Monday, May 25, 2009
A thought on watching Patton
So, I'm watching "Patton," a movie I have not seen in decades, on AMC. John McCain is the special host for the movie, popping up at station breaks to sing the praises of George S. Patton. I wonder if it bothers him that there would not be room for such a general in today's army, because the press would eat him alive (as it almost did in 1943). In any case, I'm not sure if McCain's claim that Patton "serves as a role model to all Americans" is really true, or even was then.
12 Comments:
By 
, at
Mon May 25, 06:51:00 PM:
He was a man of the 19th century, caught in the 20th.
By 
TigerHawk, at
Mon May 25, 07:02:00 PM:
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Mon May 25, 07:02:00 PM:
One of my closest friends -- second in his class at Harvard Business School -- watches that movie every five years. He can recite every single piece of dialogue by heart.
By , at
Mon May 25, 07:46:00 PM:
It has to be more than just coincidence that this particular man, with all his rough edges and controversy, was there at the time and place our country needed him.
By JPMcT, at
Mon May 25, 09:09:00 PM:
With the media image of the modern American male - a curly haired, pudgy man-boy who is a poster child for arrested development - it's nice to recall a time when it was OK for men to be dangerous.
By , at
Mon May 25, 09:40:00 PM:
Although the movie is a great piece of cinema and a tour de force performance by George C. Scott, there are more than a few glaring historical innaccuracies.
My uncle served in 3rd Army in Europe under Patton (my uncle was just a sargent, after all), but he too, at his age (born in 1923) and with his attitudes, seems like an anachronism to many in this day and age. It has happened before, and will probably happen to many of us if we are fortunate to live long enough.
But I think that the first anonymous commenter captured the essence of it in a few short words.
-David
By Georg Felis, at
Mon May 25, 11:29:00 PM:
It is far too easy to view Patton through a narrow window, the brief amount of time he spent in WWII. Remember also that he served with Gen. Pershing in the pursuit of Pancho Villa, served with tanks back in WWI, ending that war with a DSC, DSM and Purple Heart, and was in command of the very troops that dispersed the “Bonus Army” in 1932. He had a large influence on both armor design, and employment throughout the years leading up to WWII, and when you combine that with an ego the size of Shatner, it becomes difficult to discriminate between the public face of the man, and what he was really like.
But yes, a 19th century man in the 20th century seems to fit quite well. But in charge of a 21st century army, I don't think there is a force on the planet that could stand against him. Other than the press.
By Michael, at
Mon May 25, 11:34:00 PM:
The movie is one of the finest glimpses of the true warrior culture that we can perceive in today's namby-pamby, sheltered male world. Replete with comedic and tragic moments, I tend to see it more as a narrative about the man that we needed, but not one that we deserved, if I may borrow a line from The Dark Knight. Still, it should be required viewing in 8th grade history classes.
By , at
Tue May 26, 03:24:00 AM:
Patton competed in the Olympics in an equestrian event. He insisted on using his own pistol and lost the most points in marksmanship. Years later, at the end of WWII, the Lipizzaner breed of horses was rescued by his division because the Austrians knew the old cavalryman would take care of them.
A very good film that could have been a 8 hour mini-series.
By , at
Tue May 26, 10:20:00 AM:
The first comment is nice but not original. Watch the movie.
...
Colonel General Jodl: Steiger, this is the twentieth century!
Captain Steiger: But you must understand, sir... Patton is a sixteenth-century man.
...
Steiger: Patton is a romantic warrior lost in contemporary times.
By , at
Tue May 26, 11:49:00 AM:
This was the first drive-in movie that I saw. We were camping somewhere in the Lake Tahoe region and we went to see it.
It was the greatest thing I ever saw, as a kid. Loved it. Fell in love with General George S. Patton and was my hero throughout school. He was a great man.
He was done wrong by the media and his superiors time and time again. Everything about him shows himself as a "man's man".
By Miss Ladybug, at
Tue May 26, 11:28:00 PM:
Within the past year, I read a book by Ruth Patton Totten, one of George S. Patton's daughters. The Button Box is actually a memoir about Mrs. George S. Patton, but you cannot tell her story without also including her husband. It did talk about his participation in the 1912 Olympics, of his service in WWI, his serving with Pershing, his taking his family to France after WWI, to show them the places he had been, the constant moving the family did, following him from assignment to assignment, with his final appearance in the story when his wife was by his side in Europe when he did at the end of the war. It was an interesting perspective on the man, from those closest to him. And, I still can't get over him being called "Georgie" throughout the book...
