Top critical review
7 people found this helpful
3.0 out of 5 starsGood movie on a fair DVD
ByC. Spockon August 24, 2001
Hello, Patton is an excellent film covering several years in the life of one of the U.S. Army�s most competent war fighting officers. I would like nothing less than to be able to give this film five stars, but there were two key faults with this �product� that prevent me from doing so. The first is a historical/technical detail that I simply couldn�t over look, namely, the tanks and armored vehicles used in this movie are of a type that never were actually used during the second world war. This should not cause a problem for anyone watching the film for it�s acting and character qualities, but it really stood out blatantly to me and made it difficult for me to be drawn into the film as a World War II picture. This issue stood out even more to me because both the U.S. and German armies were using U.S. manufactured tanks and vehicles in this film (U.S. made M-47s and M-60s respectively I believe). Being a student of military hardware since childhood, seeing these tanks where history would have placed Shermans and Panzers or Tigers was very distracting. One point in the film that really pointed this issue out was when a U.S. halftrack drove past the burning wreckage of a German halftrack and the only difference between the two vehicles was the color of the paint! The second issue I had with this movie pertains to the DVD. During playback, the movie stuttered often and eventually would not play at all. I returned my disc and requested an exchange assuming I had gotten a bad disc. However, upon receipt of my replacement disc I noticed many of the same problems. Specifically, chapter selection from the main menu did not work on either of the discs. I have had no such problems with other DVD discs. All in all, though putting up with the poor playback and nonfunctional features of the DVD was annoying, and seeing armies composed of the wrong equipment was distracting, I still thoroughly enjoyed the film and am glad I own a copy of it to watch when ever I choose. (At this point, I need to put a plug in for my favorite WWII flick, Kelly�s Heroes, not a historically accurate work, but a hell of a lot of fun to watch!)
