Talk:The Last Days of Patton

An article for Wikipedia by the son of a soldier who served

As the son of a soldier who served under General Patton during World War II, I am more than pleased to write this brief article on him. Let's see if we can expand this article. Highest regards. ProfessorPaul (talk) 05:42, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

• Thanks for starting the article. I'm going to add just a couple things and correct something. The flashbacks don't really concern his fighting in WWI (as I understand it he saw little action). They concern his marriage, lessons he learned from his father and his championing the use of tanks. Sir Rhosis (talk) 03:26, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

• I'd have to consult my sources, but I think Patton did actually see combat in World War I. If my memory serves me correctly, he was wounded in action. He also served in the Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa. General John J. Pershing was Patton's hero, and Patton often lamented that Eisenhower wasn't more like him. That's most ironic, because Pershing became very critical of Patton after the slapping incidents.

Some random comments...

It's often difficult to create a good movie that's still historically accurate. "Patton" is a wonderful movie, but contains a number of inaccuracies. "The Last Days of Patton" is quite accurate, but it's also rather dull.

My biggest criticism of "Patton" was the fact that Eisenhower never appeared in the movie. It gave the impression that Patton was close friends with Omar Bradley, when in fact the two men never liked each other that much. Eisenhower was Patton's best friend, and their friendship was often complicated by Patton's indiscretions. Patton also became very critical of Eisenhower's conduct toward the British. When Eisenhower relieved Patton of command of the Third Army, it destroyed what remained of their friendship. "The Last Days of Patton", in my opinion, does not do a good job of bringing out that information.

Perhaps the biggest strength of "Patton" was George C. Scott's believability in portraying the eccentric general, which won him a well-deserved Academy Award. By the time he made "The Last Days of Patton" sixteen years later, Scott had gained a considerable amount of weight. This seriously marred his believability, as Patton was always quite lean.

On the whole, "The Last Days of Patton" is a good movie for those interested in World War II and the famous general, but it is a "snoozer" for most everyone else. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.56.113.130 (talk) 20:32, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Running time

I have a DVD by "Dollar DVD" that says the running time is "Approx. Time: 105 minutes" both on the cover and the DVD itself. The article currently says 145. My copy might be abridged for all I know. Jason Quinn (talk) 02:38, 26 September 2013 (UTC)

It's actually two hours with the credits. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.111.25.210 (talk) 16:16, 19 January 2021 (UTC)