Movie of the Week: Patton

   

 

    Movie of the Week (8/18/13-8/24/13): One of the most famous generals of World War II was also one of the most hated by his men, by civilians, and even by the Supreme Commander of all the Allied forces during the war, Dwight Eisenhower. But, you know what? He did not care at all because he never kept his mouth shut, or his hands to himself. That man had a mind of his own that most people did not like, he wanted to do things his own way or no way at all and a lot of the time he expressed himself through physical means, which earned him the nickname "Old Blood and Guts." That man was General George S. Patton and the film Patton shows exactly what he was like and in great fashion.
    The film is a biography, but not of his life just of his exploits as a General during World War II, which we get a great detail of. It starts off with him and his army in Africa fighting tank battles, which were well done. Then he has his personal problems, including the infamous incident of slapping a soldier and his attitude toward his friends and his superior officers. Finally, we work our way towards Germany with a couple more exciting tank battles and the famous rescuing of the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne.
    With an epic historical picture like this you need a good cast and a wonderful lead actor to take on the role of Patton himself, but the trouble with this film is that there are not many actors in it that are known today. There are really only two actors that most people know and those two play the two leading roles in the film. The first is obviously George C. Scott who plays Patton and gives us a captivating performance that will have you hooked on the movie the moment he steps on that stage in the opening scene. Words almost can't describe how much I loved this movie because of his acting, they truly couldn't have found anybody better for his Oscar winning performance. The other actor is Karl Malden who plays Patton's closest friend in General Omar N. Bradley. He too delivers us another unforgettable performance and the two of them were a great pairing for the movie.
    One of the best things about this film, besides Scott's performance, was the writing. The screenplay was such wonderfully written because it has powerful dialogue, in which many of the words spoken were taken from Patton's speeches or memoirs. The man behind the Godfather films wrote the screenplay, Francis Ford Coppola, who as we all know did a fantastic job with those and on this film. It was mixed with such great and even pacing throughout the film that I simply couldn't stop watching it. There is plenty of powerful drama to go around and there is a lot of fighting, although most of it is tank battles, but they are so well filmed and choreographed that it adds to the excitement of the film. It is not just a biography film filled with words, but when the words are spoken they pull you in deeper because of the tension in each scene.
    The last few things that make this a great film from 1970 is the direction, cinematography, and musical score. Franklin J. Schaffner, who is known by older audiences because of films like this one, Planet of the Apes, and Papillon, but not younger ones did a fantastic job because he worked with such a great cast and screenplay. He really kept the tension going with Patton and filmed wonderful tank battle sequences. With the filming comes the cinematography which is simply beautiful, but that is mainly because they had such beautiful landscapes to work with. Finally, we have a fantastic score by Jerry Goldsmith, although there is not much music throughout the film, but when it is used it makes the film that much better, again adding either tension or excitement. This is one biography film to remember because of a great performance from its lead actor and a wonderful screenplay. There is no questioning why this epic was nominated for ten Oscars and won seven of them including Best Picture!                                          
4/4 Stars.