This is another case where I have to talk about a film that I find to be overrated. I know there are a lot of people out there who love this movie and Scott’s performance, but I’m sorry. I just don’t like war movies. Occasionally, there’s an exception like Mrs. Miniver. But most of the time, they all seem to be way too cliche.

George C. Scott is Patton. He’s basically a huge jerk (I want to use a stronger word here, but I don’t swear on this blog.) The movie is about him and his time serving as a general in World War II.

There’s one scene where a bunch of Nazi officers are discussing Patton and one of them tells the other where he went to school and how we was trained, and the other officer says, “This doesn’t tell me anything about Patton.” This line sums up the whole movie. Much like Lincoln, the film centers around a guy that we don’t really feel we get to know. We can never sympathize with him, particularly later on where it seems he actually likes the war, and is nothing without the war. But even this isn’t really explored in depth, as we never see him vulnerable and we seldom see him doing the right thing.

Now, it’s actually hard to judge Scott’s famous performance. I haven’t really seen Scott in any other movies, so I don’t know what he’s like. And I barely know anything about the real general, so I don’t know what he’s like either. So to all you people who say that Scott becomes Patton, I guess I’ll just have to take your word for it.

While the film does have a good sound design and some memorable dialogue. I personally think it falls flat. It seems to switch back and forth between battle scenes and talking scenes in the most formulaic way imaginable. It’s not really a bad film, it’s mainly just mediocre and sort of forgettable.

***1/2