BEST PICTURE SHOWCASE: "Patton" (1970)

General George S. Patton was a decorated war hero who came from a military family.  He was a major player in both World Wars I and II, helping especially in the latter lead the Allied Forces to victory with his strategies and brilliance.  He pulled very few punches and often spoke his mind without fear or saying the "right" thing.  He was also confrontational and controversial, getting into trouble with his superiors because of his actions, including statements to the media that would at times criticize U.S. war strategy.  It seems fitting that the 1970 film biography of the man was portrayed by a unique actor the likes of George C. Scott, who also had a reputation at times for being a bit against-the-grain, prone to moodiness on movie sets and having a complete disdain for the competitiveness of Hollywood when it came to such things as the Oscars.  A perfect storm of circumstances, no?  Patton winds up highly successful and racks up a slew of Oscar nominations, including for that of Scott's performance, which he requested to not be nominated for but was anyway.  Scott wins the Best Lead Actor award and doesn't attend the ceremony.  The award was never claimed by him either.  He requested that the Academy donate the award to the George Patton museum in Kentucky, but he only made the request verbally.  Since it was not in writing, it was never donated.  To the best of my knowledge the award is currently on display at the Virginia Military Institute Museum, a military school that the real Patton attended.  With all that said, Patton clocks in at nearly three hours but never drags.  The film and Scott's performance are engaging, and the battle scenes are incredibly well done.  I had planned on writing this blog during a recent trip to Seattle, as I had a laptop and my notes all ready.  Unfortunately, my notes wound up misplaced, so I'll do the best I can on a synopsis from memory.  Let's take a look at what was President Nixon's all-time favorite film, 1970 Best Picture Patton.

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The film opens with Patton (Scott) standing in front a large flag giving a speech to an unseen audience of troops.  We then head to North Africa, circa 1942-43, where the remains of the demoralized American II Corps are after being soundly defeated General Rommel at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass.  General Omar Bradley (Karl Malden) decides that the Corps needs to rebound with the leadership of the best tank commander in the Army, and Patton steps in to assume command.  He arrives early at the camp and catches most of the soldiers off-guard, a mistake they quickly learn not to make again as Patton isn't in the mood for pleasantries and seeing the soldiers playing around after such a defeat.  He quickly establishes discipline, commanding his men with an iron fist.  He also has great respect for the Germans he's up against, especially Rommel, having read Rommel's war strategy books.

 

Meanwhile in Berlin, the Germans are aware of Patton and begin to study him as well, with several honing in on his strategy and his character.  They note he is a romantic, reads the Bible daily, swears a LOT, and believes in reincarnation.  Rommel (Karl Michael Vogler) states he will attack and annihilate Patton before Patton can do the same to him.  The Germans attack the camp, further driving Patton to want to win.  Patton does successfully lead his soldiers to victory at El Guettar, though he is bitterly disappointed to learn afterward that Rommel was not present at that battle.  However, Lieutenant Colonel Codman (Paul Stevens) assures Patton that, though Rommel was absent, since Patton defeated Rommel's plan, then he defeated Rommel.  Patton feels better and takes an immediately liking to Codman.

 

 

Patton, with the victory, feels invincible, and believes his ideas are now all the right ones.  However, the U.S. President is working with British PM Churchill and there's an equally-egotistical British commander named Field Marshal Montgomery (Michael Bates) who thinks HIS ideas are best.  Patton and Montgomery dislike each other intensely, and as the African campaign draws to a close, plans are made for the invasion of Sicily. Both Patton and Montgomery have different war plans for this invasion, and Montgomery's idea is ultimately agreed to by their superiors.  Montgomery's plan has British and American armies landing side-by-side in the southeast.  Patton sees this idea as beneficial to Montgomery and British troops as they would get all the glory upon taking the island in the end.  Patton is outraged and decides he'll still go with his own plan to lead on the northwest of the island as his frustration grows at the slow progress of Montgomery's campaign.  Patton captures Palermo and then narrowly beats Montgomery in a race to capture the port of Messina in the northeast.

 

At this point, dissension sprouts up among his commanders Bradley and Truscott (John Doucette), who do not wish to sacrifice more American soldiers to Patton's ego and recklessness.  Patton also continues to speak his mind to the media, further upsetting President Eisenhower, who doesn't want any tension to show up in the press since the Allies are trying to uphold morale and control.  Everything comes to a head during a routine inspection of wounded men in a field hospital.  Patton salutes and pays tribute to those wounded in battle, but then encounters a shell-shocked soldier crying in a corner.  Patton becomes enraged with what he perceives as a display of cowardice and slaps the soldier, ordering him sent back to the front.  This outburst gets Patton reprimanded with an order to apologize to his soldiers en masse.  Forced to swallow his pride, he stands before the assembled troops and tersely gives his explanation with a veiled apology.

 

As the war wages on, Patton is called to England prior to D-Day, and he believes he will be commanding the major invasion.  Instead, he learns that his recent actions have caused too much trouble, and Patton's orders from Eisenhower are to lead the First United States Army Group in southeast England.  This group does not actually exist, however.  It's just a decoy to draw the enemies away from Normandy.  As far as fooling the Germans, that seems to be a success because General Jodl (Richard Münch) is convinced that is where Patton will lead the next major offensive, and he sells the rest of the German commanders on this as well.

 

Patton is prepared to accept his fate but he really doesn't want to.  He confides to Bradley that he's made mistakes and promises to keep his mouth shut.  He thinks D-Day may be his last chance to be in a great battle, and he begs Bradley to put him back into the game.  Bradley eventually puts Patton on probation and gives him the chance.  Patton gains more ground in less time than any other allied outfit, leading the Third Army through France, liberating Bastogne and eventually plowing right into Germany.

In time, the German soldiers know they're beaten, and the commanders abandon their posts, burning everything at HQ.  Patton and the Allies are victorious.  All too soon, however, Patton's mouth gets him into trouble again.  After an earlier remark of how the post-war world would be led by Britian and the U.S., which upset Russia, Patton insults a major Russian officer at a post-war celebration, calling him a son of a bitch and refusing to drink with him.  The Russian officer, to his credit, tells Patton he is also a son of a bitch, and this extinguishes the tension.  They do indeed drink together.  Unfortunately, the statement still made the media along with another one where Patton compares the defeated Nazis to other political parties in the U.S.  Eisenhower is forced to relieve Patton once again.

 

 

Patton says goodbye to his soldiers before leaving with Bradley.  Patton recalls an ancient Roman war coming to an end and the soldiers then being feted with a parade.  Chariots would lead prisoners walking in chains, and one prisoner carried a golden crown, whispering in the conqueror's ear that all glory is fleeting.

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Screenwriters Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North largely wrote the script based on the biographies Patton: Ordeal and Triumph by Ladislas Farago and A Soldier's Story by General Bradley.....Bradley also served as a consultant on the film, and seems to get along well with Patton in the story.  In reality, the two were not fond of one another.....Scott had wanted the opening speech to actually come later in the film, believing that showing it right away would overshadow everything else.  Director Franklin Schaffner assured Scott the speech would actually be shown at the END of the film, as Scott refused to shoot the scene if it were not to be.  In reality, Schaffner knew this was a lie.....That opening speech also is the cold open for the film.  There are no title credits and not even a studio acknowledgement.  The first line in the film is a "Ten-hut!" call, and it was so sudden, many soldiers attending the movie's premiere stood up expecting a superior in the flesh talking to them directly.....Rod Steiger was offered the Patton role and turned it down.  He admitted later it was the biggest mistake of his career.....This was the first PG-rated film to win Best Picture honors.....Only two films were ever shot using a then-revolutionary process called Dimension 150, a variation on the popular Todd-AO process.  This was the second one.....A made-for-TV sequel was made in 1986 with Scott reprising his role.  Entitled The Last Days of Patton, it contained flashbacks of Patton's life interspersed with his final living weeks after being injured in a car accident.

 

Patton was an unexpected box-office success, drawing huge crowds and gates.  The AMPAS honored the film with 10 Oscar nominations, making it the clear front-runner at the 43rd Annual ceremony.  The film came up short in the categories of Cinematography, Visual Effects and Original Score.  However, the film took home a total of 7 statuettes for Film Editing, Sound, Art/Set Direction, Adapted Screenplay (Coppola and North; this was Coppola's first Oscar nomination and win), Lead Actor (Scott), Director (Schaffner) and Picture.  That top award was won over Airport, Five Easy Pieces, Love Story and M*A*S*H.

War films aren't for everyone, and 3-hour films aren't for everyone either.  Patton is both, which could make it a hard sell for today's audiences.  Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, I misplaced my notes from when I viewed the film a few weeks ago, so I know the synopsis wasn't as detailed as the film deserves.  Truth be told, this is a very good movie that is much better than I may have explained it to be.  Some critics consider this to be the greatest war movie ever made.  I'm not sure I agree on that one, but this was a very easy film to stay interested in, thanks especially to Scott's fantastic work in the lead role.  He may have considered the Oscars a "meat parade" but unfortunately for him (odd as that sounds), he probably did indeed deliver the best on-screen performance of 1970 as General George S. Patton.  On this Veteran's Day, or any other day, Patton is worth a look.