Patton

As the movie Patton begins, you get a sense that this is going to be an interesting war picture. General George S. Patton, flanked by the Stars and Stripes, walks out to give us a little speech. Actually, he is probably giving this speech to soldiers who will eventually fight with him (I'm not exactly a big history buff here, so I don't know when or where this speech was made), but, for all intents and purposes, the filmmakers placed this speech here because, in a sense, Patton is giving us the speech; a speech which lays out his philosophy on war, and his personality. And his words will influence the rest of the events that are presented in this film.

Patton was one of the most famous American generals of World War II. He stood out from the crowd, possibly in part due to his military accomplishments, which for people who know or care about these sorts of things were presumably pretty impressive, but, more likely than not, he also stood out due to his unavoidable personality. Unlike the other generals and other backroom people involved during the war, Patton did not play by the rules. He merely followed his fanatical instinct and passion for war. As a character resentfully points out to him: "I was well-trained for war, you, you love it!" He represented what people saw as the glory of war, while others around him treated it like a job. Now, if you are a person like me, you won't necessarily be very impressed by this type of character, but it is due to George C. Scott's strong performance that we can be immensely entertained and provoked by Patton's story.

The movie is unlike many typical biographies in that it focuses completely on the important subject at hand: Patton during war. Just as Lawrence of Arabia focuses entirely on Lawrence's work in the desert, Patton takes place entirely in the realm of battle, which gives the film more importance: why would you make a movie about this guy if you aren't going to put him in the situations which define his character? The movie begins in Africa, as Patton takes over a ramshackle force overseen by Bradley, played by Karl Malden. Patton amused me with his utterly fanatical and focussed regimen (After ripping a pin-up from the wall: "This is a barracks, not a brothel!"); he, perhaps rightly, demanded a lot from the people beneath him. Just as he was an arrogant tough guy who relished a challenge, he expected those beneath him to never become distracted, to always be disciplined, to be filled with fury and passion when fighting the enemy.

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