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Patton is a 1970 biographical film which tells the story of General George Patton's commands during World War II. It stars George C. Scott, Karl Malden and Michael Bates.
There were several attempts to make the movie, starting in 1953. The Patton family was approached by the producers for help in making the film. They wanted access to Patton's diaries and input from the family members. By coincidence, the day they asked the family was the day after the funeral of Beatrice Ayer Patton, George Patton's widow. After that, the family was dead-set against the movie and refused to give any help to the filmmakers.
Due to a lack of help from the family, Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North wrote the film from two biographies: Patton: Ordeal and Triumph by Ladislas Farago and A Soldier's Story by Omar Bradley. It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.
Scott's performance as Patton won him an Academy Award for Best Actor (which he famously refused, stating that the Oscars were "a meat parade"), and has been called "one of the great performances of all time".
The film won six additional Academy Awards, for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Picture, Best Sound and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced. It was nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Effects, Special Visual Effects and Best Music, Original Score.
In 2003 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. Infamously, President Richard Nixon screened a print of the film in the White House screening room prior to ordering the bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War.
Famous Quotes
- Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. -- Patton, in the opening line of the film.
- You know what the poet said --
- Through the travail of ages,
- Midst the pomp and toils of war,
- Have I fought and strove and perished
- Countless times upon a star.
- As if through a glass, and darkly
- The age-old strife I see -
- Where I fought in many guises, many names -
- but always me.
- Do you know who the poet was? Me. --Patton
- "The epic American war movie that Hollywood has always wanted to make but never had the guts to do before." -- Vincent Canby, reviewing the film in The New York Times.
- "There's a great deal of talk about loyalty from the bottom to the top. Loyalty from the top down is even more necessary and much less prevalent. One of the most frequently noted characteristics of great men who have remained great is loyalty to their subordinates."
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