Don't Make a Scene: Patton

The Set-Up: The story is basically true with a couple of small details: It wasn't snow that was preventing air-cover for his Third Army, it was incessant rain; it wasn't only Patton using the prayer, but the entire Third Army reading from 250,000 cards Patton ordered printed of the prayer (with a signed Christmas greeting on the reverse—see below); and Patton ordered the prayer over the phone, not in person. Other than those details, its a true story.

And the rains did cease. They'd've goddamned better.

He did yell the "Let no man come back alive" threat—it was the sort of thing the real Patton did to get attention, and delivered in his high, reedy voice (instead of George Scott's gravel-bass) it must have sounded blood-curdling.

The other notable things are the mention of Patton as "actor," which, no doubt, informed George C. Scott's hailed performance. Patton was an actor, theatrical and florid, dressing impressively, giving off the air of authority and privilege, and absolute command. That was in the strategic palaces. With the troops, he was basic and personal and emotional. He was a disciplinarian, yes, but weaker than the accepted portrait that the Scott personification has embedded in the nation's consciousness—Scott wasn't one to show Patton weep, as he was known to do with the troops—indeed, Patton was a fairly anonymous presence to all but the soldiers and war historians up until the film's release. Those who hero-worship the movie-Patton are like prison widows who fall in love and marry inmates, as long as they're behind bars. They would probably run from the room coming in contact with the real general. Patton was hardly a complacent man. And he did not suffer fools.

The other aspect of this sequence is how it walks the tight-rope of presenting Patton as warrior and war as brutality during the height of the anti-Vietnam sentiment. That Patton was popular and a box office smash during those fevered days is fairly amazing and a testament to the filmmakers and promotion people who walked the edge of the razor blade to position the movie for both hawks and doves. And backed by Jerry Goldsmith's eerie score, the ambiguous nature of the fighting sequences can leave both birds with their feathers unruffled, thinking their side has been represented. The brutality of the action, the desperateness of the situation and the waste of a single human life are all represented.

The Story: The Third Army is making its way through The Battle of the Bulge, led by disgraced Lt. General George Patton (George C. Scott in his Oscar-winning role). But the fighting is not going according to plan. For Patton to continue advancing his troops, he needs support from the air and the winter weather has the planes grounded. If Patton can't get help from above, he's going to have to go up the chain of command over everyone's heads.

Action. Now, dammit!

Colonel GASTON BELL: Sir, Von Runstedt’s thrown another Panzer division against Bastogne. The first Airborne is hanging on by its finger-nails.

Lieutenant Gen. GEORGE PATTON: Damn air-cover is what we need. If we had 24 hours of decent weather we might make it.

Brigadier General HOBART CARVER: General Mason, sir!
PATTON: Hello, Mace? Listen, we’re short on foot-soldiers. I want you to cannibalize your anti-aircraft units and turn them into rifle-men. Yes, every damn last one of them you can find.
Lt. Col. HENRY DAVENPORT: Evening, General. I just got the weather report for tomorrow. More snow.
CARVER: There goes our air-cover. Sir, we may have to pull up and wait for better weather.
PATTON: There are brave men dying up there. I’m not going to wait. Not an hour. Not a minute. We’re going to keep moving!
PATTON: Is that CLEAR?! We’re going to attack all night.
PATTON: We’re going to attack tomorrow morning! If we are not VICTORIOUS...LET NO ONE COME BACK ALIVE!!
Lt. Col. CHARLES R. CODMAN: You know something, General? Sometimes the men can’t tell when you’re acting, and when you’re not.
PATTON: It isn’t important for them to know. It’s only important for ME to know.
CHAPLAIN: You wanted to see me, general?
PATTON: Oh, yeah, Chaplain. I’m sick and tired of Third Army having to fight the Germans, the Supreme Command, no gasoline and now this ungodly weather. I want a prayer. A weather prayer.
CHAPLAIN: Weather prayer, sir?
PATTON: Yes, let’s see if we can’t get God working for us on this thing.
CHAPLAIN: It’ll take a pretty thick rug for that kind of praying.
PATTON: I don’t care if it takes a flying carpet.
CHAPLAIN: Well, I don’t know how this is going to be received, general...praying for good weather so we can kill our fellow man...
PATTON: Well, I can assure you, sir, because of my intimate relations with the Almighty, if you write a good prayer—we’ll have good weather.
PATTON: I expect that prayer within an hour.
CHAPLAIN: Yes, sir.
(Leaves. Chaplain shakes head)
PATTON (VO): Almighty and most merciful father. We humbly beseech thee of Thy great goodness...
PATTON (VO): ...to restrain this immoderate weather with which we’ve had to contend.
PATTON (VO): Grant us fair weather for battle.
PATTON (VO): Graciously hearken to us...
PATTON (VO):...as soldiers who call upon thee...
PATTON (VO):...that, armed with thy power...
PATTON (VO): ...we may advance...
PATTON (VO): ...from victory to victory...
PATTON (VO): ...and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies...
PATTON (VO): ...and establish thy justice...
PATTON(VO): ...among men and nations.
PATTON(VO): Amen.

Patton

Words by Edmund H. North, Francis Ford Coppola and Chaplain James H. O' Neill

Pictures by Fred J. Koenekamp and Franklin J. Schaffner

Patton is available on DVD from Fox Home Video.

Don't Make a Scene: Patton

The Set-Up: Patton is a biography and a war film--it has to be because the subject was never more alive or at his best than when he was at war. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. was a warrior in every sense of the word. He studied campaigns and the history of warfare and knew battles backwards and forwards. His ideas on the mechanization of warfare and tactics were almost a throw-back to a by-gone era, and he came to believe that he might have actually lived in the past, so vivid was his recall of past battles.* Of all the tacticians during the second world war, Patton was an odd duck in a room of bureaucrats—colorful, eccentric, vain-glorious, and a promoter of his own myth, as this scene illustrates. But he was aggressive, pushing his troops to their limits, though always on achievable goals, not simply "staying the course" for the purpose of saving face.

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by Patton, but it was because he was such a fascinating personality—it never occurred to me at that age that he might be so colorful because he was so screwed up. What I saw was excellence and eccentricity and I was drawn to that.

In High School, I did a report on the general, and got an "A" on it, but the teacher drew me aside after class to tell me why he liked the report. He had served with Patton during the war (so did my Uncle, and the teacher and Uncle's memories of the man matched) and told me that of all his commanders, Patton was his favorite—he was the only one who got into the trenches with the men, talked to them, and got to know the men he commanded, as opposed to some who would ensconce themselves in the Ivory Towers of the Field Office and treat the war and the men they ordered like they were of some glorified chess game.** My teacher had seen some of the worst of it, and he'd been there opening up one of the concentration camps. He said the screen "Patton" was more reflective of actor George C. Scott in officiousness than the real general, but that it was a fine portrait, nonetheless.

This was his favorite scene of the movie. Something about the magnificent wide-screen photography (Franklin Schaffner had a great eye for framing), and Patton reminiscing among the ruins, surely. It's a compelling, strange scene of Patton "playing" Patton, and the audience is left shaking their heads, as much as Malden's Gen. Bradley probably does. But Patton's biographer Ladislas Farago did mention this happening—of Patton commanding his driver to a battlefield no one knew about. Patton was a student of warfare, after all. He could have known it was there. But, still....

The Story: Patton (George C. Scott) has just arrived in North Africa to take command of the First Army after a crushing defeat of Allied forces by German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. Patton finds the soldiers demoralized, undisciplined and begins to make radical changes. On a tour of the area with General Omar Bradley (Karl Malden), he takes a little side-trip.

Action, goddammit!

Gen. George Patton: Hold it. Turn right here.
Driver: Sir, the battlefield is straight ahead.
Patton: Please don’t argue with me, Sergeant, I can smell a battlefield!
Gen. Omar Bradley: He was here just yesterday, George!
Patton: It’s over there! Turn right, dammit!
(Patton gets out of jeep, then Bradley)
Patton: It was here. The battlefield was here.
Patton: The Carthaginians defending the city were attacked by three Roman legions. The Carthaginians were proud and brave but they couldn’t hold. They were massacred.
Patton: The Arab women stripped them of their tunics and lances.
Patton: The soldiers lay naked in the sun.
Patton: 2,000 years ago. I was here.
Patton: You don’t believe me, do you, Brad’?
Patton: You know what the poet said:
"Through the travails of ages, amidst the pomp and toil of war..."
Patton: "...Have I fought and strove and perished countless times upon a star."
Patton: Uh..."As if through a glass and darkly, The age old strife I see..."
Patton: "For I’ve fought in many guises, many names...but always me."
Patton: You know who the poet was?
(Bradley shakes his head)
Patton: ...Me.

Patton

Words by Edmund H. North and Francis Ford Coppola

Pictures by Fred J. Koenekamp and Franklin J. Schaffner

Patton is available on DVD through 20th Century Fox Home Video

* The music for "Patton" was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, and, as was his style, he wrote for the interior story of Patton the man--his theme comprised of electronically echoing trumpets (suggesting reincarnation), an organ background (suggesting religiosity) and a Irish jig-like melody (for Patton's joy of battle)

** My favorite story of Patton was the time he was visiting troops during a bivouac, and he casually mentioned he'd forgotten to eat, and one of the men said, "Have one of my K rations, general! They're pretty good." Reportedly, Patton teared up, and told the dog-face, "I love every goddamn bone in your goddamn head!" I don't exactly see Scott doing that...