It's a splendidly done movie. Scott's performance is powerful. He does everything but reach out, grab you by the shirt, and shout in your face. Karl Malden is likable and full of common sense, but he is the only person in the movie whom we can grasp as a character -- except for Scott himself. Scott is as good at his job as Patton was, and in fact the quality of his performance is less volatile than Patton's own, with virtually no weak spots.

That's part of the problem. Patton himself. I suppose that like most people he had a "good" side -- loving family, played with his dog, collected stamps and whatnot. But as good and aggressive a general as he was, he wasn't a particularly likable guy. It's easy to demand that everyone in your command have shoes as shiny as yours -- especially when you've got some black PFC doing your shining for you.

The movie is noticeably slanted. Patton's weakness, like Coriolanus's, is ambition. Sometimes it's played for laughs. He carried the stars of a Lieutenant General around with him until word of his promotion comes down, then immediately has them pinned on. But only three times is his meanness illustrated without tongue in cheek. (1) During a conversation with Bradley he reveals that he's disobeyed orders by sending his army on a mission to beat Montgomery in taking Sicily. He calls the attack "a reconnaissance in force". He receives an order to get his troops back where they belong and tells his aide to send the message back because it's garbled. "A simple old soldier," Bradly comments disapprovingly. (2) He orders General Truscott to stage some amphibious landings which will help him take Messina before Montgomery. Truscott complains that they're not prepared to do that without heavy casualties. Patton lies down and threatens to fire Truscott and get someone else to do the job. (3) While visiting a hospital and presenting the wounded with decorations he comes across a soldier whose nerves are shot and who is weeping, and Patton slaps him twice and sends him back to the front.

His mean streak went beyond those incidents. He used to practice his arrogant, threatening scowl in front of the mirror. Whether or not it improved the GI's morale to wear neckties in combat is, at best, arguable. (What would Patton make of the Israeli army?) But the simple historical fact is that the movie pitches even these "mean" incidents at the audience like softballs. He didn't just slap a soldier who was feeling sorry for himself, which is the picture the film presents. He slapped two soldiers on separate occasions, one suffering from combat fatigue (which is no joke) and the other from malaria and other illnesses. Patton also enjoyed an intimate relationship with his niece, a Red Cross donut girl, who accompanied him in England and France, much to his wife's displeasure.

Those slapping incidents cost Patton a bit in the way of professional esteem but it didn't cost any lives. And it didn't cause him any remorse. Even in his "apology," he claims he was trying to "shame a coward." What DID cost lives was Patton's cobbling together a small task force to liberate a POW camp in Germany shortly before the war's end, when such a dangerous move was no longer necessary. "Task Force Baum" was recognized by its leaders for the lost cause it was, a plunge deep into enemy territory without any backup. There were 53 vehicles and 294 men. All the vehicles were destroyed or captured. Twenty-five of the men were killed, 32 wounded, and almost all the rest captured. The purpose of the mission, it was tacitly agreed, was to rescue Patton's son-in-law.

His fitful harshness towards his troops is usually justified in the movie, even if it looks excessive. The soldier-slapping scene is preceded by one in which Patton kneels in the hospital, whispers something to a soldier whose face is covered by bandages, and lovingly places a medal on his chest. Next thing he encounters: Tim Considine, fully dressed, sitting up, and sobbing with self pity. Earlier, when Patton asks a cook why he's not wearing sidearms, the cook laughs genially and replies, "Sidearms? Why, hell, General, I'm a cook!" I missed the part where cooks learn to laugh in the face of orders from a general, but it gives Patton a chance to tear everybody a new one.

Everyone paid for Patton's ambition and vanity, even those not under his command. The gasoline and other supplies he diverted to his own forces during the run through France helped him alright, but they were also needed elsewhere.

The movie's subtitle is "Salute to a Rebel." Very stylish for 1970 audiences, but the material is presented in such a way as to leave us with a lingering admiration for Patton's genius and bullheadedness. What kind of "rebel" was he? He was more of an authoritarian Arschloch than anybody else in his greater vicinity.

What the writers, the director, and George C. Scott have given us, to paraphrase someone else, is not a warts-and-all portrait but the suggestion that there is something heroic about a wart.

I gave the movie high marks because it's as well done as it is -- disregarding its relationship to Patton himself. I didn't mind so much that the wrong tanks were used and that the production could only find two Heinkel 111s in flying condition. The location shooting is great, the cinematography crisp and unimpeachable, the score one of Goldsmith's best, and Scott's performance deserved whatever awards it got.

The war epic was revived with Franklin Schaffner's admirable 'Patton.' Schaffner's control of his film is impressive, and the various campaign sequences are strikingly photographed through an audaciously wide lens...

George C. Scott was commonly referred to as a 'character actor' in view of his remarkably extensive range... Oddly for a character actor, Scott was almost always the same person on screen vigorous to the point of pugnacity, acting with his chin the way other actors do with their eyes-yet revealing, in his own eyes, unsuspected depths of humor and intelligence...

Now few actors have ever been so convincing in such a powerful and colorful character... Only Peter 0'Toole's eccentric T.E. Lawrence comes immediately to mind... Both, he and Scott, create their characters out of complementary contradictions... Lawrence detests the savagery of war but embraces it... Patton cannot separate the conduct of war from his own personal glorification, and both actors are given large canvases upon which to work...

Screenwriters Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North and director Franklin J. Schaffner introduce a 16th-century warrior lost in contemporary times... He is a brilliant and military historian, with a hazardous speech...

Magnificently uniformed, and wearing his ivory-handled pistol, George S. Patton steps up, against a backdrop of the Stars and Stripes, before an unseen gathering of soldiers defining himself in unambiguous terms as a man who revels in war... The scene is cut to a close shot of two scorpions crawling across the body of a dead soldier at the Kasserine Pass, Tunisia... The camera then pulls back to reveal a harsh look at American casualties with dozens of Arabs busily stripping more bodies...

The American Army has just suffered its first defeat at the hands of the Germans... Patton's first job is to restore the morale and discipline of the dispirited troops of his new command... His experience with tanks led General Dwight Eisenhower to place him in charge of one of the three task forces invading North Africa in 1943...

According to his theory of war, Patton would drive all the way to Palermo on the northern coast of Sicily, slicing the island in half... But his finest moment comes during the massive German counteroffensive in the Ardennes... By the time the Germans feared him above all other Allied generals...

Schaffner turns to the Germans for comments on Patton's abilities... They expect him to lead a major invasion... When he was sent to Corsica, the Germans were convinced he would lead an invasion of southern France... When he was sent to Cairo, they feared for an invasion through the Balkans...

Patton is seen reprimanded by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower for indiscreet political statements... As an able tactician who promotes himself to three-star general before it's officially approved by the U.S. Senate, Patton proves himself as the most effective American field commander of the European war... Behind his audacity lay an imaginative planning and a shrewd judgment... Patton knows that loyalty to a leader would inspire his men to take on objectives against all odds... His strict discipline, toughness, and disregard of classic military rules, contributed to his advance across France and Germany...

The modest and conscientious Omar Bradley, commander of the U.S. 12th Army Group, who had served under Patton in Africa and Sicily as a deputy commander, found Patton to be a superb combat general, but hotheaded, profane, and unpredictable... Bradley ends now as Patton's superior... It was soon apparent that the two make a superb team... Patton's dash and drive in the field is a perfect complement to Bradley's careful planning...

With the help of Bradley, Patton prepares to re-engage German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel... After he defeats Rommel's 10th Panzer Division at El Guettar thanks to his analysis of Rommel's published strategies, he shouts one of the greatest lines in war films: "Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read your book!" At the same time, his rivalry with his Field Marshal Montgomery (hero of El Alamein) becomes more intense... Patton was motivated by a pride to reach his target before his British colleague, sometimes not for the purpose of the Allies...

Karl Malden has the film's only other significant leading role, as the most capable, yet unpretentious general... Malden could be deduced from the number of major directors with whom he has worked... These include Cukor, Hathaway, Kazan, King, Preminger, Milestone, Vidor, Hitchcock, Brooks, Mulligan, Daves, Brando, Frankenheimer, Ford, Quine and Schaffner... In his best and most personal work he has succeeded in exploring depths of moral ambiguity rare in commercial cinema...

Schaffner illuminates various sides of Patton's remarkable personality, presenting a dashing extrovert and attractive general, with a compassionate side...

Touring an evacuation hospital in Sicily, Patton slaps an enlisted soldier twice calling him a 'yellow,' and threatens to shoot him, before two men forcibly remove him from the tent... The incident occurs because Patton's views of bravery and cowardice are so severely limited... The fighting general who has the imagination to write poetry and to believe that he has been reincarnated, in ancient Greece, at Carthage, and Moscow, cannot conceive of a psychological wound that he cannot see... The incident occurred after he prays at the bedside of one man severely injured... Patton whispers some words in his ear which the audience doesn't hear, then lays a medal on his pillow and gives him a gentle touch on his head... The portrait is so compelling that it's easy to overlook Patton's own final words in the film, "All glory is fleeting."

Franklin J. Schaffner's motion picture reveals an effective portrait of three men: Patton, Bradley, and the unseen Dwight Eisenhower... The film is a fine epic about 'a pure warrior, and a magnificent anachronism,' who loved war...

The Academy Awards saluted 'Patton' capturing eight Oscars, including best picture, best director, best actor (Scott declined his well deserved Oscar),best screenplay, best editing, and best production design...

This is a long but interesting character study of a real-life person: General George S. Patton, who also was a real "character." Gen. Patton was one of the most famous military men of World War II, a super gung-ho leader who admittedly had an intense passion for battle.

How much of this story is fact and how much is fiction, I don't know. Knowing Hollywood and knowing when this was made - during the heyday of the anti-war (Vietnam) movement - I have my suspicions, but for the sake of the review, I will assume all of this is true.Whatever political bias a filmmaker might have, Patton made for a good movie subject anyway and the story is interesting all the way, thanks to the acting of George C. Scott, who was astounding as Patton and gives one of the more memorable performances ever by an actor.

Not only is Scott's acting superb, the widescreen photography is also good. Thank goodness DVDs came out so films like this could be seen in the aspect in which they were filmed. I can't imagine viewing this on formatted-to-TV images. I think much of this movie was filmed in Spain.

I think the filmmakers also did a nice job of not overdoing the action scenes. When overdone, violence can get boring. The explosions and machine-gun fire was realistic, especially for a film that is now 36 years old.

Going back to what's true and what isn't, if it was then Patton was a poor excuse for a Christian, which he claims to be here. For one thing, Christians don't believe in re-incarnation at Patton claims he did in the film. There are other comments, too, which shed a poor light on his "religion," something Hollywood loves to point out.

Nonetheless, if you enjoy character studies, this is one of the best. Patton's opening 6-minute speech before this huge American flag is a famous scene in movie history. That, and the rest of his performance and this movie in general, is one you won't forget.