ViewGuide

Created Mar 31, 2012 06:53AM PST • Edited Nov 11, 2019 04:58PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Essential though Patton may be – as war movie, as American history, as biopic – it’s not the epochal statement the Academy thought they were canonizing with seven Oscars in 1971, including Best Picture. Back then Frances Ford Coppola’s script seemed subversive, undermining American militarism during the trauma of the Vietnam War. Today it seems like a rudimentary evocation of the Greatest Generation.

   Thank God for the Greatest Generation. General George S. Patton was one of their foremost exemplars, even if his distinctive flamboyance marked him as something of an anomaly.

   The biopic about him is flawed by a tinge of revenge served cold (from the staid Omar Bradley towards the flamboyant George Patton) and from the ironic grandstanding of the famous opening scene, cinematically bracing though it may be.

   Still, we’re talking Great Movie here. Gotta view it if you’re a war or history movie buff.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   George C. Scott’s performance does deserve canonization. It’s the type of portrayal that obscures the famous man it depicts and ever brands its creator. Interestingly, the real Patton had a “high-pitched, nasal and somewhat squeaky voice,” according to Wikipedia, just the opposite of Scott’s moviestar vocal tones.

   Karl Malden, an everyman actor, is ideal as “The G.I.’s General” Omar Bradley.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

   George C. Scott and George C. Scott alone.

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

   Karl Malden

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Ironically, the film suffers today due to its iconic opening scene, where a heavily bedecked Patton pontificates in front of a huge American flag. Director Franklin J. Schaffner’s camera leeringly pans up, down and over the medals before Patton launches into the pep talk to unseen troops.

    The problems are that Patton never wore all his medals in public, so the pornographic irony of showing them is contrived to make him look like a martinet. More importantly, the scene is out-of-time. It should have come later in this otherwise linear film, when its gravity would have been apparent. In fact, Patton really did deliver the speech and it’s a humdinger. However, he delivered it the day before D-Day, in a situation that could hardly be more dire.

    Thus, it wasn’t a peacock’s show of bravado, as in the film. It was a sterling act of military leadership.

11. Direction Great 4.0

12. Play Great 4.0

    The script is based on General Omar Bradley’s autobiography and a biography of Patton to which he and his family had no input. Bradley was also a consultant to the producers. Thus it isn’t surprising that the story and dialog reflect the low-key Bradley’s disapproval of Patton’s flamboyant ways.

    The parts of the movie that really are Patton’s words hit hard however, especially his Pep Talk, notwithstanding the cinematic flaws described above.

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.8

    The salty language and fierce war violence are damn near tame compared to contemporary standards.

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Fierce 2.4

19. Rudeness Salty 2.0

21. Reality

    Glib 1.2

    General Patton’s brilliance and hyper-aggression dramatically hastened the end of Hitler’s demonic reign. Thank God he couldn’t tolerate being anything but a winner.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.6

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0