| Patton | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Franklin J. Schaffner |
| Screenplay by | |
| Based on |
|
| Produced by | Frank McCarthy |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Fred J. Koenekamp |
| Edited by | Hugh Fowler |
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Color process | Color by Deluxe |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 172 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $12.6 million[2] |
| Box office | $62.5 million[3] |
Patton is a 1970 Americanepicbiographicalwar film about U.S. GeneralGeorge S. Patton duringWorld War II. It starsGeorge C. Scott as Patton andKarl Malden as GeneralOmar Bradley. The film was directed byFranklin J. Schaffner from a script byFrancis Ford Coppola andEdmund H. North, who based their screenplay onPatton: Ordeal and Triumph byLadislas Farago and Bradley's memoir,A Soldier's Story.
Patton grossed over $60 million against a budget of $12 million. It won sevenAcademy Awards, includingBest Picture,Best Director andBest Original Screenplay. Scott also won theBest Actor for his performance, though he declined the award.[4]
The opening monologue, delivered by Scott as General Patton with an enormous American flag behind him, remains an iconic and often quoted image in film. In 2003,Patton was selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry by theLibrary of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". TheAcademy Film Archive also preservedPatton in 2003.[5]
DuringWorld War II, theII Corps suffers a severe defeat at theBattle of Kasserine Pass inNorth Africa. GeneralGeorge S. Patton is sent to take command, reorganizes the corps, and imposes strict but necessary discipline. Frustrated by what he perceives as British commanderBernard Montgomery monopolizing the Allied effort, Patton leads the corps to redemption at theBattle of El Guettar.
Following Allied victory in North Africa, Patton and Montgomery propose competing plans for theAllied invasion of Sicily. Patton recommends landing hisU.S. Seventh Army atGela and advancing to capturePalermo andMessina before the British.Harold Alexander opts for Montgomery’s more cautious plan, landing Patton’s forces at Gela. Although initially intended to support Montgomery, Patton pushes northwest, taking Palermo and racing to Messina. During the campaign, he visits a field hospital andslaps a soldier for cowardice, sparking public outrage and requiring a formal apology.
Patton is then sidelined for theAllied invasion of France and placed in command of the fictitiousFirst United States Army Group inLondon, adecoy to mislead the Germans about the main invasion location. At a public gathering inKnutsford, Patton remarks that the postwar world will be dominated by Anglo-Americans, alarming Allied leaders.George Marshall must decide whether Patton’s outspoken comments warrant sending him home in disgrace.
Weeks after theNormandy landings, Patton takes command of theThird Army, reporting to his former subordinate,Omar Bradley. Under his leadership, the Third Army sweeps acrossFrance, but is forced to halt before entering Germany due to fuel and supply allocations to Montgomery’s forces. Frustrated, Patton confronts Bradley, who warns him again about the dangers of speaking freely.
During theBattle of the Bulge, Patton’s staff plans a bold operation to relieve the trapped101st Airborne Division inBastogne. AfterGermany capitulates, Patton’s candid comparisons ofAmerican politics toNazism create further controversy, and he is relieved of command of the Third Army. He is retained to oversee theoccupation of Germany. In the film’s closing sequence, Patton narrowly avoids a fatal accident while walking with hisbull terrier, and his voiceover reflects on the fleeting nature of glory:
For over a thousand years,Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of atriumph—a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace horses. Aslave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning that all glory ... is fleeting.
Lee Marvin,Burt Lancaster,John Wayne,Robert Mitchum andRod Steiger declined the role ofGeorge S. Patton.[6][7] Steiger later said it was his greatest mistake.[8]Charlton Heston was considered for the role of Omar N. Bradley beforeKarl Malden was cast.[7]
Attempts to make a film about the life of Patton had been made since he died in 1945 but his widow, Beatrice, resisted.[9] After her death in 1953, producerFrank McCarthy began the project and, the day after Beatrice was buried, the producers contacted the family for help in making the film, requesting access to Patton's diaries, as well as input from family members but the family declined to help.[10] McCarthy also sought co-operation fromThe Pentagon; it also initially refused, as Patton's son,George Patton IV, was in the Army, and Patton's second daughter, Ruth, was married to an officer. By 1959, McCarthy had convinced the Army to co-operate.[11][9]
20th Century Fox boughtA Soldier's Story, the 1951 autobiography ofGeneral of the ArmyOmar Bradley (who features prominently in the film, played by Karl Malden).Francis Ford Coppola wrote the film script in 1963 based largely onLadislas Farago's 1963 biographyPatton: Ordeal and Triumph, and onA Soldier's Story.[9][11][12]Edmund H. North was later brought in to help work on the script.[11] The film was originally to be calledBlood & Guts andWilliam Wyler was originally scheduled to direct. Wyler quit before the planned starting date of January 1969.[9]
Bradley, the only survivingfive-stargeneral officer in the United States after the death ofDwight D. Eisenhower in 1969, served as a consultant for the film though the extent of his influence and input into the final script is largely unknown. While Bradley knew Patton, it was also well known that the two men were opposites in personality, and there is evidence that Bradley despised Patton.[13][14] As the film was made without Patton's diaries, it largely relied upon observations by Bradley and attempts by other military contemporaries to reconstruct Patton's thoughts and motives.[15] In a review of the film,Brigadier GeneralS.L.A. Marshall, who knew both Patton and Bradley, stated, "The Bradley name gets heavy billing on a picture of [a] comrade that, while not caricature, is the likeness of a victorious, glory-seeking buffoon.... Patton in the flesh was an enigma. He so stays in the film.... Napoleon once said that the art of the general is not strategy but knowing how to mold human nature.... Maybe that is all producer Frank McCarthy and Gen. Bradley, his chief advisor, are trying to say."[15]
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The film started shooting February 3, 1969 and was shot at seventy-one locations in six countries, mostly inSpain, which had a lot of theU.S. Army's World War IIsurplus equipment.[11][9]Francoist Spain had sustained acurrency control for decades and filming in the country was the only way to indirectly recover the profits of the box office from American films.Cheap labor also encouragedrunaway productions.[16]
One scene, which depicts Patton driving up to an ancient city that is implied to beCarthage, was shot in the ancientRoman Mauretanian city ofVolubilis,Morocco. The early scene, where Patton andMuhammed V are reviewingMoroccan troops including theGoumiers, was shot at theRoyal Palace inRabat. One unannounced battle scene was shot the night before, which raised fears in the Royal Palace neighborhood of acoup d'état. One paratrooper was electrocuted in power lines, but none of this battle footage appears in the film. The scene at the dedication of the welcome centre inKnutsford,Cheshire, England, was filmed at the actual site. The scenes set in Tunisia and Sicily were shot inAlmeria in the south of Spain;Pamplona in the north was used for France and Germany; while the winter scenes inBelgium, including for theBattle of the Bulge sequence, were shot nearSegovia (to which the production crew rushed when they were informed that snow had fallen).[17][11][9] Interior shots were filmed inSeville.[9]
The film was shot by cinematographerFred J. Koenekamp in 65 mmDimension 150, only the second film to be shot in that format afterThe Bible: In the Beginning... (1966).[9]
A sizeable amount of battle scene footage was left out of the final cut ofPatton, but a use was soon found for it. Outtakes fromPatton were used to provide battle scenes in the made-for-TV filmFireball Forward, which was first broadcast in 1972. The film was produced byPatton producer Frank McCarthy and Edmund North wrote the screenplay. One of the cast members ofPatton, Morgan Paull, appeared in this production.[18]
The film opens with Scott's rendering ofPatton's speech to the Third Army, set against a hugeAmerican flag.[19] Coppola and North had to tone down Patton's actual words and statements in the scene, as well as throughout the rest of the film, to avoid anR rating; in the opening monologue, the wordfornicating replacedfucking when he was criticizingThe Saturday Evening Post. Also, Scott's gravelly and scratchy voice is the opposite of Patton's high-pitched, nasal and somewhat squeaky voice, a point noted by historianS.L.A. Marshall.[15] However, Marshall also points out that the film contains "too much cursing and obscenity [by Patton]. Patton was not habitually foul-mouthed. He used dirty words when he thought they were needed to impress."[15]
When Scott learned that the speech would open the film, he refused to do it, as he believed that it would overshadow the rest of his performance. Director Schaffner assured him that it would be shown at the end. The scene was shot in one afternoon at Sevilla Studios in Madrid, with the flag having been painted on the back of the stage wall.[20]
All the medals and decorations shown on Patton's uniform in the monologue are replicas of those actually awarded to Patton. However, the general never wore all of them in public and was in any case not afour-star general at the time he made the famous speeches on which the opening is based. He wore them all on only one occasion, in his backyard inVirginia at the request of his wife, who wanted a picture of him with all his medals. The producers used a copy of this photo to help recreate this "look" for the opening scene.[citation needed]
The critically acclaimed score was composed and conducted byJerry Goldsmith and performed by theHollywood Studio Symphony. Goldsmith used a number of innovative methods to tie the music to the film, such as having anechoplex loop recorded sounds of "call to war"triplets played on the trumpet to musically represent General Patton's belief in reincarnation. The main theme also consisted of a symphonic march accompanied by apipe organ to represent the militaristic yet deeply religious nature of the protagonist.[21] The music toPatton subsequently earned Goldsmith anOscar nomination forBest Original Score and was one of theAmerican Film Institute's 250 nominees for thetop twenty-five American film scores.[22] The original soundtrack has been released three times on disc and once on LP: throughTwentieth-Century Fox Records in 1970, Tsunami Records in 1992,Film Score Monthly in 1999, and a two-disc extended version throughIntrada Records in 2010.[21][23]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Patton Salute (Solo Bugle)" | 0:44 |
| 2. | "Main Title" | 3:08 |
| 3. | "The Battleground" | 2:14 |
| 4. | "The Cemetery" | 2:42 |
| 5. | "The First Battle" | 2:50 |
| 6. | "The Funeral" | 1:54 |
| 7. | "The Hospital" | 3:36 |
| 8. | "The Prayer" | 1:11 |
| 9. | "No Assignment" | 2:23 |
| 10. | "Patton March" | 1:53 |
| 11. | "Attack" | 3:15 |
| 12. | "German Advance" | 2:32 |
| 13. | "An Eloquent Man" | 1:43 |
| 14. | "The Payoff" | 2:26 |
| 15. | "A Change Of Weather" | 1:23 |
| 16. | "Pensive Patton" | 0:16 |
| 17. | "End Title" | 2:20 |
| 18. | "Echoplex Session (bonus)" | 5:29 |
| Total length: | 41:11 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Patton Speech (spoken by George C. Scott)" | 4:54 |
| 2. | "Main Title" | 2:17 |
| 3. | "The Battleground" | 2:19 |
| 4. | "The First Battle" | 2:48 |
| 5. | "Attack" | 3:14 |
| 6. | "The Funeral" | 1:53 |
| 7. | "Winter March" | 1:55 |
| 8. | "Patton March" | 2:04 |
| 9. | "No Assignment" | 1:59 |
| 10. | "German Advance" | 2:31 |
| 11. | "The Hospital" | 3:18 |
| 12. | "The Payoff" | 2:22 |
| 13. | "End Title & Speech (spoken by George C. Scott)" | 1:01 |
| 14. | "End Title (sans dialogue) (bonus)" | 1:11 |
| Total length: | 33:46 | |
The film had its premiere on Wednesday, February 4, 1970, at theCriterion Theatre in New York before itsroadshow release starting the following day.[9][24]
Patton was first telecast byABC as a three hours-plus color film special on Sunday, November 19, 1972, only two years after its theatrical release.[25] That was highly unusual at the time, especially for a roadshow release which had played in theatres for many months. Most theatrical films at that time had to wait at least five years for their first telecast. Another unusual element of the telecast was that almost none of Patton's profanity-laced dialogue was cut (only two sentences, one of which contained no profanity, were cut from the famous opening speech in front of the giant US flag). The film was the fourth highest-rated film broadcast on television in the United States at the time, with aNielsen rating of 38.5 and an audience share of 65%.[25]
In 1977,Patton was among the first 50VHS andBetamax releases fromMagnetic Video. The film would be released onLaserdisc in 1981, also by Magnetic Video. A widescreen version was released in 1989, which includes four newsreels about the real Patton. ATHX-certified Laserdisc would be released on July 9, 1997, trading the newsreels for many new features. A THX-certified widescreen VHS was also released in 1998 by the same distributor,20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
Patton was first released onDVD in 1999, featuring an audio commentary by Charles M. Province, the founder of The George S. Patton Jr. Historical Society, and again in 2006, with a commentary by screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola and extra bonus features.
The film made itsRegion A (locked)Blu-ray debut in 2008 to much criticism, for its excessive use ofdigital noise reduction on the picture quality. In 2012, a remaster was released with much improved picture quality.[26] In June 2013, Fox UK released the film on Region B Blu-ray but reverted to the 2008 transfer.
The film grossed an estimated $51,000 in its first week.[27] According to Fox records the film required $22,525,000 intheatrical rentals to break even and by 11 December 1970 had made $27,650,000 so made a profit to the studio.[28] Eventually, it returned worldwide rentals of $45 million,[29] including $28.1 million from the United States and Canada from a gross of $61.8 million.[30][31]
Roger Ebert said of George C. Scott's portrayal of Patton, "It is one of those sublime performances in which the personalities of the actor and the character are fulfilled in one another."[32]Gene Siskel gave the film three stars out of four and wrote that George C. Scott "has created an acting tour de force," but found it "repetitive – the second half doesn't tell us anything more than the first."[33]Vincent Canby ofThe New York Times wrote, "The most refreshing thing about 'Patton' is that here—I think for the first time—the subject matter and the style of the epic war movie are perfectly matched ... Although the cast is large, the only performance of note is that of Scott, who is continuously entertaining and, occasionally, very appealing."[34]
Charles Champlin of theLos Angeles Times wrote, "'Patton' has, likeLawrence of Arabia, done the near-impossible by creating a finely detailed portrait despite all the tuggings toward simplification which are inevitable in the big budget, long, loud roadshow production desperate to attract mass audiences. As Patton, George Scott gives one of the great and unforgettable screen characterizations."[35] Gary Arnold ofThe Washington Post wrote that the film "eventually shares the dramatic limitations, as well as the visual triumphs, ofLawrence of Arabia: yet another fascinating but inconclusive portrait of a mercurial military leader. The camera focus is sharp, but the dramatic focus is blurred. We never quite understand Patton in historical context, in relation to the other generals of the period, and to the entire Allied war effort."[36]
Pauline Kael ofThe New Yorker wrote that "technically the movie is awesomely impressive," but went on to state that "I'm sure it will be said that the picture is 'true' to Patton and to history, but I think it strings us along and holds out on us. If we don't just want to have our prejudices greased, we'll find it confusing and unsatisfying, because we aren't given enough information to evaluate Patton's actions."[37]John Gillett ofThe Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "While communicating a relish for the man with all his warts, [Schaffner] also pinpoints the monstrous prejudices which lay beneath the surface. And, of course, he chose the right actor. Karl Malden's Bradley is neatly observed and the German players are good, but Scott's performance rightly dwarfs all the rest."[38] Online film criticJames Berardinelli has calledPatton his favorite film of all time[39] and "to this day one of Hollywood's most compelling biographical war pictures."[40]
According toBob Woodward andCarl Bernstein's bookThe Final Days, it wasRichard Nixon's favorite film. Nixon first viewedPatton with his family at a private screening in theWhite House Family Theater on April 5, 1970. Nixon became obsessed with the film, repeatedly watching it withHenry Kissinger over the next month. He screened it several times at theWhite House and during a cruise on the presidential yachtUSS Sequoia in thePotomac River. Kissinger sarcastically wrote of Nixon's insistence that he see the film on the cruise: "It was the second time he had so honored me. Inspiring as the film no doubt was, I managed to escape for an hour in the middle of it to prepare for the next day’sNSC meeting."[41]
Review-aggregation websiteRotten Tomatoes reported thatPatton had a 90% approval rating based on 52 reviews, with an average score of 8.4/10. Its critical consensus reads, "George C. Scott's sympathetic, unflinching portrayal of the titular general in this sprawling epic is as definitive as any performance in the history of American biopics."[42]
In 1971, the film was nominated for 10Academy Awards at the1971 ceremony, winning seven awards (includingBest Picture).George C. Scott also won theAcademy Award for Best Actor for his performance, but he declined it, citing a dislike of the voting process and the concept of acting competitions. He was the first actor to do so. The film's producer,Frank McCarthy, accepted the award on Scott's behalf.[43][44][45]
The Best Picture statuette is on display at the George C. Marshall Museum at theVirginia Military Institute, courtesy ofFrank McCarthy.
American Film Institute Lists
Amade-for-television sequel,The Last Days of Patton, was produced in 1986. Scott reprised his title role. The film was based on Patton's final weeks after being mortally injured in a car accident, with flashbacks of Patton's life.
