Patton (film)

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Patton
Patton film poster
Directed by	Franklin J. Schaffner
Produced by	Frank Caffey Frank McCarthy
Written by	Novel (Patton: Ordeal and Triumph): Ladislas Farago Novel (A Soldier's Story): Omar N. Bradley Screenplay: Francis Ford Coppola Edmund H. North
Starring	George C. Scott Karl Malden Michael Bates Karl Michael Vogler
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography	Fred J. Koenekamp
Editing by	Hugh S. Fowler
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	February 4, 1970
Running time	170 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$12,000,000
IMDb profile

Patton is a 1970 epic biographical film which tells the story of General George Patton's commands during World War II. It stars George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Michael Bates, and Karl Michael Vogler. 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 would become 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.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Family objects to Production 3 The Film 4 Awards 5 Cast 6 Sequels 7 Cultural References 8 Trivia 9 See also 10 Notes 11 External links

[edit] 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 Montgomery to capture the 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 and threatening him with one of his signature ivory-handled .45-caliber pistols. 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 leading it in relieving the vital town of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, following on with the famously rapid movement of his tank corps into the Nazi homeland, and implies its role in the rapid defeat of Germany.

The movie depicts some of Patton's more controversial actions, e.g. his remarks following the fall of Germany, comparing the Nazis to losers in American political elections. Although he is shown to be a military genius, the film does not try to conceal the darker, more elitist and brutal side of Patton.

[edit] Family objects to Production

There were several attempts to make the movie, starting in 1953. The Patton family was approached by the producers for help in making the film. They wanted access to Patton's diaries and input from the family members. By coincidence, the day they asked the family was the day after the funeral of Beatrice Ayer Patton, the general's widow. After that, the family was dead-set against the movie and refused to give any help to the filmmakers.

Owing to a lack of help from the family, Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North wrote the film from two biographies: Patton: Ordeal and Triumph by Ladislas Farago and A Soldier's Story by Omar Bradley. It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. In 2005, his wife's "Button Box" manuscript was finally released by his family, with the posthumous release of Ruth Ellen Patton Totten's (his daughter's) book, The Button Box: A Daughter's Loving Memoir of Mrs. George S. Patton.[2]

[edit] The Film

Patton opened with a rendering of General Patton's famous military "Pep Talk" (help·info) to members of the Third army, set against a huge American flag. The film throughout is a tour de force in the use of 70mm epic scale presentation. The imagery and the stereo sound brought a visual magnificence, that sometimes approached the cinematic quality of the earlier 70mm film Lawrence of Arabia. The film was accepted by its audiences as another great depiction of a major, modern-military figure—in the spirit of David Lean's complex portrait of "Lawrence".

[edit] Awards

Scott's performance as Patton won him an Academy Award for Best Actor (which he famously refused, stating that the Oscars were "a meat parade"), and has been called "one of the greatest performances of all time".^{[citation needed]}

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.

Popular online film critic James Berardinelli has called Patton his favorite film of all time. [3]

[edit] Cast

• George C. Scott as General George S. Patton
• Karl Malden as General Omar Bradley
• Stephen Young as Chester B. Hansen
• Michael Strong as Hobart Carver
• Carey Loftin as Bradley's Driver
• Michael Bates as General Bernard Law Montgomery
• Frank Latimore as Henry Davenport
• Morgan Paull as Richard N. Jenson
• Karl Michael Vogler as General F. M. Erwin Rommel
• Bill Hickman as Patton's Driver
• Siegfried Rauch as Captain Steiger
• Richard Münch as Alfred Jodl
• John Doucette as Lucian Truscott
• Harry Morganas Senator

[edit] Sequels

A made-for-television sequel, The Last Days of Patton, was produced in 1986. Scott reprised his title role. The movie was based on Patton's final weeks after being mortally injured in a car accident, with flashbacks of Patton's earlier life.

[edit] Cultural References

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. ^[1]

The IMDB also reports the following spoofs:

• The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974)
• Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983)
• Dead End (1985)
• Sesame Street Presents: Follow that Bird (1985)
• Doin' Time (1985)
• "Punky Brewster: Cheaters Never Win (#2.3)" (1985)
• The 'burbs (1989)
• Space Jam (1996)
• Small Soldiers (1998)
• Antz (1998)
• Patton Pending (1999)
• Toy Story 2 (1999)
• Recess: School's Out (2001)
• Buffalo Soldiers (2001)
• The New Guy (2002)

[edit] Trivia

• At the end of the movie, Patton is nearly run over by an oxcart and says, "Imagine, after all I've been through, imagine me going out like that!". In December 1945, Patton was injured in a freak vehicle accident and died a few weeks later.
• The movie writers of Patton's famous speech had to tone down Patton's actual words and statements.
• The entire film was shot in Spain except for one scene in Tunisia where Patton visits Carthaginian ruins. The scenes set in Africa and Sicily were shot in the south of Spain while the winter scenes in France were shot near Madrid (where the production would rush when they were informed that snow had fallen).
• Patton's driver was played by Scott's golf instructor, George Slingerland.
• The M-4 Sherman tank was used in large numbers in Patton's forces (with the M-26 Pershing becoming available very late in the war). Ironically, however, many of the tanks on both sides in the film were the M-47 and M-48 models of the Patton tank series of the 1950s, which were post World War II developments of the M-26, as they were the models used by the Spanish Army which assisted in the production of the film. There were few actual Word War II vintage tanks seen in the film except in archival newsreel footage.
• Several other incorrect props are used as well. 1950s M38 Jeeps can be seen, 1960s M35 cargo trucks are used (for both American and German trucks), Navy Model 1928 Thompsons are carried by many soldiers. When the M1A1 Thompson was the weapon issued, very few Navy Model Thompsons were used in the European Theater.
• Paul D. Harkins, the general who preceded William Westmoreland in Vietnam, wrote a book about Patton in 1969 and received a technical credit in the movie.
• According to Woodward and Bernstein's book The Final Days, Patton was Richard Nixon's favorite film. He screened it several times at The White House and during a cruise on the Presidential Yacht just four days before his resignation, he reportedly mentioned the scene near the end of the film where Patton rides around the courtyard in Berlin.
• First shown on TV November 19, 1972
• Jeff Lint, better known as a writer of Science Fiction, was engaged to write an early draft of the script, but this was later destroyed.
• The scene at the beginning of the film with Patton delivering his monologue was actually the last scene filmed. Originally, it was supposed to have been the first scene shot, but Scott requested that he be saved for the end of filmmaking. It was Scott's belief that the scene called for Patton to be so over the top, that it would affect his performance in the rest of the film. The scene was shot in a basement room.
• In a scene, General Patton incorrectly cites Frederick II of Prussia (Friedrich der Große) --"L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace!", which translates into English as "Daring, daring - always daring!". This is a paraphrase of Georges Danton.
• All the medals and decorations shown on Patton's uniform in the monologue are authentic replicas of those actually earned and/or awarded to Patton. However, the general never wore all of them in public. Patton only put them all on once, in his backyard in Virginia at the request of his wife who wanted a picture of him with all his medals on. 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.
• A Spanish Pegaso truck from the 1960's painted in olive green can be seen in the background of the opening scene of the "Kasserine" scene.
• Rod Steiger was offered the starring role, but refused, saying that he did not want to glorify war. After viewing the completed film, he said that refusing the role was the biggest mistake of his career.

[edit] See also

• North African Campaign
• Tunisia Campaign
• Hans-Jürgen von Arnim
• Erwin Rommel
• Afrika Korps
• Panzer Army Africa

[edit] Notes

1. ^ [1] IMDB Bart the General

[edit] External links

• Patton at the Internet Movie Database
• Patton at Filmsite.org
• Patton at the TCM Movie Database
• Opening Speech from the Movie in Text, Audio and Video from AmericanRhetoric.com
• Patton: Ordeal and Triumph by Ladislas Farago
• The Patton Society Homepage (Life of the General)
• The history of the famous Patton speech
• The real Patton speech
• Patton Uncovered