Franklin J. Schaffner’s, “Patton”, is a limited time-frame biopic of one of history’s great American Military leaders. The movie is set within the short World War 2 period of Patton’s life, between 1941 – 1945, so as a biopic it is very limited. While the film is almost three hours long, it is never given a chance to expand on any one battle with detail, which limits its effect as a war movie. Where the movie does shine is in its almost caricatured character study of its larger the life, and iconoclastic title character, George S Patton.
The movie is divided into four distinct sections. The North African Campaign, the Sicily Campaign, the Normandy breakout offensive (which includes the Lorrain campaign, the battle of the bulge, and invasion of Germany), and the immediate Post war period in Germany. The fame of Patton the General was due to his emphasis on rapid, aggressive offensive action, and his belief in leading from the front. He was also famous for his narcissistic and pompous belief in himself and his love of battle. In medieval times he would have been a great warrior.
What the movie has going for it is sharp witty dialogue and an outstanding performance by George C Scott in the title role. Scott has the right age and temperament for the role. His expressive face and deep raspy voice encompasses a man who likes playing with people’s lives. Patton was a man who obsessively believed in his actions and was certain that he was correct on all matters. Scott walks in this film like a manic dictator with sure strides of a man who knows exactly where he is going. There is very little tenderness in the performance, and as such very little to actually like about the character, except for the fact that he was fighting against an evil enemy, and his was a personality that is needed to succeed in battle.
Throughout the movie there are small segmented scenes of the German army obsessing on what Patton is planning to do next. History tells us that this was mostly true, and in once important segment of the film, the allies use this obsession to fool the Germans as to the correct location of allied invasion into occupied France. In fact, every single depiction of war and military tactics, whether it is from the prospective of the Allies or Germans is shown through the perspective of Patton. If this film is to believed, Patton was the main reason for the allied victory in Europe. It is this frame of reference that is used to instill an almost godlike worship on the man. The film seemed to be telling me that Patton as a human being was narcissistic, and ruthless, which is the exact attributes that are most needed for military leaders during a war.
The actual depictions of war are very obtuse and distant. The movie either depicts a battle from a height, like a map, or shows short non-context scenes of tanks firing and exploding. There is almost no indication as to the extent of the actual horror of war, except for Post-battle scenes of bodies strewn over the battlefield. I believe that this movie would have had more power if a little bit more of the soldier’s point of observation to the war was shown. For me this limits the movie in its ability to comment on war. For a movie based entirely during wartime, that is an issue.
Where the movie does shine is in it’s extremely entertaining script and the deliverance of said script by Scott. Scott seems to embody the character and give breathing life to the lines, co-written by the great Francis Ford Coppola. The script shows Patton unafraid in placing himself in the line of danger, as he would constantly enter the front or storm outside during air raids. Bullets would fly and bombs would explode all around him, while he remains untouched. Coppola, would later in his career explain this through the character of Col. Kilgore in, “Apocalypse Now”. Both characters love war and are saddened by its inevitable end. When talking about the war Patton states in the film, “All good things must come to an end”. Kilgor talks about loving the smell of napalm in the morning. They are the same character, even though one is real (Patton), and the other fictional (Kilgore). I may be wrong but since Coppola co-wrote this movie, I believe that his responsibility in the script was most probably Patton’s dialogue and physical actions, as those are the best parts of the film.
There is real violence and power in the scene where Patton slaps and berates a shell-shocked soldier. This occurrence would turn out to be his undoing, as World war 2 was the first real war that was waged side by side with publicity. Bad publicity was almost as destructive as bad tactics. The publicity of Patton’s treatment of the soldier suffering from shell shock, was cause to put him out of favor with the high command.
The movie opens with a bellicose speech to the Army in front of a large united states flag where Patton tells his soldiers among other extremely confident statements that, “No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making some other poor dumb bastard die for his country”. Not only is this one of the most incisive truisms about war, Scott breathes fiery life into the statement as he struts across the flag epitomizing the act of leading people into war. The introductory speech that starts off the movie is one of the great cinema beginnings ever made. It sets the tone to not only the type of man we were about to discover, but for the seriousness of the history where modern western civilization was at stake.
It is interesting to note that for a movie filmed as a real war in Vietnam was reeling out of control, it is clearly justifying the means of war when needed. This is not an anti-war film by any means. The movie even goes as far as to justify extreme means and the sacrificing of human life for the victory that is needed in war. There was a clear distinction in American society at the time between what was going on in South East Asia and the justifiable war against evil that was World War 2. No film better illuminated this then, “Patton”.
The music score, written by Jerry Goldsmith, is one of the great movie scores of Hollywood. Throughout the movie Goldsmith’s music adds to the grandeur of the story. The main them is a symphonic march accompanied by a distinct pipe organ theme that eludes to the almost Mystic stature of the Patton the man.
Schaffner’s bio-epic, Patton, while not a very good war movie, or deep character study, is an impressive piece of filmmaking in its ability to use Scott’s amazing performance to show what kind of personality, however disdainful, is needed to lead men to their death and win a war. For this reason, it is a movie, like its main protagonist, that stands tall and proud.
1001 Movies before you die 