Patton

With its now iconic opening 1970's Patton truely makes an impact. It lets you know exactly who Patton was and what his beliefs were. Ironically the beginning was one of the things that the studios at the time didn't like, because it showed an older Patton then the movie goes back to a younger Patton. But it works and really gets you into the movie. Francis Ford Coppola who wrote Patton used a similar style of opening for The Godfather (which also won Best Picture). It is the interesting writing along with great acting and a wonderful score that makes this movie great.


Patton follows the rise and controversies of General Patton during WWII. He starts of the movie as a 2 star General and ends the movie as a 4 star General. In between he has many setbacks. This mostly has to do with his very strict rules for his men and his unique ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. For a while he is used as a diversion to make the German Army think he is going to attack from England when really he was basically removed from command and placed on disciplinary leave for hitting a solider. Eventually he makes his big push and establishes himself as a great military leader.

What I like about this movie is that it is not the typical war movie. Patton is a flawed but also brilliant General. He had one of those personalities that borders on that line between genius and insane. He studied military history and was a great strategist but he also thought that he had past lives and fought in some of those battles. There are a few battle scenes but not many. The movie mostly focuses on Patton and his interactions with the higher commands. With his tendency to stick his foot and question their strategies he was constantly in trouble. But on the battle field there was no one like him. The movie had great performances by George C. Scott as Patton and Karl Malden as his best friend General Bradley. Francis Ford Coppola's script balances the genius and quirky personality of Patton perfectly. Interestingly Coppola first submitted the script for the movie 5 years before the movie was made and it was rejected for being too unusual mostly because of the opening sequence. Eventually someone found his script and used it and he won an Academy Award for best Screenplay.

Oscar Facts
Patton was the first PG rated movie to win Best Picture (only the third rated movie to win)
George C. Scott who won Best Actor declined the award saying competition between actors was wrong. The first person ever to turn down an Oscar.
A very different war movie was also nominated for Best Picture in 1970 the antiwar movie M.A.S.H.
Woodstock won Best Documentary that year.