Patton (1970)
The only thing I knew about George Patton before watching this movie was that he was somehow related to tanks and the Battle of the Bulge. Having admitted that I know very little about the man, I felt like Patton strove to show both the positive (his tactical knowledge) and the negative (his abrasiveness) in Patton. One of the themes that runs through the movie felt particularly true — Patton was a man out of time, who was designed for battle in a time when being a military leader had as much to do with politics as war.
The movie moves quickly through World War II (it has to in order to follow Patton through the entire war), which can leave the viewer behind at times. We will see the aftermath of a battle without its beginning, or the start of a campaign but not its end. This makes the movie feel very discontinuous, fragmented. In spite of this, I enjoyed the movie as a learning experience both about the war and about Patton. I greatly enjoyed watching George C Scott as Patton, and Karl Malden as Omar Bradley but I learned after the fact that Scott was a somewhat disingenuous choice for Patton. The real Patton had a rather high-pitched voice, and was a poor public speaker. Since much of the movie relies on Scott’s presence and gravelly voice to give life to Patton, I feel like we get a somewhat idealized vision of the man.