Patton is as remarkable a film as was Patton the man. I am somewhat ashamed to say that I had never seen it before, however it was always on my list of films to see. I had just never gotten around to it. I’m certainly glad that this project compelled me to watch it, because I was sucked in as soon as it started and I was 100% engaged until the final shot. This was a terrific film from many perspectives, as it was a compelling character piece, as well as an action/war film with a dramatic story of a man overcoming his shortcomings to become one of the greatest generals of the Second World War. Screenwriters Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund North, along with director Franklin J. Schaffner expertly wove together a story about a man who was filled with contradictions. They developed a story about a strong man who had pronounced weaknesses that heavily contributed to his inability to achieve the greatness to which he thought he was destined.

George S. Patton was a hard man and a hard man to figure out. The film depicts him as a masterful tactician as well as a supreme motivator who suffers cowards and fools with equal distain. In fact, it is his treatment of a man he perceives to be a coward that prevents him from being named Supreme Allied Commander of Europe. The film makers did a very smart thing in setting up that pivotal moment. Not long after we first meet Patton (George C. Scott), he has just assumed command of a tank division in Tunisia at the behest of General Omar Bradley (Karl Malden). The division was just badly beaten by Rommel’s Africa Corps, and the men are undisciplined and badly trained. Patton sets out to fix that and implements a series of codes of conduct for everything from requiring the men to wear their helmets at all times to determining when they can and cannot eat. The men hate the discipline, but are transformed into a fighting unit that will ultimately kick Rommel out of North Africa. One other thing Patton does is something that might come across as unnecessarily cruel at first. He goes to the hospital and commands the doctor to remove the men who are suffering from self-inflicted wounds to another part of the hospital and away from the men who he feels were legitimately wounded. He won’t have cowards sharing space with honorable fighting men.

One of the first things he tells them is, “I don’t want to get any messages that we are holding our position. We’re not holding anything. Let the Hun do that. We are advancing constantly and we’re not interested in holding on to anything except the enemy. We’re going to hold onto him by the nose and we’re going to kick him in the ass. We’re going to kick the hell out of him all the time and we’re gonna go through him like crap through a goose!” He also tells Bradley, “They’ll lose their fear of the Germans. I only hope to God they never lose their fear of me.” Through this dialogue we learn right away what kind of a man that Patton is. Even if you know nothing of United States history, you’ll know by now that Patton is no-nonsense and supremely confident in his abilities. Even Rommel points this out after first hearing about Patton when he says, “I will attack and annihilate him… Before he does the same to me.”

That scene is an important one that is paid off later when Patton’s forces invade Sicily. Patton is in a race with the English General Montgomery to see who will be the first to get to the city of Messina and take credit for its liberation. Patton disobeys orders and pushes through Palermo on his way to Messina, causing heavy casualties for his own troops. While inspecting the wounded, Patton comes across a soldier who has lost his nerve. Patton accosts and slaps the man in front of several doctors, nurses and other patients. His behavior is lambasted in the press and causes Patton to be reprimanded and forced by Eisenhower to apologize publicly in front of his soldiers.

This represents the low point for him, but then an interesting thing happens. The soldiers, who had previously hated Patton’s hard core style now had a respect for him that has turned into a genuine affection. He said early on in the film that he didn’t want his men to love him. He just wanted them to fight for him. It turned out that in the end he got both.

For me, that is what made Patton such a great and compelling film. It’s a study of Patton the character. Through exposition, we learn about him through what the Germans have learned. Over the course of the film, they get to know him so well that they feel like they can predict his movements. Through their actions and dialogue, we get exposition about Patton’s character traits. Eventually the German high command fears Patton like they fear no other Allied general. The problem for Patton is that even the Allied command doesn’t know what to do with him. We get the sense that they’d love to fire him, but he keeps winning battles all over Europe. This complex character is a complete enigma to not only his enemies, but to his allies as well.

Looking at Patton from the point of view of the Hero’s Journey, the character of Patton fits a variety of archetypes. He’s more Hero than Anti-Hero, but he’s also a shapeshifter and a trickster. As a shapeshifter, he’s an historian and he, himself, believes that he’s been reincarnated. As he walks over a battlefield that was the site of a battle between the Romans and the Carthanians, he believes he was there for that battle. As the Germans point out when they’re discussing his personality for the first time, “He’s a romantic who reads the bible daily and swears like a stableboy.” We then see Patton as a trickster when he first lures Rommel into battle. He gets word that the Germans are planning an attack, and he sets up a trap for them. Using netting to hide his tanks, Patton unleashes a hell-like fury on the German tanks as they approach, catching them completely by surprise. Using this trick, he shows himself to be the master tactician, and it’s the first step in driving Rommel from Africa.

I would say that if you are an aspiring screenwriter, this is a film you should know. Coppola and North won the Oscar for their work on the screenplay, and it is a screenplay that is worth reading. Study this screenplay to see how Coppola and North developed Patton’s character. Study the depth they gave him. Yes, Patton was a real man, and they only needed to use his real-life characteristics to develop his character, but they still had to do it in a way that was dramatic and cinematic. Sometimes when you’re writing based on a real character, giving them realistic depth that is also cinematic and dramatic can be more difficult than creating a character from scratch. In this film, they did it seamlessly.

I cannot do this film adequate justice by writing about it here. This is a film that needs to be seen in order to be truly appreciated. It’s long, coming in at just under three hours, but it is such an engaging film that you don’t feel like you’ve been watching it for that long. Trust me. There have been plenty of films that I’ve been watching during this project that were three hours, and I felt every minute. Patton is not like that. It’s a wholly entertaining film that does offer something for everyone.

In fact, the DVD that I watched had a short interview with Coppola before the film started, and he mentioned that he strived to make this a film that would appeal to people no matter their political persuasion. It showed aspects of Patton that liberal viewers would appreciate, as well as showing aspects of Patton that conservative viewers would appreciate. He managed to do this, in my opinion, without alienating either political philosophy. Films like that are few and far between, and the fact that this film came out while the mood in the country had turned very much against the war that was going on in Vietnam, is another remarkable aspect of it. True, World War II has always been looked at as a “good” war or a “necessary” war. But the United States public was in an anti-war mood in 1970, and it’s remarkable to me that a movie that glorified war in any way would be so recognized by the Academy or the public in general. I guess it just shows that sometimes a great film is just a great film and can transcend political realities.

This is especially interesting when you consider that the previous year’s winner was Midnight Cowboy. That film embodied the 1960’s. You look at it, and you see a film that is obviously of its time. That isn’t the case with Patton. If you knew nothing of film making techniques, or the actors involved, you wouldn’t necessarily be able to guess when Patton came out. It has a timeless feel to it that is just as relevant now as it was in 1970. It could have just as easily been released in 1960 or in 1950 or in 1980. That timeless quality helps speak to the greatness of this film.

Did the Academy get it right?

You’ve probably guessed by now that I think that they did. All in all, Patton won seven Oscars. Along with Best Writing and Best Picture, it also won for Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Sound, Best Film Editing and Best Actor. However, George C. Scott famously refused to accept the award, stating that he never felt that he was in any kind of competition with other actors. The film’s producer, Frank McCarthy accepted the award on Scott’s behalf and per Scott’s request, the statue was returned to the Academy the following day. That’s not to say that there wasn’t stiff competition for Best Picture, because there was. Airport, Five Easy Pieces, Love Story, and M*A*S*H are all regarded as classics on one level or another, and any one of them could have legitimately taken home the statue. Although, I’ve never considered Airport to be particularly Oscar-worthy, but if nothing else, it helped spawn the Airplane! films. What I find particularly interesting is the juxtaposition between Patton and M*A*S*H. Even though M*A*S*H takes place during the Korean War, it is a clear anti-war parable for Vietnam. Looking at the mood of the country as well as the attitude of the times, it feels like M*A*S*H should have been the winner. In a vacuum, Patton is clearly the better film, but we should all know by now that the best film doesn’t always win Best Picture. Certainly M*A*S*H could have won, and it would have been understandable had that been the case. Thankfully, however, the award went home with Patton, and that was definitely the right call for 1970.