War · Drama · History
American
1970 · Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner · 172 min
Patton follows the Second World War career of General George S. Patton, a brilliant, vain and unmanageable American commander who believes he was born for battle. The film is a long, formal character study set against a vast war, and it is more interested in the man than in the campaign map.
Why it matters in cinema history
A defining American war epic of the turn into the 1970s, it replaced simple heroism with a portrait of a divisive figure that audiences of opposing politics could read in opposite ways.
Watch with intention
Watch it as a portrait of a man who is superb at one thing and unfit for almost everything else, and notice how the film refuses to settle your opinion.
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