Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner
Starring George C. Scott and Karl Malden
Written by Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North
Patton, the film, like the man, is a curious oddity. Whereas war movies that came before it were usually rather jingoistic and made dying for one’s country a heroic act – think John Wayne in Green Berets – Patton makes clear that dying for one’s country is idiotic. Losers die for their country, we are told; winners make the other guy die for his country. It might be a conceit that’s pretty standard nowadays but at the time it must have been a watershed idea. Continue reading
