![Midway (1976) [Blu-ray]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51MhByp2fPL._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
![Battle of the Bulge [Blu-ray]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61ssMq+UuIL._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
![Longest Day, The [Blu-ray]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51tAUDot5ML._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
![Tora! Tora! Tora! [Blu-ray]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81ACmC2erlL._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
![The Dirty Dozen [Blu-ray]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91pDWi1AuFL._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
![The Bridge on the River Kwai: 65th Anniversary Limited Edition Steelbook [4K UHD]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91OTd1APOwL._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
“All real Americans love the sting of battle…” “We’re going to cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks…” “We are not holding… we are advancing…”
I first saw this movie in Atlanta shortly after its release in 1970. It was not my idea – it was my girlfriend’s at the time – she thought it would be a teaching lesson on what the “military mind” was like (admittedly, I felt no need to go, having just had an in-depth almost two-year tutorial in what that mind was like). No question, George C. Scott is a great actor. I’ve admired his performance as General Buck Turgidson in “Dr. Strangelove.” (“Come on, Mr. President, you’re not going to fault an entire program because of one little mistake”?) “Patton” commences with Scott, standing in front of an enormous American flag, with his swagger, riding boots and baton, making the above quoted statements during a time when I knew we had lost our first war, though it would take another five years to make it official.
After a brief time in Morocco, the scene shifts to “policing up” the battlefield at the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia. It had been a significant defeat for the Americans, who were poorly led, riding in tanks called “purple heart boxes” because one piece of shrapnel, and the gasoline explodes (shortly thereafter, the Americans shifted to tanks powered by diesel, a considerably less volatile means of propulsion). Karl Malden seemed typecast to play Omar Bradley, “the G.I.’s general,” as Ernie Pyle dubbed him. Bradley and Patton would have an odd couple relationship throughout the war: Patton’s swagger and bravado to Bradley’s self-effacing humility; each seemed to need the other. At the Kasserine battlefield both were 2-star generals.
In numerous ways Patton was an anachronism. He hated the 20th century, wrote poetry, believed in reincarnation. A VMI grad. He knows his history, at one point stopping the jeep from going to the present-day battlefield to look at the terrain where three Roman legions attacked and defeated the Carthaginians. “I was there,” he proclaimed. Preparing for battle, he read Rommel’s book. And there was the stupidity of standing in the middle of the street firing his 45 at a German dive bomber.
After victory in North Africa over the Axis forces, the movie follows the rest of Patton’s on again, off again career during the Second World War. There is the invasion of Sicily, and the rivalry with British Field Marshall Montgomery on who would take Messina first. Patton did, and at the cost of GI lives. Ike relieved him of his command and forced him to publicly apologize to his troops for having slapped a GI in the hospital who was suffering from shell shock. Patton had loudly proclaimed he was a yellow bas… Patton was used as a “decoy” for the D-Day invasion, assigned so that Hitler would think the American main thrust would be at Calais. Later he would play a vital role leading very real American troops with armor when they broke out of the St. Lo salient and quickly liberated Paris. He would also play the essential role in relieving the 101st Airborne when they were trapped at Bastogne, in Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge, when the Germans counterattacked during the winter of 1944. After the war, he hated the Russians, even causing scene at diplomatic functions. Much like General Turgidson did in Dr. Strangelove. The movie did not cover his death, during the occupation of Germany, in December 1945, caused by a car wreck, but provided that slight hint, which has helped fuel conspiracy theories, that he had “served his purpose.”
Like a ball of yarn, the threads of my life have been entangled with Patton’s, even though he died the year before I was born. For an entire year, the tank that was named in his honor, the M 48A-3, was my home. Diesel-powered, for sure. The condition that so upset Patton, a soldier being “shell shocked,” now has a new name, familiar to many by its initials, PTSD. Dr. Robert J. Lifton, a Psychiatrist, was the driving force behind establishing PTSD as a recognized medical diagnosis. In his book, “Home from the War,” Dr. Lifton said that his work with Sp5 Dwight H. Johnson was instrumental in establishing that diagnosis. Sp5 Johnson was in my unit, the 1/69th Armor, and was the only crew member of five tanks that were caught in an ambush on the road to Dak To, in January 1968, who was neither killed nor wounded. For his actions that day, Sp5 Johnson was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Race relations again (appropriately) are featured in the news. As for Patton’s views, Wikipedia provides the following quote, from a letter that Patton had written home to his wife: “Individually they were good soldiers, but I expressed my belief at the time, and have never found the necessity of changing it, that a colored soldier cannot think fast enough to fight in armor.”
Sp5 Johnson, who died in 1971, in a robbery of a convenience store, was, as is the current expression, a person of color. As his mother said: “Sometimes I think Skip just grew tired of life and needed someone else to pull the trigger.”
In the entire movie, the only person of color was Patton’s orderly. 4-stars for the movie.
Frequently bought together
- +
![Longest Day, The [Blu-ray]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51tAUDot5ML._AC_UL116_SR116,116_.jpg)
- +
![Midway (1976) [Blu-ray]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51MhByp2fPL._AC_UL116_SR116,116_.jpg)
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Choose items to buy together.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Customer reviews
Interest, entertainment, and knowledge-base EL SUPREMO !!! Превосходный !!!
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2015
GEORGE PATTON and GEORGE WASHINGTON ... are the two in American history that as military commanders and soldiers, separate themselves from all the rest !!!As you will see in this film, though Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied commander in Europe during World War II and eventually became President of the United States, he was more of a "political military man" than was Patton! Patton was the real thing ... a "real" troop commander !!!AND IN LIGHT OF TODAY'S CURRENT EVENTS in 2014-2015 ... ALSO OF SPECIAL NOTE toward the last of this film ... are Patton's comments about Russia and his insights toward it. And his comment about peace: the time to prepare for the next war, which surely will come !!!So, you won't forget this one soon, and it is worth several viewings ... in addition to another Amazon Instant Video on Patton: "The Last Days Of Patton" ... also starring George C. Scott.==========================AND RELEVANT to this last one -- "The Last Days Of Patton" ... also search under "Books" on Amazon and note the two most recent publications pertaining to the essential last days of Patton ... released two days apart on September 23 and 25, 2014 by respectively Bill O'Reilly, and Mrs. Patton !!!The first, O'Reilly's, is entitled: "Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General." And the second, Mrs. Patton's, is entitled: "Killing Patton: The "Not So" Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General: Authored by Patton's Wife and Soldiers."==========================But back to the first movie, the subject of this review:"Patton" -- this "STILL SO MODERN" Francis Ford Coppola & George C. Scott 1970 film -- in 1971 at the Academy Awards won 7 Oscars. Additionally elsewhere, there were another 18 wins & 7 nominations.According to IMDB, the Academy Award winners included:-- Best Picture-- Best Actor in a Leading Role -- George C. Scott-- Best Director-- Best Writing, Story and Screenplay (Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced) -- Francis Ford Coppola & Edmund H. North-- Best Art Direction-Set Decoration-- Best Sound-- Best Film EditingIt was also nominated for Best Cinematography.What more needs to be said? Except otherwise maybe study up on George Washington and his comment about the battlefield "thrill of the sound of whizzing bullets" ... and of special interest, the number of times he resigned his commission as an officer ... and quit the military!I hope all of this helps shed light on this film, for your interest in it, and knowledge to be gained from it.* Attached photo is Patton as a Lt. General - Source: Wikipedia.
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2015
Images in this review
Top reviews from other countries
Lewis Logue
Rommel... You magnificent b****** I read your book!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 16, 2019Pequena65
Great Movie, Great Actor
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 14, 2022
Billersk
A classic WW2 movie in Blu-Ray quality
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 16, 2018
