with Buford
T. Justice (Jackie Gleason) giving his retirement speech in front of the American
flag while wearing an Army uniform, another parody of the Patton opening.
In
the Adult Swim parody show Sealab 2021, Captain Shanks has a diorama of George
C. Scott as Patton.
In the film Small Soldiers, Major Chip Hazard, the commander
of the "Commando Elite" action figures, addresses his troops on the
upcoming battle with an American flag jigsaw puzzle in the background.
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