I watched so many Patton movies over and over as a damn kid that my young dumbass started believing that George C. Scott was actually him. My dad watched all of those types of history movies and documentaries nonstop when he had some downtime.
As a child, you want to hang out with your dad, so it was always just sports and history with him. The funny thing is that I liked the sports but hated the history. And when I hit my teens, I actually enjoyed the history.
Originally Posted by Lucas McCain
Patton is a great movie. one of my favorites in the War and specifically WWI movie genre. John Wayne lobbied very hard for the role of Patton. not too hard to see that given Wayne's views. Sorry Duke, you weren't really the best choice for that role, not only did Wayne not resemble Patton at all where George C Scott did, Wayne was actually too big. Patton was about 6'1' so he wasn't short but not nearly as large as Wayne.
the movie was very accurate to the history. after all it had Omar Bradley as a consultant who knew Patton from their days at West Point and was his deputy commander in North Africa. of course Bradley was overall commander of US Army forces in Europe from just before D-Day till the war in Europe was over, meaning that Patton served under Bradley's command as commanding General of 3rd Army.
one thing that was overplayed for the dramatics of course was the slapping incident. certainly there was an uproar by politicians over it but Patton was never in any danger of being sent back to the US. Eisenhower, who was close friends with Patton and George Marshall would never have sent probably their best field commander back to the US with the invasion of Europe looming. and even if they did Roosevelt would ordered Patton reinstated anyway. it is true as the movie depicted that Patton was used as a decoy to make the Germans think the invasion would be at Calais and Hitler fell for it completely even after the real invasion began. Rommel for one was aghast at this but was ordered not to move a large German force from Calais to Normandy by the "Corporal Field Marshall". it's very possible Rommel could have stopped the invasion if he was allowed to act.
George C Scott as Patton
Gen George S Patton
Sorry Duke .. George C Scott was the better choice