Welcome gentle readers to another installment of the Sunday Morning Movie. Today we have The Last Days of Patton which details the inglorious final weeks of George Patton’s life. George C. Scott reprises his famous 1970 role in Patton.
Reviews:
Letterboxd says:
Although quite definitively a sequel, The Last Days of Patton is a wholly different sort of film from it’s epic predecessor. For one, it was a TV movie with a fraction of the budget, and tonally far more overtly introspective and melancholy. If Patton was about Patton the General, The Last Days of Patton is about Patton the Man. If one film was about his life, the other was about his death.With no grand set pieces to dish out or even film to show it with, it seems to have been shot on videotape, the emphasis is more than ever on the performances and the script. Scott once again gives a great performance, although a more subdued and fragile one. His performance here recalls DeNiro in The Irishman or Pacino in The Godfather pt. 3, the same man of authority and action now a frail facsimile couched rigid in a hospital bed. The supporting performances are sound too, with Eva Marie Saint as Patton’s previously unseen wife Beatrice and Ed Lautner as a fellow General delivering some of the film’s most touching moments.Although it has no hope of recapturing the sweep and grandeur of the 1970 film, and to it’s credit, it never tries, The Last Days of Patton is a surprisingly worthy and poignant successor that succeeds in telling a story that needed a separate film to deal with.
Glitternight.com says:
The best parts of the movie come early on when we’re shown Patton clashing with Eisenhower and soon-to-be-CIA scumbag Walter Bedell-Smith over Occupation policy in Germany. This drama is handled excellently, with the pros and cons of the issues given full presentation.
The arguments between Patton and Eisenhower made me appreciate once again what is wrong with so many similar exchanges in dramas made now. Recent dramas can’t resist the sophomoric tendency to depict one figure as Being In The Right and the other figure Being In The Wrong.
The Last Days of Patton makes the dramatic exchanges riveting because both men make valid points yet both men are also bested at times in the verbal fencing. It’s so refreshing compared to today’s tiresome “Watch the Figure In The Right Lecture And Harangue The Cardboard Villain” approach.
If the entire film was devoted to this clash and ended with Patton’s inevitable dismissal The Last Days of Patton would be a genuine classic. And by the way I’m overwhelmingly opposed to General Patton’s stand yet the dialogue makes his point of view understandable no matter how much you disagree with it.
Film Yap says:
It’s the classic “lion in winter” sort of tale, with the grizzled old warrior facing his own mortality, his reputation tarnished as wartime gives way to peace and celebrated fighters like Patton quickly turned into anachronisms. Literally until his dying breath, Patton yearned for the chance to take on the “mongrel” Russians, allies of necessity whom he predicted would become America’s greatest global foe.
Interestingly, despite the 16-year gap between the film and its made-for-TV followup, Scott was actually about the same age as the character during the second go-round. He was barely into his 40s when he first played Patton, who turned 60 shortly before his death.
My take:
This is a good movie. I was surprised to learn that Patton ended his days as a paraplegic as the result of a stupid automobile accident. You have to wonder how a human dynamo like him felt being so helpless. He was obviously a difficult man. The movie touches on his anti-Semitism for a second and discusses his willingness to work with former Nazis. Not to mention his rabid anti-Communism, this guy was ready to start the Cold War single-handedly. But one cannot help but feel some pity for the man, trapped in his broken body. Don’t let the fact that it’s a TV movie scare you off, it’s worth a watch.
Director: Delbert Mann
Writer: William Luce
Notable Actors: George C. Scott, Murray Hamilton, Eva Marie Saint
Plot (Spoilers!):
The movie begins with Patton in trouble after the end of World War Two. He has decided to disobey orders and retain Nazis in key positions to help rebuild Germany. He also apparently considered using SS forces to join with US Army forces to wage war against the Soviets. He has even befriended a Nazi aristocrat and has taken to fencing with him. General Dwight D. Eisenhower calls him onto the carpet. He is to be relieved of his command of the 3rd Army and reassigned to the command of the 15th Army, a “paper army” whose main job is to scribe the official history of the war. This is a great disappointment to Patton.
But life is about to get much worse than an embarrassing appointment. On the day before he is to transfer back to the United States, Patton decides to go hunting. On the way to the hunting grounds, he is involved in an automobile accident. It is bad. His spine is injured and he finds himself paralyzed from the neck down.
Patton finds himself trapped in his own body in a military hospital. Experts are flown in but the prognosis is grim. It is highly unlikely he will recover. He spends his time chatting with his colleagues and reminiscing about his youthful days before World War One, his time with his father and his wife. Eventually, his conditions worsens and on December 21st, 1945 he succumbs to his injuries.
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