CONSENSUS #4. Patton (1970)

 

SYNOPSIS:  This is the biopic of the famous (some would say infamous) American tank commander (George C. Scott) from WWII Europe.  It covers his career from taking command in North Africa after Kasserine Pass to dismissal near the end of the war.  Omar Bradley (Karl Malden) plays a leading role in the film.

BACK-STORY:  “Patton” was based on the books Patton:  Ordeal and Triumph by Ladislas Farago and A Soldier’s Story by Omar Bradley (who served as a technical adviser).  The screenwriters were Francis Ford Coppola and Edward North (who shared the Academy Award, but had never met).  Coppola wrote the first draft, but was fired partly because the studio did not like the opening speech!  The speech was a composite of remarks Patton made at various times.  The use of words like bastard, shit, sons of bitches, and Hell were groundbreaking for a major feature.  Rod Steiger, Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum, and Burt Lancaster turned down the lead and the studio nixed John Wayne (thank goodness).  George C. Scott was reluctant to take the role because he disliked Patton.  He was upset about the positioning of the speech at the beginning feeling it was too powerful and the rest of the film would be a letdown.  The movie was shot in Spain to take advantage of all its circa WWII equipment.  The movie was a huge success and the Patton family loved it.  It won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director (Franklin J. Schaffner), Actor (which Scott famously refused to accept),  Original Screenplay, Editing, Sound, and Art Direction.   It was nominated for Cinematography, Visual Effects, and Score.  It is ranked #89 on AFI’s list of greatest movies and Patton is #29 on the list of heroes.

TRIVIA: 

1.  George C. Scott did not want the speech at the start of the movie because he felt it would be hard to top.  He threatened to not make the film.  Schaffner lied to him and told him the speech would be later in the film.  Scott wore Patton’s actual famous ivory-handled revolvers for the scene.

 

2.  Producer Frank McCarthy graduated from VMI and eventually rose to be George Marshall’s chief aide.  He met Patton several times.  He planned FDR’s funeral.  The was Assistant Secretary of State under Truman.  He suffered several nervous breakdowns due to overwork.  He went to work for Hollywood mogul Darryl Zanuck.  He was co-producer on “Decision Before Dawn”. 

 

3.  Columbia Pictures wanted to make the movie in 1950, but Beatrice Patton nixed the deal because the family hated the media for its role in Patton’s controversies.  She died in 1953, but the children shared her opposition to any film about their father.  In 1961, McCarthy got himself assigned as assistant to the chief of information, US Army and got the Army to approve the project for 20^th Century Fox with requiring family approval.  The family hired a lawyer to try to derail the project, which didn’t happen, but did result in a better script.  The family ended up liking the finished film.

 

4.  McCarthy’s first choice was Burt Lancaster.  The studio wanted John Wayne.  Zanuck suggested Scott.  George C. Scott was reluctant to take the role because he disliked Patton.

 

5.  The near bankruptcy of 20^th Century due to “Cleopatra” set the project back several years.

 

6.  When Ladislas Farago’s book Ordeal and Triumph came out, 20^th Century bought the rights and Zanuck took up the project and assigned David Brown to produce.  McCarthy was brought on board.  Calder Willingham wrote a treatment that was not wedded to accuracy.  McCarthy was disappointed and hired Francis Ford Coppola.  The screenwriters were Francis Ford Coppola and Edward North (who shared the Academy Award, but had never met).  Coppola wrote the first draft, but was fired partly because the studio did not like the opening speech!  The speech was a composite of remarks Patton made at various times.  Ed North revised the script.  He did not collaborate with Coppola.  He added historical accuracy and cut a scene involving Patton’s disastrous attempt to rescue his son-in-law from a German prison because he rightfully felt it cancelled the vibe from the Bastogne segment.  McCarthy watched over North’s shoulder and they collaborated.  The use of words like bastard, shit, sons of bitches, and Hell were groundbreaking for a major feature. Fuck in the speech was changed to “fornicating”.

 

7.  Director Franklin Schaffner was coming off “Planet of the Apes”.  He insisted the studio remove the subtitle “Blood and Guts”.

 

8.  Shooting began in Spain 17 years, 3 months, and 11 days after McCarthy had first proposed the project.

 

9.  72 locations were used.

 

10.  A total of eight days were lost to Scott’s drinking.  It did not help that James Edwards (Meeks) was an alcoholic who instigated and facilitated Scott’s binges.  McCarthy filmed Edwards’ scenes early and then fired him.  He gave some of Edwards’ lines to others like Paul Stevens (Codham).  Karl Malden took on the task of dining with Scott and keeping liquor away.  Because of what he saw of the effects of alcohol on Scott, Malden gave up drinking.

 

11.  Jerry Goldsmith’s score is iconic, but there is only 30 minutes of music in the movie.

 

12.  Richard Nixon legendarily saw the movie dozens of times, but official White House records only confirm three.

 

13.  Schaffner and North claimed that the movie was anti-war (i.e., it takes a personality like Patton to win wars), but McCarthy insisted it was pro-Army.

 

14.  It was entitled “Patton:  Lust for Glory” in Great Britain where it got good reviews in spite of the portrayal of Montgomery.

 

15.  It seems likely that the two mules were actually euthanized before they were dumped over the bridge.

 

16.  Outtakes of combat were used in the movie “Fireball Forward”.

 

17.  Willie lived the rest of his life after his master’s death with the Patton family and died in 1955.

 

18.  The WTF that appears on the front of Patton’s siren-wailing jeep early in the movie stands for Western Task Force.

 

Belle and Blade  =  5.0

Brassey’s              =  5.0

Video Hound       =  5.0

War Movies         =  5.0

Military History  =  #17

Channel 4             =  #44

Film Site                =  yes

101 War Movies  =  yes

Rotten Tomatoes  =  #34 

 

HISTORICAL ACCURACY:  The use of two acclaimed books makes “Patton” above average in historical accuracy.  Plus the hands-on participation of Omar Bradley is huge plus.  In spite of this there are some Hollywood moments to enhance the plot.  The most important point is that the movie gets Patton’s personality down pat.  He was the multi-layered person that Scott portrays.  He could be profane, sensitive, religious, glory-hungry, charismatic, insufferable, etc. Physically Scott looks like Patton, but Patton had a high voice which obviously would not have worked in the film.  You can’t blame Hollywood for that.

                The screenwriters decided to play around a bit with the Patton – Bradley relationship, but Bradley apparently had no problems with this.  In the movie, Bradley is basically portrayed as shaking his head at Patton’s antics when he is subordinate to Patton and then keeping him on a short leash after their role reversal.  They are depicted as respectful arch-friends.  In actuality, Bradley disliked Patton mostly because of his over the top personality.  Patton’s profanities rattled the moralistic Bradley.

                The movie makes the conscious decision to leave out some significant events in Patton’s career because they would have tampered with the plot themes.  The campaign in Lorraine was a tough slog that would have disrupted the flow and did not have the exhilaration of the Battle of the Bulge segment.  Patton’s disastrous Hammelburg Raid to rescue his son-in-law from a POW camp would have lessened the portrayal of the military genius.  His visits to concentration camps would have suddenly introduced the Holocaust towards the end of the film.

1.  Patton did bring strict discipline to II Corps and did give a lot of fines for uniform violations.

2.  The strafing incident occurred during a meeting with RAF officials, but Coningham was not there.  Patton did not have time to fire his pistols, but he did make the remark about decorating the Luftwaffe pilots.

3.  Patton did believe in reincarnation, but probably did not visit the Zama battlefield with Bradley.

4.  The Steiger (the German who researches Patton) character was a Hollywood invention, but a good one.

5.  The Battle of El Qatar was substantially as depicted.  The movie does not show that Patton was almost killed by a shell that hit where he had just been.  The death of his aide was close, but there was no funeral like in the movie.

6.  The movie overdoes the race with Monty to Messina.  In fact the movie consistently exaggerates the animosity between the men, although Patton had a tendency to demonize Monty in his imagination.  The confrontation with Truscott over the risky landing was true and the landing was almost a disaster (which the movie glosses over).  The arrival of the British army in Messina and its subsequent embarrassment is pure Hollywood.

7.  The killing of the mules blocking the road did happen.

8.  The slapping incident is well done including the dialogue.  The movie actually depicts the second of two slapping incidents.  The apologies did occur.

9.  He did have a bull terrier named Willie.

10.  The Knutsford Incident where he got in trouble for a speech to British ladies was basically true except that he did mention the Russians.  The press left that part out and this got Patton in hot water with Ike.

11.  The movie has Patton visiting Bradley in Normandy and begging for command of the 3rd Army.  That is pure bull crap as Ike had always planned for Patton to be in command of that army for the Normandy breakout and Patton was not kept in the dark.

12.  Patton had actually begun to plan for the Battle of Bulge shift a couple of weeks before the meeting at Verdun.  Ike was at that meeting, but not in the movie.

13.  The weather prayer was originally to stop rain during the Lorraine campaign.

14.  Patton’s comments about denazification were accurate .

OPINION:   “Patton” is a significant movie in the canon of war films.  Although it does not push the boundaries of combat violence, it is certainly more realistic in soldier language than Old School movies.  In fact, the opening speech with its profanities was considered to be shocking to an audience weaned on movies like “The Desert Fox”.  1970 was a watershed year with other genre-changing films like MASH and Kelly’s Heroes.  “Patton” was the one that scored 8 Academy Awards and brought tremendous prestige to the genre.  It combined the hero and anti-hero in one person and thus acted as a bridge between Old School heroes and the modern anti-heroes.      

                The movie has only one weakness.  Although some laud its combat scenes, they are actually pretty lame and brief.  Since this is a biopic, combat depiction is not crucial.  However, given the big budget nature of the film, the action should have been better.  It is particularly distressing to see the silly deaths that are associated with inferior films.

                The acting makes up for the lack of combat fireworks.  In a sense, Patton supplies the fireworks.  Scott’s performance is magnificent.  Only Peter O’Toole’s performance in “Lawrence of Arabia” is comparable.  Scott was one of the most deserving Best Actor winners ever, which is ironic because he refused to accept the Oscar.  He totally dominates the movie from opening speech to ending line: “All glory is fleeting”.  Karl Malden is very good as Bradley.  Michael Bates does such a wonderful parody of Montgomery that his portrayal has become fixed in the American perception of him.  The rest of the cast is fine.

                The movie is technically sound.  The score by Jerry Goldsmith is very memorable.  Surprisingly there is only 32 minutes of music in the film.  The sound effects are also well done.  The battles may not be that exhilarating, but they sound amazing.  The cinematography is top notch.  The scenery is nice, but it’s the interiors that are remarkable. They are expansive and baroque, like Patton.  The decisions by the director to subtitle the Germans and use newsreels copiously as background to the war’s events were wise.               

                The screenplay is almost perfect for a biography and character study.  Coppola/North did their home work and managed to include Patton’s greatest hits with the exception of incidents like the Hammelburg Raid that just did not fit the narrative.  They earned the Best Original Screenplay Oscar.  The movie could have been either idolizing  or scornful given the subject.  The screenplay skirts the extremes so well that some people criticize the film as hero-worshipping and others insist it besmirches a great American.  The themes are well-developed.  One is that Patton was a man out of his time.  Another is that it is possible to love war and treat it is as a profession.  Patton would not have agreed with Sherman’s “war is Hell”.  On a personal note, the movie made me wonder if war movie lovers are Pattonesque in their views.  A minor subtheme is that Patton was religious (he read the Bible “every God-damned day”) and yet reveled in the killing of Germans.

                In conclusion,  “Patton” was the perfect movie for its time.  1970 was ripe for a movie that changed the game.  “Patton” reinvigorated the war film because it brought in huge audiences and opened people’s minds to a more realistic depiction of warfare and command in warfare.  The movie cannily tapped in to the country’s Vietnam War psyche.  The hawks saw Patton as the kind of general we needed to win a just cause.  Doves could sneer at the type of mentality that had gotten us into the mess.  You saw what you wanted to see.  Even today it is unclear whether Patton should be seen as a role model.  I personally feel it is overrated at #4 because of the lame combat scenes.