516. PATTON (1970)

Running Time: 170 minutes
Directed By: Franklin J. Schaffner
Written By: Francis Ford Coppola, Edmund H. North
Main Cast: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young, Michael Strong, Michael Bates

"...NO BASTARD EVER WON A WAR BY DYING FOR HIS COUNTRY..."

Seeing as how "Patton" will be leaving the instant stream portion of Netflix this Saturday, I figured I'd catch it before it left and get it knocked out for the book. While I thought George C. Scott certainly transformed himself into a cutthroat army General, I'm all in all glad that I got this one done and over with.

The movie begins with a famous speech given by Gen. George Patton himself, in what I thought was a great way to introduce us to the character and giving us quite a bit of insight into who Gen. Patton really was and what he was all about. From there we're plummeted into World War II and the Americans have suffered a great defeat at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass. Gen. Patton is called in to whip the soldiers into shape and teach them how to win a war, which is to make the opposition die for their country. He gets them ready and leads them to victory at the Battle of El Guettar and it's on to Sicily, where we learn that George is a bit of a glory hog. He makes it known that he wants to be the one to secure the port of Messina, and not Gen. Montgomery, the General of the British Army. He's given his orders, which state that Montgomery will be the first to land in Messina and defies those orders when he arrives first, capturing Messina and stealing the glory from Montgomery.

Later, while visiting the Army hospital, Patton slaps a shell-shocked soldier and accuses him of cowardice, an act that would get him relieved of his duties, something that eats Patton alive. After he commits a second act of defiance, by insulting Russia, when failing to mention them as an ally at a press conference, he is even further demoted and is used for nothing more than a decoy during the infamous D-Day landings at Normandy. In a last ditch effort to catapult himself back into the thick of the war before it's all over, he makes a plea to his former subordinate Omar Bradly (Malden) to let him take command of the Third U.S. Army. Bradley reveals that those very plans have already been put into motion by Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower. The film winds down with Patton leading his Third Army to great victory, killing and wounding hundreds of thousands of German soldiers.

As always, I never give away the endings to movies, but suffice it to say that this one doesn't end with the bang that would be only fitting for a man who was full of bang. But lets start at the beginning and lets first start with the good. I shouldn't even have to mention George C. Scott, as I think all film fans agree that his performance is legendary and as cliche as it may sound, he truly brought the character of Patton to life. I also really enjoyed Malden, who held his own on the same screen with Scott and provided a great level-headed character in the form of Gen. Omar Bradley. Some scenes ARE really engaging, but for the most part I found this film to be really quite boring. The running time of three hours is much to much when you really think about the big events of "Patton". The only real events that take place are the introduction of Patton, the Battle of El Guettar, the soldier slapping at the Army hospital and Patton's reinstatement as head of the Third Army. That's it! Sure, there's the invasion of Sicily at Messina and the events surrounding the Battle of the Bulge, but all in all the few events that I mentioned are plenty to fill a standard two-hour film, and in my opinion three-hours just sends this one into a very stale state.I'm not one for war films in the first place, but USUALLY well choreographed battle scenes dull the sting for me, and "Patton" doesn't even have those.

But why would it, because this isn't your typical war film, this is a biopic and while we are talking about World War II, we're more so talking about Gen. George Patton, who I will agree was a prime candidate for a biopic, but in the end, it's a biopic that just isn't for me.

RATING: 4.5/10 That's just about as high as I can go, as the good elements were inferior to the bad and giving it a '5' would be calling it average, which in my opinion, it isn't even that.

MOVIES WATCHED: 138
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 863

September 8, 2010 4:40pm