Patton

Franklin J Schaffner's superb war epic charts US General George S Patton's role in the Second World War. [06 Jun 2015, p.32]

Patton is a war movie of unusual depth and a landmark in screen biographies.

A giant Rorschach blot of a film, Patton can be read any number of ways, from a sly satire of gung-ho militarism to an epic glorification of Patton's old-school mentality.

Made at the height of the Vietnam war, this remarkable film presents the second world war on an epic scale while painting a warts-and-all portrait of the military genius General George Patton (George C Scott), part mystic, part mad martinet. [28 Sep 2014, p.47]

As a study of power, neither Coppola's script nor Schaffner's direction are precise enough to merit the praise that has been heaped upon them. As an exercise in biography, however, Schaffner and Coppola's character study of General George S Patton is marvellous, especially in its sideways debunking of the American Hero.

It’s the script, started by many hands, crafted into something an actor at his best seething, or in full bellow, could sink his teeth into, that makes this series of movie accidents a “lust for glory” that lasts.

This movie is both a satirical epic and a square celebration, yet the satire backfires.

The Allies won WW2 but we don't know that much about the details. This movie fleshes out one of the more famous (the M-48 tank is called the Patton) generals. He's egotistical, tactless, and probably got a lot of soldiers killed. But in a war to decide who was going to rule the world, he was our "go to" guy. I've seen a few documentaries about 1944; the mood of the people was turning anti-war; kind of like the Vietnam protests. We might have made peace with **** Germany and the Japanese empire rather than getting their surrender. What would the world look like now? I don't have many DVDs but this one is in my collection.

George C. Scott's portrayal of the WWII General George Patton is a sight to behold, and it's really his performance that drives the whole movie - not at all a bad thing.

a self-challenged and self-motivated.. Patton 3 Out Of 5 Patton is a character driven feature that follows up its characters like an irrevocable command. The work that went behind writing just the protagonist clearly pays off, for it is the only thread that one wants to hold on to in this overstretched journey and boy what a thrilling ride it has to offer. It is rich on technical aspects like costume, production and art design, sound department, cinematography and editing. The camera work is stunning, it is shot beautifully with amazing locations and visuals that endorses the feature. The screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North, is electrifying and smart if not gripping and the only reason to that would be the overlong runtime that it ticks for which seems inessential at certain points. Franklin J. Schaffner; the director, is in his A game and has done an excellent work on executing the feature which could have easily been blunt and disenchanting and the key to that would be the sense of urgency that is created to bind it all. The performance objective is scored majestically by the protagonist George C. Scott and Karl Malden in his supporting role. Patton is a self-challenged and self-motivated feature whose protagonist justifies its title like never before.

Long winded propagandistic silliness, this film doesn't have the self-awareness required to do justice to its subject.

I decided to watch 'Patton', the all-time favorite film of James Berardinelli, someone i respect a lot, and someone who has a very profound taste in films, which i like, i always love reading his reviews. Me, as usual going in to any movie with high hopes and high expectation, since it is the #1 film of someone i respect, but boy, o boy was i disappointed. This is a lifeless, patriotic, American piece of propaganda. In a very, very negative way. It has no redeeming qualities, and every battle scene you get showed, you don't care about who gets bombed and gets shot at by infantry, because everyone that gets killed in the battle scenes are faceless puppets, something an emotionally driven war picture needs. The whole movie is about George S. Patton, an eccentric and controversial American war general with a short fuse, you might think that will result in some fantastic scenes. No, not really. The whole movie is really about how great Americans are, and how great this maniacal war general is, showing manly decisions, epic battles (battles that have no gravitas at all), how great he handles everything, etc, etc. Each scene in 'Patton' could've easily been cut 2 to 4 minutes, resulting in a dragging and overlong movie with an unneeded runtime of 172 minutes. All in all, i still gave 'Patton' a 1/10 because George C. Scott undeniably gives a powerhouse performance, and i respect Franklin J. Schaffner a lot, attempting to make a memorable war picture.