1943, Kasserine Valley, Tunisia, Africa. The US 2nd Army engages in a fierce battle with the strongest tank unit led by the ‘Desert Fox’ Rommel, but is pushed back due to inferior firepower. In response, General Patton (George C. Scott) is appointed as the new corps commander. Patton, along with Major General Bradley (Karl Malden), corrects the loose discipline of the unit, and through meticulous analysis of Rommel’s tank tactics, achieves a great victory in the Battle of El Guetta. Then, Patton leads the 7th Army to Sicily, defeats Germany’s strongest Göring Division, captures Palermo, and announces that he will capture Messina. British General Montgomery (Michael Bates) is anxious that he might take credit for Patton’s performance. Patton also makes a bold move to win the competition with Montgomery. Despite the opposition of his staff, he successfully took over Messina by carrying out a reckless landing operation and suffering many casualties. However, he was criticized for beating a soldier in a field hospital due to a nervous breakdown caused by the battle…
◆ subject:
A man who believes in reincarnation and that he was a war hero in his past life, and who thinks that being shot down by the last bullet in the final battle is the end befitting a professional soldier. Battle is the reason for his life, and the meaningless deaths of soldiers disappearing on the battlefield are nothing more than the noble sacrifices of heroes for victory. He is also a war fanatic who never compromises when he sets a goal, no matter what sacrifices are required, and loves the thrill of battle itself. He leads the major battles of World War II, which can be said to be the last battles where heroes appear, and becomes a war hero, but he is criticized for his blunt talk and hot-tempered temperament, and in the end, he fails to meet the death befitting a professional soldier that he so dreamed of. The movie depicts the fiery life of George Patton, a natural commander and great anachronism who lives in the 20th century but is a knight of the 16th century in his head.
◆ Points to note:
This masterpiece, filmed with the support of the Spanish military, led the golden age of war films along with , , etc. With the American flag filling the screen, actor George C. Scott, who plays General Patton, appears and begins a long speech. He speaks of American belligerence and obsession with victory, the path soldiers should take, and his bloody hatred for the Germans before disappearing from the stage. The film wittily depicts well-known episodes of Patton and inserts scenes of magnificent battles between steel tanks on a vast land, depicting battles that are horrific when seen up close but tragic when seen from afar without unnecessary details. It also succeeds in bringing out documentary-like realism by featuring World War II heroes such as Germany’s Rommel and Britain’s Montgomery. This was possible because the screenplay was co-written by Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North, who directed the series, based on Ladislas Farago’s biography of Patton and General Bradley’s memoir A Soldier’s Story (1951).
The film was shot primarily in Spain, with some locations in other countries: the scenes depicting the ancient city of Carthage were filmed in the ancient Roman city of Volubilis in Morocco; the welcoming scenes of the Moroccan army and king were filmed at the Royal Palace in Rabat; the club opening ceremony scenes in England were filmed in the village of Knutsford, which Patton actually attended; the scenes depicting Sicily and Africa were filmed in southern Spain, and the Belgian scenes were filmed near Madrid, Spain. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Sound, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, and Best Original Score, and won seven awards, including Best Actor, Best Director, Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Sound, and Best Production Design. However, Scott, who won the Best Actor Award, adamantly refused the award, saying, “I hate the whole movie superstructure, the ridiculous suspense, the actors who hug their awards and cry.” Incidentally, the award is preserved in the Patton Memorial. He had previously been nominated for Best Supporting Actor twice, for Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and The Hustler (1961), and he declined the nomination for The Hustler as well. Scott was the first actor to refuse an Academy Award, as was Marlon Brando when he was awarded Best Actor for The Godfather (1972).
In the sequel directed by Delbert Mann in 1986, George C. Scott reprised his role as Patton, and the plot was set in the final weeks of General Patton’s life after his death in a car accident. It was produced for TV and aired on CBS in September 1986. The tank battle scenes are spectacular but dismal in terms of historical accuracy. The US M48 Patton tank appears as a stand-in for the German tanks, while the US tanks are the M41 Walker Bulldog, M46, and M47 Patton tanks, and the British tank is the M24 Chaffee tank. However, considering that even in modern works like this, the historical accuracy of the German Tiger tank is not perfect, it is understandable in terms of the limitations of the film’s production budget. It was also ranked 89th on the American Film Institute’s (AFI) list of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time.
◆ Director:
Director Franklin J. Schaffner, who is so famous for and , was born on May 30, 1920 in Tokyo, Japan, as the son of an American missionary, and is one of the directors who began his career in the golden age of American television. He majored in law at Columbia University and began his career as a TV director on Broadway and CBS, and his career was recognized when he won an Emmy Award.
In 1961, he started his first feature film at 20th Century Fox, but never finished it. Finally, two years later, in 1963, he made his debut with , based on William Inge’s play A Loss of Roses, but the producer, Jerry Wald, died suddenly, so Franklin took over. The following year, he made a name for himself with , based on Gore Vidal’s original story, about two men who run for president at a Los Angeles political rally (64).
Director Schaffner, who had worked with great actor Charlton Heston in the epic drama produced in 1965, became known as a popular star director overnight with the huge box office success of (68) in 1968, which starred Heston again. His next film (70) swept seven Academy Awards, and he also won the Best Director award.
His first work (73) with cinematographer Fred Koene-Kampf is considered to be a work that shows keen insight into human isolation. He then completed (77) with cinematographer Fred Koene, which depicts family reconciliation and Jewish escape on the island of Baha, and the following year, he released (78), a suspense drama depicting a conspiracy by Nazi remnants. In addition, following the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and the adventure surrounding the pyramids (81), he directed his first musical film with Luciano Pavarotti (82) the following year.
He has shown great talent in creating grand and spectacular scenes through several blockbuster films, and is often compared to David Lean in that he has succeeded with epic works on a large scale and has not produced many works. He is considered a director who knows how to get the best performances out of actors such as Charlton Heston in , George C. Scott in , and Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman in .
After directing for 30 years, he passed away on June 2, 1989 in Santa Monica, California, USA, after producing his last work (89), which depicted the wanderings of a protagonist returning home from the Vietnam War.
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2024-08-18 02:19:29