Patton
1970 USA Color 169 Minutes
Release date: February 4, 1970
Screenwriter Coppola took excerpts from three of Patton’s actual speeches for the opening scene. Source / More (Book)
George C. Scott won the Academy Award for best actor and famously refused to accept it, stating that competition between actors was unfair. When it was given to him, he send it back to the Academy, where it lingers to this day. Source / More (Book)
The film has been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Francis Coppola and Edmund H. North wrote the film from two biographies:“Patton: Ordeal and Triumph” by Ladislas Farago and “A Soldier's Story” by Omar Bradley.
There were several attempts to make the movie, starting in 1951. But the producers had to wait because of opposition from the Patton family. Source / More (Book)
George C. Scott: “I read 13 books on him [Patton] and had about 3,000 feet of documentary film that I ran at my house every night for a couple of months. I really got into it” Source / More (Book)
Patton’s heroic posturing increased president Richard Nixon’ courage to make a controversial decision about Cambodia. He gave the order to send troops into that country. Nixon: “The world’s most powerful nation should not act like a pitiful helpless giant” Source / More (Book)
General Norman Schwarzkopf (commander in Gulf War) was more inspired by Scott’s portrayal than by his own military training. Source / More (Book)
The terms D-day and H-hour are used for the day and hour on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. The most well-known D-Day is June 6, 1944 also called Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of western Europe.
In 1944 British and American soldiers, numbered more than 150,000 troops , gathered in England (U.K.) for the invasion of Europe. The U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower had the task of forming a large fleet in order to effect a landing on the coast of France.
Delayed 24 hours by bad weather, the invasion began before dawn on June 6 with overnight paratrooper landings, massive air/naval bombardments, and an amphibious assault. They landed at five beaches and gradually expanded their positions but did not break through the German coastal defenses.
Finally, at the end of July the Allied ground troops broke out of the beachheads and Lieutenant General Patton went into action. His tanks swept across northern France. Operation Overlord concluded with the surrender of Paris.