A towering, old-school war epic that works as both battlefield spectacle and character study. It’s grand, quotable, and surprisingly skeptical about the myth of the great man, with one of George… Read more
82% ★★★★☆ (165,622)
Patton
Where to watch: Amazon
Movie · War · Drama · PG
1970 · 2h 52m · ★ 82% (165.6K)
The Rebel Warrior
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Starring: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young
Overview
"Patton" tells the tale of General George S. Patton, famous tank commander of World War II. The film begins with Patton's career in North Africa and progresses through the invasion of Germany and the fall of the Third Reich. Side plots also speak of Patton's numerous faults such his temper and habit towards insubordination.
Director
Franklin J. Schaffner
Production
20th Century Fox
Cast
George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young, Michael Strong, Carey Loftin, Albert Dumortier, Frank Latimore, Morgan Paull, Karl Michael Vogler, Bill Hickman, Pat Zurica, James Edwards, Lawrence Dobkin, David Bauer, John Barrie, Richard Münch, Siegfried Rauch, Michael Bates, Paul Stevens, Gerald Flood
Where to watch
Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A towering, old-school war epic that works as both battlefield spectacle and character study. It’s grand, quotable, and surprisingly skeptical about the myth of the great man, with one of George C. Scott’s defining performances.
Best for
Viewers who like prestige war dramas with strong speeches and command-room tension
Fans of character studies about ambition, ego, and military leadership
People who appreciate classic Hollywood epics with large-scale production values
Skip if
You want fast-paced modern combat realism
You prefer ensemble war films over a portrait centered on one dominant personality
You’re looking for a strictly anti-war film with no fascination for martial glory
Overview
Patton is one of the great American war films because it understands that victory and vanity can look almost identical on screen. Franklin J. Schaffner stages the film with real grandeur, but the movie’s real subject is a man who cannot separate discipline from self-mythology. The famous opening speech announces the scale of the performance, yet the film keeps asking whether Patton is a genius, a liability, or both at once.
Worth noting
George C. Scott gives the role volcanic force without flattening it into mere bluster. The film moves between battlefield logistics, political friction, and private contradiction, which gives it a richer shape than a simple heroic biography. It has the sweep of a studio epic, but its intelligence lies in how often it resists easy patriotism.
Bottom line
Even when it feels old-fashioned, that is part of the appeal: the pageantry, the rhetoric, the sense of history being argued over by larger-than-life personalities. It remains a benchmark for war cinema because it treats command as drama and ego as destiny.
Top Letterboxd reviews
theriverjordan (4.5★) · 398 likes
“Patton” succeeds utterly as a biopic for its insistance on remaining the detailed portrait of a single man — despite the immensity of historical events unfolding around him. This determination of focus also becomes the central dramatic conflict of the work: will General George Patton succeed in claiming full personal glory not just of his own film, but of the entire Second World War? Franklin J. Schaffner executes a maneuver of genius directorial subversion with the movie. He is so… more
Barry Daulton (5★) · 339 likes
170 minutes of one classic scene after the next, truly an outstanding movie and possibly the best War movie ever made.
David Sims (4★) · 308 likes
that Patton, he sure was ornery
comrade_yui (5★) · 186 likes
the great man theory of history, the movement of bodies, the duty of chivalry, the love of struggle, the end of principles and the beginning of systems. politics as the continuation of war by other means. twilight of the gods
Geoff Ketchum (5★) · 157 likes
Patton: "God, how I hate the twentieth century." Me: "General, wait until you see much more you hate the 21st century." Known as one of the greatest war movies of all-time, this 1970 Best Picture winner is less about battles and more of a fine-tooth study on a man who was comprised of every complicated nuance that mankind possesses. It's ugly and beautiful at the same time... just like the world has always been.