Customer Reviews
I do so love it.... - By: R. Essery, 02 Dec 2008 
Brilliant biopic of the bull headed general played by the only man to ever turn down an Oscar.
"It's a mixture of the Bible and Hollywood" - By: Trevor Willsmer, 28 Nov 2008 There's one thing you men will be able to say when you get back home, & you may thank God for it. 30 years from now when you're sitting round your fireside with your grandson on your knee & he asks you what did you doin the great World War Two, you won't have to say, "Well, I shovelled *beep*in Louisiana." Alright, now you sons of bitches, you know how I feel."
From its audacious opening speech that literally orders its chattering cinema audience to shut up & pay attention & prepares the audience for the man we are about to spend the best part of three hours with, Patton is one of the great achievements of epic cinema. An extraordinary combination of performance, direction & scoring, this spectacular account of the WW2 career of the egocentric & eccentric American general goes against all expectations of the form. Jerry Goldsmith's score marks the contradictions from the word go: led by an organ & distant trumpets over a shot of a vulture, it develops into a glorious march as the camera reveals looted bodies.
This is clearly the work of a great director at the height of his powers - note the brilliantly staged scene where Patton reads a prayer for good weather, with his voice & Goldsmith's restrained scoring the only accompaniment to otherwise mute & eerily effective scenes of combat. Interestingly, aside from the early massive tank battle, there is surprisingly little combat footagein the film. Instead, it concentrates on character, with Schaffner insisting on editing the filmin 35mm (it was shotin 65mm) so as not to be dwarfed by the spectacle. Yet for all the logistics of the production, nothing is so spectacular as its central character himself.
Scott's performance, a mixture of John Wayne & Julius Caesar, strikes a quite remarkable balance between printing the legend of a man who didn't belongin the 20th Century & finding the man beneath it. Whether sniffing out an ancient battlefield, taking on Nazi bombers single-handed armed with only an ivory-handled revolver or slapping a shell-shocked soldierin a move that sees him go from the conqueror of Sicily to addressing Women's Leaguesin overcast backwaters of Britain, he is entirely credible. We are swept along by his triumphs, but equally horrified by his irresponsibility & frequently warped values, never quite sure whether he himself believes statements such as "If we are not victorious, let no-one come back alive!"
His performance dominates the film, although Karl Malden as his sidekick and, ultimately, superior & Michael Bates eccentric & equally vainglorious Montgomery both stand out from the crowd. Standing up remarkably well 38 years on, Patton is a genuine classic.
The DVD boasts excellent print quality & retains the original intermission music as well as the English subtitles for the German scenes that were clumsily left off the video release - especially important not just for the background detail on Patton's youth but also a lot of jokes, not least a sequence of the Nazi high command studying retakes of newsreel footage of his landingin Sicily! Most bizarre moment on the extras is on the -minute documentary originally produced for the laserdisc where Oliver stone claims that Nixon's love for the film was responsible for his decision to intensify bombingin Vietnam - to support this, Stone cites Scott's refusal to allow him to use footage of himin the rolein Nixon, which he takes not as a sign that Scott thought he was wrong but that the actor knew he was right & felt ashamed!
Top notch war film - By: Chris Wood, 10 Jul 2008 There's a lot to recommend this, & it's a great film. The scale of the movie is as epic as the giant ego leading the Third Army around Europe. Patton was clearly one of a kind, a brilliant leader who had a fantastic way with words, & possibly the least subtle human being alive.
The screenplay is extremely good & the filming is superb. You really feel what is going onin WWII events of the time, & Patton's frustration & will to fight is what drove him & his men.
George C Scott won an Oscar, he should've won about twelve.
one of the best war movies - By: Skywalker, 04 Jul 2008 patton saysin one scene, "why should we go back we have all the army here lets go on & finnish the job" a reference to the russian's after the fall of berlin, which he felt were a greater enemy than the Germans at the time (excuse the quote might be wrong but you get the point). this is patton through & through total armyman doing a job he loved. he was a greater solidier than IKE, Ike never even fired a gunin his lifein war where patton after west point had gone on to command tanksin the latter half of WW1 they very good friends from there time at westpoint but why Ike got the job of supreme commander was he was brillient politician.many historian argue that had patton commanded the allies at Normandy (D-Day) the allies would have been home before Xmas 1944 bradley was safe general which is shownin the movie by Maldon. The great thing of patton was he learnt war from the romans, which was simply keeping going dont stop.
brillient film scott's best role ever.
the greatest - By: Derek Harding, 23 Dec 2007 general patton was the best generalin the second world war & this film just shows how great he was if you only watch one filmin your life watch patton a four star general & a five star movie
