Patton (1970) on Netflix
In North Africa, General George S. Patton takes over the American II Corps after its defeat at Kasserine Pass. He reorganizes the corps and imposes strict discipline on it.
- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb7.9/10114,231 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
During World War II, the II Corps takes a heavy defeat at Kasserine Pass in North Africa at the hands of Rommel's Afrika Korps. George S. Patton is sent to take command of the corps. He reorganizes it and imposes strict discipline. Patton is frustrated that the British commander Bernard Montgomery dominates the Allied effort. He leads the corps at El Guettar.
Cast
- Albert Dumortieras Moroccan Minister
- Pat Zuricaas First Lieutenant Alexander Stiller (as Patrick J. Zurica)
Show all 20 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Patton (1970)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- George C. Scott won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance but declined it, citing a dislike of the voting process and the concept of acting competitions; he was the first actor to do so, and the film's producer, Frank McCarthy, accepted the award on his behalf.
- Patton was Richard Nixon's favorite film: he first watched it at the White House on April 5, 1970, then repeatedly with Henry Kissinger, including on a cruise on the presidential yacht, which prompted Kissinger to write that he managed to escape for an hour in the middle of it to prepare for the next day's NSC meeting.
- When Scott learned the speech would open the film he refused to do it, believing it would overshadow the rest of his performance, and director Schaffner assured him it would be shown at the end; the scene was shot in one afternoon at Sevilla Studios in Madrid, with the flag painted on the back of the stage wall.
- Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, John Wayne, Robert Mitchum and Rod Steiger all declined the role of Patton, and Steiger later said it was his greatest mistake; Charlton Heston was considered for the role of Omar Bradley before Karl Malden was cast.
- Patton's widow, Beatrice, resisted attempts to film his life; after she died in 1953 producer Frank McCarthy began the project, contacting the family the day after she was buried, but they declined to help, and the Pentagon also refused at first because Patton's son, George Patton IV, was in the Army.
- One unannounced battle scene, shot at night, raised fears of a coup d'état in the Royal Palace neighborhood, and one paratrooper was electrocuted in power lines, yet none of that battle footage appears in the film.
- Shooting began on February 3, 1969 and covered seventy-one locations in six countries, mostly Spain, which had a lot of the U.S. Army's World War II surplus equipment; cheap labor there also encouraged runaway productions.
- Francis Ford Coppola wrote the script in 1963, drawing largely on Ladislas Farago's biography Patton: Ordeal and Triumph; the film was originally to be called Blood & Guts, and William Wyler, first scheduled to direct, quit before the planned starting date of January 1969.
