Patton

Rating:
Summary: What a documentary!
Review: WOW! I was impressed with "Patton". A great movie about one of our greatest generals. The Purple Heart scene & the chapel scene are two of the best sequences in the movie. I also enjoyed "The Weather Prayer" KUDOS!

Rating:
Summary: Entire movie on DVD
Review: My DVD copy of Patton has the entire movie including him walking Willy toward the windmill. Not sure why the previous reviewer's copy was short. Anyway, this is one of my all time favorite movies. It is the best portrayal of a person that I've ever seen in any movie. If you like military movies, you won't be dissapointed in Patton.

Rating:
Summary: 5 stars for the 4 star general!
Review: I just bought this from Amazon.Com on DVD and all I can say is "WOW!" Whatta documentary! George C. Scott steals the show!
The "Purple Heart scene" was one of the best, along with the "donkeys on the bridge scene" and the "Chapel scene".
NOTE: My great-uncle Will Lang Jr.(a Time/Life reporter) followed the campaign of Patton and was also a friend of the famous political cartoonist Bill Maudlin

Rating:
Summary: I want the whole movie
Review: Patton is a great movie. The VHS and DVD copies do not have the entire movie however. I have a copy of the entire movie that I taped off of TV. On the DVD and VHS versions, the movie ends with Patton walking his dog towards the windmill. They are cutting off about 30 minutes of the movie in these versions. You are missing the following:
1. Patton rebuilding Germany
2. A birthday celebration with his wife
3. Patton sword fighting
4. How Patton treated captured Germans
5. The car accident

When I bought the DVD, I assumed that it had the entire movie as it is a 2 DVD set. I was dismayed to find that the second DVD had some garbage about the musical score.

Rating:
Summary: Best movie biography
Review: Like all the critics say, this is the best motion picture biography that was ever made. Every thing, right down to the pearl gripped guns, is right. This movie is truly amazing, it maintains interest for almost three hours? The movie begins with Patton in North Africa, fighting against German General Erwin Rommel during World War II. It then moves on to battles in Sicily and Europe. The tank battles are the best that Hollywood has ever filmed. There is no reason why any history buff should not have this movie. It is without a doubt one of the best war movies ever made, and has George C. Scott in the best role of his life.

Rating:
Summary: He believed in the glory of war
Review: This 1970 film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starring George C. Scott won eight Academy Awards. It is the story of the famous General George Patton, one of the most successful and feared generals in WW2. He believed in the glory of war and often quoted the classics, believing that he was reincarnated from some of history's most famous military leaders. He cursed a lot and was, at the same time, deeply religious and there is no doubt that he cared about the men under his command. Relentless in battle, he believed in discipline and hated cowardice. The press made a big thing about how he slapped a soldier who was crying, forcing Patton to make a public apology for that incident.

This was George C. Scott's greatest role and it is interesting to note that he refused his Academy Award for best actor because he did not feel himself to be in competition with other actors. He was larger than life in every single scene of the 171 minute epic and came across as intended - stubborn and unlikable and a bit of a nut job. I never could either admire or feel any empathy for him as a person although I was glad that he won the battles. However, in spite of the battle scenes as well as his frequent confrontations with authorities, I found myself bored. Maybe this was because I knew that he would win the battles and therefore found little dramatic tension. The video was much too long and I actually fell asleep several times. I wanted to like the film better, but unfortunately couldn't.

I can't help thinking about the times in which this film hit the theaters. The Vietnam War was raging and there was a huge anti-war backlash. Patton had to be considered the epitome of what was then called a "hawk" who raged about the glory of war in spite of the agony of the men who had fallen in battle. This film was not just about WW2; it was about all war. And it dared to glorify war itself without sugar coating it as fighting for what is right and mom's apple pie. The appeal of the film was that it made people look at their own perceptions of war, a debate that was already on everyone's agenda. Perhaps that it what made it so popular at the time. It must have also played better on a big screen than my tiny TV. The film is important only for fans of war films, as it is a classic in that genre. For all others, I can only give it a lukewarm recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite war film
Review: This production is unequalled- the photography, and the quality of the lenses used to make this film are unsurpassed. Nearly 3 hours long, this "biography" of Patton's military career is what made George C. Scott a star. Along with Tora Tora Tora and The Longest Day, you have the best of the Hollwood war films.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best war movies of all time!
Review: Patton is undeniable one of the best war movies/biographical movies of all time. George C. Scott is in the role of a life time and his potrayal of the legendary General is Hestonesque. In fact his swagger, bravura and fortitude that he shows in this movie is very similair to the acting style of another Hollywood legend, i.e., Charlton Heston and this is why I called his performance in this movie to be Hestonesque. Being a three hour movie one would have thought that it would seem slow at times. However, this could not have been any further from the truth and Scotts performance is brilliant and he should be seen as one of the better actors of the 20th Century.

Rating:
Summary: A Superb DVD Transfer of a Great Movie Classic...
Review: While a little skeptical about improving this classic, I am now a believer. This DVD is a tremendous reproduction of the original film! While some reviews of the sound quality have been critical, I have found that using component video inputs on my 36" SONY Wega with my Onkyo Evision system yielded great results. Conversion of the 1970 audio into the Dobly Digital 5.1 is not an easy trick. The surround effects are simply spectacular!! Matched with the clean film transfer of this feature, my VHS copy will just never do for the future. The audio dimensions and crisp video are better than I have ever seen this film. Technically, this 'thirtysomething' year old feature most definitely has new life.
The story of war and General George S. Patton is as fresh and relevant as the day this feature was released. While the cinematography is certainly grand, there are some anachronisms that I find are easily forgiven given the epic proportions of this movie. As a professional pyrotechnician, the effects in Patton are well done and true to the grand scale of this milestone feature. Young and old patriots alike will continue to enjoy this picture and the superb acting from a master like George C. Scott.

Rating:
Summary: Good movie on a fair DVD
Review: 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!)