Patton is a 1970 American biographical war film about U.S. General
George S. PattonGeorge Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...
during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. It stars
George C. ScottGeorge Campbell Scott was an American stage and film actor, director and producer. He was best known for his stage work, as well as his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the film Patton, and as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr...
,
Karl MaldenKarl Malden was an American actor. In a career that spanned more than seven decades, he performed in such classic films as A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, On the Waterfront and One-Eyed Jacks...
,
Michael BatesMichael Bates was a British actor born in Jhansi, United Provinces, India.-Biography:Bates served as a Major serving with the Brigade of Gurkhas in Burma before his discharge at the end of World War II...
, and
Karl Michael VoglerKarl Michael Vogler was a German actor probably best known for his appearances in several big-budget English-language films of the 1960s and 1970s, including The Blue Max where he co-starred with George Peppard and Ursula Andress followed a few years later by Patton, in which he portrayed Erwin...
. It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner from a script by
Francis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
and
Edmund H. NorthEdmund Hall North , was an American screenwriter who shared an Academy Award for "Best Original Screenplay" with Francis Ford Coppola in 1970 for their script for Patton....
, who based their screenplay on the biography
Patton: Ordeal and Triumph by
Ladislas FaragoLadislas Farago was a military historian and journalist who published a number of best-selling books on history and espionage, especially concerning the World War II era....
and
Omar BradleyOmar Nelson Bradley was a senior U.S. Army field commander in North Africa and Europe during World War II, and a General of the Army in the United States Army...
's memoir
A Soldier's Story. The film was shot in 65mm Dimension 150 by cinematographer
Fred J. KoenekampFred J. Koenekamp, A.S.C. is a U.S. cinematographer. He is the son of cinematographer Hans F. Koenekamp.He worked in television and feature films from the 1960s. He was nominated for an Oscar for Patton and "The Towering Inferno" , winning the Oscar for "The Towering Inferno" along with Joseph...
, and has a music score by
Jerry GoldsmithJerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring....
.
Patton won seven Academy Awards, including
Best PictureThe Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
.
The
opening monologuePatton's Speech to the Third Army was a speech given by General George S. Patton to troops of the U.S. Third Army on June 5, 1944, the day before D-day. Patton delivered variations of the speech on several different occasions to his troops, although the June 5 date is the most well known. A hard...
, delivered by George C. Scott as General Patton with an enormous American flag behind him, remains an iconic and often quoted image in film. The film was a success and has become an American classic.
In 2003,
Patton was selected for preservation in the United States
National Film RegistryThe National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
The film's famous beginning has General
George S. PattonGeorge Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...
(
George C. ScottGeorge Campbell Scott was an American stage and film actor, director and producer. He was best known for his stage work, as well as his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the film Patton, and as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr...
) giving a speech to an unseen audience of American troops, with a huge American flag in the background. The scene then shifts to North Africa at the start of 1943, where Patton takes charge of the demoralized American II Corps in
North AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
after the humiliating defeat at the
Battle of the Kasserine PassThe Battle of the Kasserine Pass was a battle that took place during the Tunisia Campaign of World War II in February 1943. It was a series of battles fought around Kasserine Pass, a wide gap in the Grand Dorsal chain of the Atlas Mountains in west central Tunisia...
. After instilling discipline in his soldiers, he leads them to victory at the
Battle of El GuettarThe Battle of El Guettar was a World War II battle that took place during the Tunisia Campaign, fought between elements of the Army Group Afrika under Jürgen von Arnim and U.S. II Corps under Lieutenant General George Patton in south-central Tunisia. It was the first battle in which U.S...
, though he is bitterly disappointed to learn afterward that
Erwin RommelErwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
(
Karl Michael VoglerKarl Michael Vogler was a German actor probably best known for his appearances in several big-budget English-language films of the 1960s and 1970s, including The Blue Max where he co-starred with George Peppard and Ursula Andress followed a few years later by Patton, in which he portrayed Erwin...
), whom he respects greatly as a general, was not his opponent. Patton's aide, Captain Jensen, is killed in the battle and replaced by Colonel Codman who assures Patton that, though Rommel was absent, that if Patton defeated Rommel's plan, then he defeated Rommel.
Patton is shown to believe in
reincarnationReincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
, while remaining a devout
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
. At one point during the North Africa campaign, he takes his staff on an unexpected detour to the site of the ancient
Battle of ZamaThe Battle of Zama, fought around October 19, 202 BC, marked the final and decisive end of the Second Punic War. A Roman army led by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus defeated a Carthaginian force led by the legendary commander Hannibal...
. There he reminisces about the battle, insisting to his second in command, General
Omar BradleyOmar Nelson Bradley was a senior U.S. Army field commander in North Africa and Europe during World War II, and a General of the Army in the United States Army...
(
Karl MaldenKarl Malden was an American actor. In a career that spanned more than seven decades, he performed in such classic films as A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, On the Waterfront and One-Eyed Jacks...
) that he was there.
After North Africa is secured, Patton is involved in the
Allied invasion of SicilyThe Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis . It was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat. It launched the Italian Campaign.Husky began on the night of...
. His proposal to land his Seventh Army in the northwest of the island is rejected in favor of the more cautious plan of British General
Bernard Law MontgomeryField Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, KG, GCB, DSO, PC , nicknamed "Monty" and the "Spartan General" was a British Army officer. He saw action in the First World War, when he was seriously wounded, and during the Second World War he commanded the 8th Army from...
, in which the British and American armies are to land side-by-side in the southeast. Frustrated at the slow progress of the campaign, Patton defies orders, racing northwest to capture the city of Palermo and then narrowly beats Montgomery in a race to capture the port of Messina in the northeast. However, Patton's aggression is regarded with increasing disquiet by his subordinates Bradley and Truscott, and he is eventually relieved of command for slapping a
shell-shockedCombat stress reaction , in the past commonly known as shell shock or battle fatigue, is a range of behaviours resulting from the stress of battle which decrease the combatant's fighting efficiency. The most common symptoms are fatigue, slower reaction times, indecision, disconnection from one's...
soldier, whom he accuses of cowardice, in an Army hospital.
For this incident and for his tendency to speak his mind to the press, he is sidelined during the long-anticipated D-Day landings, being placed in command of the fictional First United States Army Group in southeast England as a decoy. German General
Alfred JodlAlfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl was a German military commander, attaining the position of Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command during World War II, acting as deputy to Wilhelm Keitel...
(
Richard MünchRichard Heinrich Ludwig Münch , better known as Richard Münch, was a German actor, best known for portraying Alfred Jodl in Patton...
) is convinced that Patton will lead the invasion of Europe.
Fearing he will miss out on his destiny, he begs his former subordinate, General Omar Bradley, for a command before the war ends. He is given the
Third ArmyUnited States Army Central is an Army Service Component Command of the United States Army and is also dual-hatted as the "United States Third Army". It is the Army Component of U.S...
and distinguishes himself by rapidly sweeping across France until his tanks are halted by lack of fuel. He later relieves the vital town of
BastogneBastogne Luxembourgish: Baaschtnech) is a Walloon municipality of Belgium located in the province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes. The municipality of Bastogne includes the old communes of Longvilly, Noville, Villers-la-Bonne-Eau, and Wardin...
during the
Battle of the BulgeThe Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive , launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name , and France and...
. He then smashes through the
Siegfried LineThe original Siegfried line was a line of defensive forts and tank defences built by Germany as a section of the Hindenburg Line 1916–1917 in northern France during World War I...
and drives into Germany itself.
Patton has previously remarked to a
BritishThe British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
crowd that the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and
Great BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
would dominate the post-war world, which is viewed as a slight to the
RussiansThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. After the Germans capitulate, he insults a Russian officer at a celebration; fortunately, the Russian insults Patton right back, defusing the situation. Patton then makes an offhand remark comparing the Nazi Party to the political parties in the U.S. In the end, Patton's outspokenness loses him his command once again, though he is kept on to see to the rebuilding of Germany.
The film ends with Patton walking his dog, a
bull terrierThe Bull Terrier or English Bull Terrier is a breed of dog in the terrier family. They are known for their large, egg-shaped head, small triangular eyes, and "jaunty gait." Their temperament has been described as generally fun-loving, active and clownish...
named Willie, and Scott relating in a voice over that a returning hero of ancient Rome was honored with a victory parade in which "a slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting."
Cast
- George C. Scott
George Campbell Scott was an American stage and film actor, director and producer. He was best known for his stage work, as well as his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the film Patton, and as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr...
as General George S. PattonGeorge Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...
. Rod SteigerRodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...
had first turned down the role, later admitting that it was the worst decision of his career.
- Karl Malden
Karl Malden was an American actor. In a career that spanned more than seven decades, he performed in such classic films as A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, On the Waterfront and One-Eyed Jacks...
as General Omar BradleyOmar Nelson Bradley was a senior U.S. Army field commander in North Africa and Europe during World War II, and a General of the Army in the United States Army...
- Stephen Young
Stephen Young is a Canadian actor.Young was born Stephen Levy in Toronto, Canada to a financier father. Directly following high school, the naturally gifted teen athlete signed on for a career with the Cleveland Indians, but his professional bid ended when he seriously injured his knee playing ice...
as Captain Chester B. Hansen
- Michael Strong
Michael Strong was an American stage, film and television actor.He was born Cecil Natapoff in New York City and had extensive stage experience. He was a member of the Actors Studio. Among his film credits are Point Blank, Patton, and The Great Santini...
as Brigadier General Hobart Carver
- Michael Bates
Michael Bates was a British actor born in Jhansi, United Provinces, India.-Biography:Bates served as a Major serving with the Brigade of Gurkhas in Burma before his discharge at the end of World War II...
as Field Marshal Bernard MontgomeryField Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, KG, GCB, DSO, PC , nicknamed "Monty" and the "Spartan General" was a British Army officer. He saw action in the First World War, when he was seriously wounded, and during the Second World War he commanded the 8th Army from...
- Frank Latimore
Franklin Latimore was an American actor best known for his character ‘Dr. Ed Coleridge’ on the television soap opera Ryan's Hope....
as Lieutenant Colonel Henry Davenport
- Morgan Paull
Morgan Paull is an American actor probably most notable for playing Holden in the Ridley Scott film Blade Runner. He made his acting debut in the 1970 film Patton playing Captain Richard N. Jenson...
as Captain Richard N. Jensen
- Karl Michael Vogler
Karl Michael Vogler was a German actor probably best known for his appearances in several big-budget English-language films of the 1960s and 1970s, including The Blue Max where he co-starred with George Peppard and Ursula Andress followed a few years later by Patton, in which he portrayed Erwin...
as Field Marshal Erwin RommelErwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
- John Barrie
John Barrie was a British actor who appeared in a number of television shows and films, but became best known for his roles on the police series Sergeant Cork and Z Cars in the 1960s. He was born in New Brighton in 1917 and made his screen debut in the 1954 film Yankee Pasha...
as Air Marshal Arthur ConinghamAir Marshal Sir Arthur "Mary" Coningham KCB, KBE, DSO, MC, DFC, AFC, RAF was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force. During the First World War, he was at Gallipoli with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, where he became a flying ace...
- Siegfried Rauch
Siegfried Rauch is a German film and television actor. He has been an actor for over 40 years, in approximately 200 productions.-Career:...
as Captain Steiger
- Richard Münch
Richard Heinrich Ludwig Münch , better known as Richard Münch, was a German actor, best known for portraying Alfred Jodl in Patton...
as Colonel General Alfred JodlAlfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl was a German military commander, attaining the position of Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command during World War II, acting as deputy to Wilhelm Keitel...
- John Doucette
John Doucette was a film character actor. He was a balding, husky man remembered for playing mob muscle and western bad guys in movies...
as Major General Lucian TruscottLucian King Truscott, Jr. was a U.S. Army General, who successively commanded the 3rd Infantry Division, VI Corps, U.S. Fifteenth Army and U.S. Fifth Army during World War II.-Early life:...
- Paul Stevens
Paul Stevens was an American film and television actor.Stevens played Colonel Charles R. Codman in the 1970 film Patton. He appeared in the 1960 film Exodus and the 1969 film Marlowe...
as Colonel Charles R. CodmanCharles Russell Codman was an American author, wine expert, and aide to General George S. Patton during World War II.-Biography:...
- Jack Gwillim
Jack William Frederick Gwillim was a prolific English character actor.-Career:Born in Canterbury, Kent, England, he served in the Royal Navy for over twenty years, attaining the rank of Commander...
as General Harold Alexander
- Gerald Flood
Gerald Flood was a British actor of stage and television.Born in Portsmouth, Hampshire but lived for most of his life in Farnham, Surrey, where he regularly appeared on stage at the Castle Theatre...
as Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur TedderMarshal of the Royal Air Force Arthur William Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder, GCB was a senior British air force commander. During the First World War, he was a pilot and squadron commander in the Royal Flying Corps and he went on to serve as a senior officer in the Royal Air Force during the inter-war...
- Ed Binns as Major General Walter B. Smith
Walter Bedell "Beetle" Smith was a senior United States Army general who served as General Dwight D. Eisenhower's chief of staff at Allied Forces Headquarters during the Tunisia Campaign and the Allied invasion of Italy...
- Peter Barkworth
Peter Wynn Barkworth was an English actor.-Early life:Peter Barkworth was born at Margate, Kent. Soon after his birth, the family moved to Bramhall in Cheshire and Barkworth was educated at Stockport School. His headmaster wanted him to go to university but Barkworth had set his heart on a career...
as Colonel John Welkin
- Lawrence Dobkin
Lawrence Dobkin was an American television director, actor and television screenwriter whose career spanned seven decades....
as Colonel Gaston Bell
- Lionel Murton
William Lionel Murton was a British-Canadian character actor. He most often played Americans/Canadians in numerous films and television series, from the late 1940s...
as Third Army chaplain James H. O'Neill
- David Healy
David Healy was an American-born actor who starred in many British and American television shows. His credits include voices for the Supermarionation series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Joe 90 and The Secret Service, as well as parts in UFO, The Troubleshooters, Randall and Hopkirk , Space...
as Clergyman
- Douglas Wilmer
-Early life:Wilmer was born in London and educated at King's School, Canterbury and Stonyhurst College. He trained at RADA but was called up to the Army in World War II. Posted to an antitank battery in the Royal West African Frontier Force, he was invalided out after he acquired tuberculosis. He...
as Major General Francis de Guingand
- James Edwards
James Edwards may refer to:* James B. Edwards, US politician* James Edwards , US film actor* James Edwards , former NBA basketballer*James Edwards * James Bevan Edwards, UK politician and army general...
as Sergeant William George Meeks
- Tim Considine
Timothy Daniel "Tim" Considine is a former American child actor and young adult actor who was popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s...
as Corporal Charles KuhlCharles Herman Kuhl was a American soldier who became the target of General George S. Patton's ire in a 1943 incident which made nationwide headlines in the United States during World War II.-Life and career:...
- Clint Ritchie
Clinton Charles Augustus Ritchie was an American actor.-Early life:Ritchie was born on a farm in Grafton, North Dakota to J. C. and Charlotte Ritchie, and his family moved to Washington state when he was seven...
as Tank captain
- Alan MacNaughtan
Alan MacNaughtan was a Scottish actor, born in Bearsden, Dunbartonshire, Scotland. An experienced Old Vic, West End and Broadway actor, he became active in television and certain films between 1954 and 1999....
as British briefing officer
Script preparation
Attempts to make a film about the life of Patton had been ongoing for over fifteen years, commencing in 1953. Eventually, the Patton family was approached by the producers for help in making the film. The filmmakers desired access to Patton's diaries, as well as input from family members. However, by unfortunate coincidence, the producers contacted the family the day after Beatrice Ayer Patton, the general's widow, was laid to rest. After this encounter, the family refused to provide any assistance to the film's producers.
In the end, screenwriters
Francis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
and
Edmund H. NorthEdmund Hall North , was an American screenwriter who shared an Academy Award for "Best Original Screenplay" with Francis Ford Coppola in 1970 for their script for Patton....
wrote the script based largely on the biographies
Patton: Ordeal and Triumph by
Ladislas FaragoLadislas Farago was a military historian and journalist who published a number of best-selling books on history and espionage, especially concerning the World War II era....
and
A Soldier's Story by
Omar BradleyOmar Nelson Bradley was a senior U.S. Army field commander in North Africa and Europe during World War II, and a General of the Army in the United States Army...
.
Omar Bradley 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 personally, it was also well known that the two men were polar opposites in personality, and there is evidence to conclude that Bradley despised Patton both personally and professionally. As the film was made without access to General Patton's diaries, it largely relied upon observations by Bradley and other military contemporaries when attempting to reconstruct Patton's thoughts and motives. In a review of the film, S.L.A. Marshall, who knew both Patton and Bradley, stated that "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."
The opening
Patton opens with Scott's rendering of Patton's famous military "Pep Talk" to members of the Third Army, set against a huge
American flagThe national flag of the United States of America consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars alternating with rows...
. Coppola and North had to tone down Patton's actual words and statements in this scene, as well as throughout the film, to avoid an
R ratingR rating may refer to:*R - Motion Picture Association of America film rating system*R-value...
; in the opening monologue, the word "fornicating" replaced "fucking" when criticizing
The Saturday Evening PostThe Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
. Also, Scott's gravelly and scratchy voice is the complete opposite of Patton's high-pitched, nasal and somewhat squeaky voice, a point noted by historian S.L.A. Marshall. Yet 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."
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 Franklin J. Schaffner assured him that it would be shown at the end. The scene was actually shot on the stage of the theater at the
Joint Forces Training Base (JFTB)Los Alamitos Army Airfield is a military airport located one mile southeast of central Los Alamitos, and within its city limits, in Orange County, California, USA.- Facilities :Los Alamitos Army Airfield has two runways:...
in Los Alamitos California.
All the medals and decorations shown on Patton's uniform in the monologue are authentic replicas of those actually awarded to Patton. However, the general never wore all of them in public. He wore them all on only one occasion, in his backyard in Virginia 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. However, the ivory-handled revolvers Scott wears in this scene are in fact Patton's, borrowed from the
General George S. Patton Memorial MuseumThe General George S. Patton Memorial Museum, in Chiriaco Summit, California, is a museum erected in tribute to General George S. Patton on the site of the entrance of Camp Young, part of the Desert Training Center of World War II....
.
Locations
Virtually the entire film was shot in
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. One scene, which depicts Patton driving up to an ancient city that is implied to be
CarthageCarthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
, was shot in the ancient Roman city of
VolubilisVolubilis is an archaeological site in Morocco situated near Meknes between Fez and Rabat along the N13 road. The nearest town is Moulay Idriss. Volubilis features the best preserved Roman ruins in this part of northern Africa...
, located in
MoroccoMorocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
. The early scene, wherein Patton and Muhammed V are reviewing Moroccan troops including the Goumiers, was shot at the Royal Palace in Rabat. One unannounced battle scene was shot the night before, which raised fears in the Royal Palace neighborhood of a coup d'état. One paratrooper was electrocuted in power lines, but none of this battle footage appears in the film. Also a scene at the dedication of the welcome center in
KnutsfordKnutsford is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, in North West England...
, England was filmed at the actual site. The scenes set in Africa and Sicily were shot in the south of Spain, while the winter scenes in
BelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
were shot near
MadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
(to which the production crew rushed when they were informed that snow had fallen).
It has been noted that in the scene where Patton arrives to establish his North African command, a supposedly "
ArabArab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
" woman is selling "pollos y gallinas" (chickens and hens) in
SpanishSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, which is not normally spoken by local people in Tunisia (though it is in the north of Morocco, Spanish Protectorate from 1912 to 1956).
Music
The critically acclaimed score for
Patton was composed and conducted by the prolific composer
Jerry GoldsmithJerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring....
. Goldsmith used a number of innovative methods to tie the music to the film, such as having an
echoplexThe Echoplex is a tape delay effect, first made in 1959. Designed by Mike Battle, the Echoplex set a standard for the effect in the 1960s and was used by some of the most notable guitar players of the era; original Echoplexes are highly sought after....
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 a
pipe organThe pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
to represent the militaristic yet deeply religious nature of the protagonist. The music to
Patton subsequently earned Goldsmith an Academy Award nomination for
Best Original ScoreThe Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
and was one of the
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
's 250 nominees for the
top twenty-five American film scoresPart of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores is a list of the top 25 film scores in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute in 2005.-The List:-External links:**...
. The original soundtrack has been released three times on disc and once on LP; through Twentieth-Century Fox Records in 1970; through Tsunami Records in 1992, through
Film Score MonthlyFilm Score Monthly is an online magazine founded by editor-in-chief and executive producer Lukas Kendall in June 1990 as The Soundtrack Correspondence List...
in 1999, and a two-disc extended version through
Intrada RecordsIntrada Records is an American record company based in Oakland, California. Intrada Records is an American record company based in Oakland, California. Intrada Records is an American record company based in Oakland, California...
in 2010.
Reception
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
said of George C. Scott, "It is one of those sublime performances in which the personalities of the actor and the character are fulfilled in one another." Online film critic
James BerardinelliJames Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
has called
Patton his favorite film of all time and "...to this day one of Hollywood's most compelling biographical war pictures."
According to
Bob WoodwardRobert Upshur Woodward is an American investigative journalist and non-fiction author. He has worked for The Washington Post since 1971 as a reporter, and is currently an associate editor of the Post....
and
Carl BernsteinCarl Bernstein is an American investigative journalist who, at The Washington Post, teamed up with Bob Woodward; the two did the majority of the most important news reporting on the Watergate scandal. These scandals led to numerous government investigations, the indictment of a vast number of...
's book
The Final DaysThe Final Days is a 1976 non-fiction book written by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. A follow up to their book All the President's Men, The Final Days concerns itself with the final months of the Richard Nixon presidency....
, it was also
Richard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
's favorite film. He screened it several times at the
White HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
and during a cruise on the Presidential yacht. Before the
1972 Nixon visit to ChinaU.S. President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China was an important step in formally normalizing relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China. It marked the first time a U.S. president had visited the PRC, who at that time considered the U.S. one...
, then Chinese Premier
Zhou EnlaiZhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...
specially watched this film in preparation for his meeting with Nixon.
Awards and honors
Scott's performance won him an
Academy Award for Best ActorPerformance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
in 1971. He famously refused to accept it, citing a dislike of the voting and even the actual concept of acting competitions. He was the first actor to do so.
The film won six additional
Academy AwardsAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
, for
Best PictureThe Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay,
Best Film EditingThe Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...
, Best Sound (
Douglas WilliamsDouglas Williams was an American sound engineer. He won an Academy Award for Best Sound and was nominated for three more in the same category.-Selected filmography:Williams won an Academy Award and was nominated for three more:Won* Patton...
,
Don BassmanDon Bassman was an American sound engineer. He won an Academy Award for Best Sound and was nominated for three more in the same category.-Selected filmography:...
), and
Best Art DirectionThe Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
(
Urie McClearyUrie McCleary was an American art director. He won two Academy Awards and was nominated for four more in the category Best Art Direction.He was born in Arkansas and died in Los Angeles, California....
,
Gil ParrondoGil Parrondo is a Spanish art director, set decorator and production designer. He won two Academy Awards and was nominated for another in the category Best Art Direction.-Selected filmography:...
,
Antonio MateosAntonio Mateos is a set decorator. He won an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film Patton.-External links:...
,
Pierre-Louis ThévenetPierre-Louis Thévenet is an American production designer, art director and set decorator. He won an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film Patton.-External links:...
). The Best Picture Oscar is on display at the George C. Marshall Museum at the
Virginia Military InstituteThe Virginia Military Institute , located in Lexington, Virginia, is the oldest state-supported military college and one of six senior military colleges in the United States. Unlike any other military college in the United States—and in keeping with its founding principles—all VMI students are...
, courtesy of Frank McCarthy.
It was nominated for
Best CinematographyThe Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
,
Best Visual EffectsThe Academy Award for Visual Effects is an Academy Award given for the best achievement in visual effects.-History of the award:The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences first recognized the technical contributions of special effects to movies at its inaugural dinner in 1928, presenting a...
and
Best Music, Original ScoreThe Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
.
In 2006, the
Writers Guild of AmericaThe Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
selected
Francis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
and Edmund North's adapted screenplay as the 94th best screenplay of all time.
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
Lists
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies - #89
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
- General George Patton
George Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...
- #29 Hero
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
- "Now, I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores
Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores is a list of the top 25 film scores in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute in 2005.-The List:-External links:**...
- Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated
- AFI's 10 Top 10
AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....
- Nominated Epic film
First telecast
Patton was first telecast by
ABC-TVThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
as a three hours-plus color movie special in the fall of 1972, only two years after its theatrical release. This was highly unusual at the time, especially for a
roadshow theatrical releaseA roadshow theatrical release was a term in the American motion picture industry for a practice in which a film opened in a limited number of theaters in large cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, and San Francisco for a specific period of time before the...
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 very, very little 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 U.S. flag).
Sequels
A
made-for-televisionA television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
sequel,
The Last Days of PattonThe Last Days of Patton is a 1986 made-for-television film sequel to the 1970 film Patton, which portrays the last few months of the general's life. George C. Scott reprises the role of General George S. Patton, and Eva Marie Saint portrays Beatrice Patton, the general's wife. The film was...
, was produced in 1986. Scott reprised his title role. The movie was based on Patton's final weeks after being mortally injured in a car accident, with flashbacks of Patton's life.
Use of Footage
A sizeable amount of battle scene footage was left out of the final cut of Patton but a use was found for it in 1972. Outtakes from Patton were used to provide battle-scenes in the made-for-TV movie
Fireball Forward which was first broadcast in 1972. The film was produced by Patton producer Frank McCarthy and Edmund North wrote the screenplay. One of the cast-members of Patton — Morgan Paull — appeared in this production alongside
Eddie AlbertEdward Albert Heimberger , known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing...
,
Ben Gazzara-Early life:Gazzara was born Biagio Anthony Gazzara in New York City, the son of Italian immigrants Angelina and Antonio Gazzara, who was a laborer and carpenter. Gazzara grew up on New York's tough Lower East Side. He actually lived on E. 29th Street and participated in the drama program at...
and
Ricardo MontalbanRicardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino, KSG was a Mexican radio, television, theatre and film actor. He had a career spanning six decades and many notable roles...
. The plot featured a general taking command of a US infantry division with a high casualty rate, a reputation as a hard-luck outfit and a suspected traitor hiding in its midst.
See also
In 2005, Patton's wife's "Button Box" manuscript was finally released by his family, with the posthumous release of Ruth Ellen Patton Totten's book,
The Button Box: A Daughter's Loving Memoir of Mrs. George S. Patton.
External links