Customer Reviews

Patton [Blu-ray] [1970]

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

From its iconic opening, George G Scott as George S Patton, jr in front of the stars and stripes giving a grandstanding speech ('No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country...') before the troops to its beautifully framed close, Franklin J Schaffner (Planet of the Apes) gives us an epic spanning the WWII career of one of America's most forceful generals. A complex character, he was a bible-reading, profane man who believed in reincarnation, and hated 'yellowbellies' - in a wonderful film that will have you glued to the screen for the whole of the (almost 3 hours) running time. With excellent support, mainly from Karl Marldon, George G Scott takes this role of a lifetime and runs with it. You just can't imagine anyone else taking this role.
Whatever your views on the man himself, you will have to agree that the film stands on its own merits.
Bundled with two great docus, one on the making of Patton, and another showing the differences and similarities between the film and the real Patton, plus a stand alone music score and picture gallery, all housed in Cinema Reserves excellent tin-book this is a must have purchase for anyone interested in WWII, Patton, history or cinema.

The screen play is co-written by Francis Ford Coppola and Based upon the two books "Patton: Ordeal and Triumph" by Ladislas Farago and "A Soldier's Story" by General Oman N. Bradley. And acted by George C. Scott. This paints the picture of the Patton that we all know.

From the initial speech to the "I had a dream last Night" recounting of the Napoleon campaign, this film holds your attention. Patton is larger than life, and George C. Scott is larger than life in this larger than life movie.

We follow Patton through his WWII carrier. The focus is on Patton more than the war. We can feel with him as he remembers his past lives and we feel as though we were there with him. This is emphasized by revisiting Zama where Roman Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal. If you ever get a chance you need to look it up.

We know that very war is different but we learn from history, and Patton is history. By the way the film is just down right fun to watch.

The screen play is co-written by Francis Ford Coppola and Based upon the two books "Patton: Ordeal and Triumph" by Ladislas Farago and "A Soldier's Story" by General Oman N. Bradley. And acted by George C. Scott. This paints the picture of the Patton that we all know.

From the initial speech to the "I had a dream last Night" recounting of the Napoleon campaign, this film holds your attention. Patton is larger than life, and George C. Scott is larger than life in this larger than life movie.

We follow Patton through his WWII carrier. The focus is on Patton more than the war. We can feel with him as he remembers his past lives and we feel as though we were there with him. This is emphasized by revisiting Zama where Roman Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal. If you ever get a chance you need to look it up.

We know that very war is different but we learn from history, and Patton is history. By the way the film is just down right fun to watch.

"Patton", is massive by any measure. Number of Academy Awards won, 8, inclusive of best picture and best actor, the man chronicled, General George Patton, the World War that is documented in the film, the cinematic scope of 150 degrees the view takes in, or the sheer size of the numbers of persons and material that was put on the screen. Winning 8 Academy Awards while The United States was torn by the ongoing Vietnam War was no small feat for this film that documents one of the larger than life participants in that human conflict, one of the great warriors of the 20th Century, or of many other centuries depending on your view of the man. His was a towering personality and every event, every decision matched his ego, with the result that he was wildly successful, a man given to horrendous missteps, and either loved, feared, or hated. The bottom line was that if you were fighting you wanted Patton fighting for you, not against you.

One of the reasons this film was not narrowly defined as a war film was that it was about this one man. It is true there are classic war sequences as when he nearly yells, "Rommel you magnificent.........I read your book". But the film really is about a personality, and one that was rapidly falling out of favor when generals were no longer needed as warriors, when they were becoming diplomats, and in some cases planning a run for high political office as the war ended. Patton's ideas about continuing the war with the Russians may seem simplistic, but his attitude, one that was contemplated by other noted and respected men at the time, provides one of the greatest counter-factual discussions for historians, specifically what if we had not treated the Russians with the deference that we did, what if Churchill's party was not removed from office, what type of peace would then have emerged, and from it, what type of post WWII world?

Like the books that have profiled the man, the film is also comparatively massive at just a bit under three hours in length. With rare exception, contemporary films now hardly ever contemplate such a running time, for it means too few turns of the audience in a given theater. The fact is, that the films just are not as worthwhile, for when they are, people will happily sit through them and be oblivious as to there length. One only has to look at the newest installment of, "The Twin Towers", to see that a 3 hour film fills as many theaters as it is allowed to play in, and is breaking and making new records as the days pass. Hollywood geniuses take note, quality is still not only appreciated, it is recognized, the dumbing down of films is done in Hollywood by those that create the mediocre movies, it's not indicative of what film fans are desirous of seeing.

George C. Scott was a remarkable actor, and while not defined by any single film or stage performance, "Patton", was certainly a role that generally followed closely with a discussion of this actor's career. It sounds like the worst cliché, but when on screen, the man becomes Patton, as I suppose most performances that are truly special, and are still in demand 33 years after they are made all are.

I recently watched, "A Bridge Too Far", another filmmaking epic that was more of an ensemble film as opposed to a star vehicle like, "Patton". It was made in 1977, seven years after, "Patton", and by comparison the film looked terrible. The DVD I watched was re-mastered via THX, and the picture and sound that resulted were excellent, and makes the same treatment for films like, "A Bridge Too Far", imperative. Any film that people still are willing to pay for and watch that is in its fourth decade of existence benefits enormously from improving the picture and the sound via THX and other technologies. "Patton", takes advantage of this technology, and other studios should take note, and make the investment in other films that have firmly established themselves as classics.

Patton was released on blu-ray in the US around 5 years ago. The disc received huge criticism from internet reviewers for it's waxy faces, excessive noise reduction, unnatural look and total absence of grain. Fox in the US took this on board and remastered it last year to the approval of just about everybody who saw it, who saw huge improvements with a natural, film-like appearance. When the film was announced for a UK release in 2013, I naturally assumed that we would get the new version, why would Fox issue a discredited 5 year old master of the film when it has a new universally praised version available?

I was wrong, this is the old version, which Fox in the US saw fit to remaster and reissue, but we in the UK are apparently not worthy of viewing the fixed version. Frankly this is disgusting by Fox, who seem to think it's OK to knowingly release inferior product. Avoid this disc. Unfortunately, the corrected US version is coded Region A only, so must of us won't be able to view it, so I suggest anyone interested in getting the best available release of this film gets in touch with Fox directly and gives them a bit of good honest feedback about this release.

It's a terrific film, but Fox's shabby behaviour means this is a one star product.

Although sometimes a bit economical with the order in which certain events took place, the whole film captures the personality and dedication of Gerge S Patton very well. Some stunning photography, and the brilliant acting by Gerge C Scott add to a film that you cannot help watching over and over again, even after all these decades.

"Patton" offers one of the great marriages of actor and role with George C. Scott's riveting portrayal of the notorious American tank commander. As a film biography "Patton" forgoes the rise of the celebrated general and merely hints at his ironic death because of injuries suffered in a traffic accident, focuses entirely on his military career commanding troops in North Africa, Sicily and France during World War II. The strength of the script by Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North, as well as of Scott's performance, is that the paradoxes of Patton are completely embraced. Not even Patton's loyal cadre of staff officers can keep him from shooting off his mouth every time there are reporters around, but then neither German Field Marshall Rommel or English Field Marshall Montgomery can beat him on the battlefield. Karl Malden's performance as General Omar Bradley is just as solid as Scott's, presenting a man whose personality is the complete antithesis of Patton. Viewers find themselves identifying with the German captain who is the intelligence expert on Patton and arguably the only person in the film who really understands or respects the American general. But the more I watch "Patton," the more I am very impressed with the battle sequences of director Franklin J. Schaffner ("Planet of the Apes," "Pappillon"), which were staged live and full-scale without special effects of miniatures. Schaffner provides not just the large spectacle of a desert tank battle, but smaller and equally memorable moments, such as a soldier falling dead in the snow. "Patton" deserved its Oscars.

In terms of extra features on this DVD, the second disc features the 1997 50-minute retrospective documentary, "The Making of Patton: A Tribute to Franklin J. Schaffner." Recent interviews with the cinematographer, composer, etc., are blended with audio interviews of Schaffner and Scott from 1970, newsreel footage of Patton, along with clips and publicity stills from the film make a fitting tribute to the late director. The audio commentary on the first disc is really more of a lecture on Patton by Charles M. Province, the author of the book "The Unknown Patton" and founder/president of the General George S. Patton, Jr. Historical Society. Province more than adequately fills in what the movie leaves out about Patton's life. On the second disc Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar nominated musical score is presented in stereo, including alternate takes and a series of radio spots. You certainly have to appreciate what Fox has put together here: This is a "Special Edition" DVD priced as a regular DVD, a real treat for those of us who remember being mesmerized by George C. Scott giving that profanity laced opening speech standing in front of that giant American flag.

"There's one thing you men will be able to say when you get back home, and you may thank God for it. 30 years from now when you're sitting round your fireside with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what did you do in the great World War Two, you won't have to say, "Well, I shovelled **** in Louisiana." Alright, now you sons of *******, you know how I feel."

From its audacious opening speech that literally orders its chattering cinema audience to shut up and pay attention and prepares the audience for the man we are about to spend the best part of three hours with, this is one of the great achievements of epic cinema. An extraordinary combination of performance, direction and scoring, this spectacular account of the WW2 career of the egocentric and eccentric American general goes against all expectations of the form. Jerry Goldsmith's score marks the contradictions from the word go: led by an organ and distant trumpets over a shot of a vulture, it develops into a glorious march as the camera reveals looted bodies.

This is clearly the work of a great director at the height of his powers - note the brilliantly staged scene where Patton reads a prayer for good weather, with his voice and Goldsmith's restrained scoring the only accompaniment to otherwise mute and eerily effective scenes of combat. Interestingly, aside from the early massive tank battle, there is surprisingly little combat footage in the film. Instead, it concentrates on character, with Schaffner insisting on editing the film in 35mm (it was shot in 65mm) so as not to be dwarfed by the spectacle. Yet for all the logistics of the production, nothing is so spectacular as its central character himself.

Scott's performance, a mixture of John Wayne and Julius Caesar, strikes a quite remarkable balance between printing the legend of a man who didn't belong in the 20th Century and finding the man beneath it. Whether sniffing out an ancient battlefield, taking on Nazi bombers single-handed armed with only an ivory-handled revolver or slapping a shell-shocked soldier in a move that sees him go from the conqueror of Sicily to addressing Women's Leagues in overcast backwaters of Britain, he is entirely credible. We are swept along by his triumphs, but equally horrified by his irresponsibility and frequently warped values, never quite sure whether he himself believes statements such as "If we are not victorious, let no-one come back alive!"

His performance dominates the film, although Karl Malden as his sidekick and, ultimately, superior and Michael Bates eccentric and equally vainglorious Montgomery both stand out from the crowd. Standing up remarkably well 37 years on, Patton is a genuine classic.

The DVD boasts excellent print quality and retains the original intermission music as well as the English subtitles for the German scenes that were clumsily left off the video release - especially important not just for the background detail on Patton's youth but also a lot of jokes, not least a sequence of the Nazi high command studying retakes of newsreel footage of his landing in Sicily! Most bizarre moment on the extras is on the 50-minute documentary originally produced for the laserdisc where Oliver stone claims that Nixon's love for the film was responsible for his decision to intensify bombing in Vietnam - to support this, Stone cites Scott's refusal to allow him to use footage of him in the role in Nixon, which he takes not as a sign that Scott thought he was wrong but that the actor knew he was right and felt ashamed!

However, be warned that Fox's first Blu-ray release suffers from such heavy Dolby Noise Reduction that the characters look like waxwork dummies. the title is scheduled for a repressing, so it's best to wait for that instead.

patton says in one scene, "why should we go back we have all the army here lets go on and finnish the job" a reference to the russian's after the fall of berlin, which he felt were a greater enemy than the Germans at the time (excuse the quote might be wrong but you get the point). this is patton through and through total armyman doing a job he loved. he was a greater solidier than IKE, Ike never even fired a gun in his life in war where patton after west point had gone on to command tanks in the latter half of WW1 they very good friends from there time at westpoint but why Ike got the job of supreme commander was he was brillient politician.many historian argue that had patton commanded the allies at Normandy (D-Day) the allies would have been home before Xmas 1944 bradley was safe general which is shown in the movie by Maldon. The great thing of patton was he learnt war from the romans, which was simply keeping going dont stop.
brillient film scott's best role ever.

general patton was the best general in the second world war and this film just shows how great he was if you only watch one film in your life watch patton a four star general and a five star movie