Excellent movie about a LUNATIC
TCM ran this last night and my husband and I watched every second of it..not even taking time for bathroom breaks.
The portrayal of Patton, WWII, and the ensuing battles that killed hundreds of thousands of people, I can say this, regarding General Patton: (just my opinion, mind you.)
1. He was mentally ill.
War is often a tragic necessity, but the sheer love this man had for blood, guts, gore and killing betray a deceased mind.
I read on some website, portions of a letter he wrote to his wife (more about THAT relationship in a minute) in which he brags about killing one of his own men by whacking him in the head...if true, this is HORRIFYING.
2. What kind of military leader has NO capacity or empathy for humanity? An unbalanced one, that's what kind! Generals were given a LOT of lee-way regarding their behavior...which tells me the "slapping incident" was far worse than portrayed in this movie. In fact, it only portrays ONE incident of Patton having a rage attack (verbal and physical) on a man who was shell-shocked.
3. He was a sexist, racist, PIG. Cheated on his wife, was rumored to have an affair with his own niece (how very Ancient Rome of him.) and once said "A colored soldier cannot think fast enough to fight in armor." What a POS.
4. He was such an aggressive, ruthless pro-war man that the Nazi's had a grudging admiration for him. Just think about THAT.
5. I wonder how many United States soldiers died because of his over-toe-top need to put them and himself in incredibly risky situations. He'd let his men go long period of time without food or sleep. And even worse, he was proud of it!
6. I don't believe he died in his sleep 12 days after a car crash (from which every other person involved was barely harmed.) I think he was put down, like the rabid animals that he was, by his own government. I also think that had he lived a longer life, he would have ended up mired in total senility.
There is nothing 'grand' or 'wonderful' about killing people. If there were a diplomatic way to diffuse a potentially violent situation, Patton would be opposed to it, (my own speculation.)
I would even go so far as to say that Patton himself suffered from shell-shock. we often lash out when we see qualities in others that we do not want to acknowledge about ourselves.
In a speech he made in 1944, he actually told a group of women (most of whom had sons who had died in battle) that "men who die in war are fools. The real heros are the wounded."
When he was told to stop the vulgar, aggressive war mongering speeches, he had a hard time controlling himself.
While this was a very, very good movie, it left me feeling sadness and despair over these types of military leaders who expect soldiers to be MACHINES, not human beings.
Just my 2 cents.