For Memorial Day weekend this year, I watched 1970's classic war film PATTON,
This was a ground breaking film in its time and one of the first movies to depict a war hero warts and all. George C. Scott is brilliant in his Best Actor winning portrayal of General George Patton. From the film's opening moments in which Patton addresses his troops in front of a huge American flag, Scott portrays a leader that loves war, loves strategy and detests cowardice and politics.
Over nearly three hours, the film depicts Patton's rise, fall and eventual rise across the scope of WW2. No one disputes Patton's brilliance as a tank commander. Even the Nazi analysts and German leader Rommel think he's a genius. But time and time again, Patton refuses to play the political games behind the battle lines and finds himself in the hot seat.
One of the first film classics of the seventies, Patton portrays an anti-hero, a flawed leader far from the sixties studio films that whitewashed every American hero as perfect.
The writing is superb (Francis Ford Coppola won an Oscar for his script) the music score by Jerry Goldsmith is fantastic and a modern classic in both its military action scenes and quiet moments and Oscar winning Director Franklin J Schaffner (Planet of the Apes, The Boys from Brazil) keeps the film moving as quickly as Patton's tanks across Italy.
Scott owns the film as a profane, intelligent military man in love with battle and the belief he is reincarnated and fought in many of the great battles of history.
PATTON is a classic war film, brilliantly made and it gets an A+. Revisting it every few years, it holds a memorable spot in my Top 100 films of all time.
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