Patton the Movie: Was it historically Accurate?

We go scene by scene through the Movie Patton.  What was historical and what was Hollywood 

Transcript

The Chronicle of American History Podcast

Patton the Movie: Was it historically accurate?  

July 2025

The other day, on one of my streaming services, a movie appeared that I had not seen in years, but had viewed at least a dozen times.  It was my favorite World War II movie of my childhood (perhaps Saving Private Ryan is the greatest of all time). And as with all outstanding art, it changes as the exigencies of life alter my perspectives.  As a boy, it was a thrilling war epic.  As a young adult, a study in how war can accommodate, or even extoll, a person with mad tendencies in a way that peacetime cannot.  And today, an incredible study of a singular individual in all his layers, good and bad.  

The movie Patton had an incredible cinematic pedigree.  Francis Ford Coppola wrote the screenplay before his Godfather years.  Composer Jerry Goldsmith’s score combines both thrilling martial music to celebrate Patton’s triumphs, and eerie background sounds when Patton’s odd proclivities take over.  The director, Franklin Schaffer, would win an Academy Award for Patton and had already directed five movies, including The Planet of the Apes, prior to his war epic.  Throughout all the years, I have developed a renewed appreciation for George C. Scott's fantastic performance in the role that won him an Oscar.  I have seen others try to portray Patton, and although I have seen innumerable photos of the real Patton, when I read about him, George C. Scott comes to mind.

And when Scott subsequently won the Academy Award, his decision not to accept was Pattonesque.  Scott’s reasons for refusing the award included his belief that the ceremony was a “two-hour meat parade,” a public display with contrived suspense driven by economic considerations. He also found the concept of competition among actors distasteful. 

And Patton, made in 1970, was not just a portrait of a famous general, but given the context of the times, a commentary on that period in America.  In one of cinema's iconic moments, the movie begins with Patton, backdropped by an enormous American flag, rallying a group of soldiers.  When in his life did this moment take place? Most of it was culled from a speech given to the 3rd Army’s 6th Armored Division in 1944.  “Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans often play to win. I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American.” This is in historical context to the failures throughout the 1960s to bring North Vietnam to heel, especially after 1968, when the once incredibly popular Lyndon Baines Johnson chose not to run again, specifically because the public decried his decisions regarding Vietnam.  

In that 1944 speech, Patton noted, “The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared. Some men get over their fright in a minute under fire. For some, it takes an hour. For some, it takes days.” I always thought this was great insight.  For Patton, it was not about being brave in war but mastering the natural fears that would come with one’s life in the balance.  Yet Patton went on to note, “A real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood.”  If one cited “innate manhood” as a virtue to a class of high school juniors today, he would be laughed at and probably barred from the school afterward.  Yet in the context of 1944, it was not edgy stuff but a recitation of the ethos of the time.  

And yet Patton also said this, in both the movie and in his speech, “It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit. The bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don’t know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about fucking!” Patton instinctively knew that drill, learning of a role within the team, and discipline were the backbone of any victorious army.  

In another telling insight from this opening speech, Patton notes that “when a soldier puts his hand in some goo, that used to be his best friend’s face, you’ll know what to do.” Patton understood that even more than a nation, a general, or a sense of manhood, soldiers fight for their fellow soldiers.  

And so the movie (after the speech scene) begins with the aftermath of Kasserine Pass, in which Lloyd Fredendall’s II Corps was mauled by German General Erwin Rommel’s army at Kasserine Pass.  Mark T Calhoun, writing for the National World War II Museum, notes of the battle, “When he attacked on February 14th, Rommel found his adversaries unprepared. Fredendall had deployed his corps in penny packets across the complex terrain, in some cases too far from one another to provide mutual fire support.”  Calhoun adds, “By the night of the 16th, II Corps had lost 1,600 men, nearly 100 tanks, 57 half-tracks, and 29 artillery pieces.” In truth, Rommel had to suspend a grand plan to destroy the II Corps and push the British 1st Army out of Tunisia due to tough resistance from both British and American troops.  Yet this was not enough to save Fredendall or the reputation of the American army.  And it was the devastation wrought by Rommel on 14-16 depicted in the movie when Omar Bradley, brilliantly played by Karl Malden, comes to inspect the carnage while locals strip the bodies.  There is even a scene of an aide gunning down vultures feeding on the dead.  

Then the movie abruptly turns to Patton himself reviewing a military parade in Morocco and receiving a medal that stated, “the lions in their dens tremble at his approach.”  What is not mentioned in the movie is that Patton successfully executed the 1942 westernmost North Africa landing, one of three in Operation Torch.  This was the first time the US took the offensive against Germany (the US had already begun offensive operations against Japan in the Pacific theater).  

What is also left out of the film is that Patton was not initially asked to take the job.  After offering the position to Generals Ernest Harmon and Mark Clark, both of whom turned it down, Eisenhower sent for Patton.  At this point, I would like to address a key aspect of the movie.  Although Bradley is a key character, we meet Patton’s sometime superior, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, who makes several appearances, and we even meet Eisenhower’s chief of staff, Bedell Smith. However, we never see Eisenhower.  Ike is a godlike presence in the film, all-powerful in his decisions, yet unseen in his aspect.  It is a brilliant device, or a non-device.  

In the film, Patton takes over II Corps and immediately begins instilling discipline.  In Rick Atkinson’s WWII trilogy, a must-read for any WWII buff, Patton is noted as follows: “In Eisenhower’s opinion, he was the army’s best trainer and organizer. As his force gets bigger and bigger, he’s got the capability to handle it. His bravery is indisputable; he was not a chateau general, as some claim.”  

All of that was depicted over the next 15 minutes of the film as Patton instilled a new esprit de corps into his African-based unit.  In Africa, one aspect of Patton is repeated throughout the film.  I have a deep understanding of history, gained over 30 years of reading and retention. Patton believed that part of his vast historical knowledge came from actually being there, being reincarnated again and again, and always as a warrior.  In his poem “Through a Glass, Darkly”, verses of which were cited in the movie, Patton states,

Through the travail of the ages,

 Midst the pomp and toil of war,

 I have fought and strove and perished

 Countless times upon this star.

So as through a glass, and darkly

 The age-long strife I see

 Where I fought in many guises,

 Many names, but always me.    

The movie capitalizes on this mysticism by showcasing Patton in a lonely field near grave markers, with Bradley standing by in a dubious yet respectful manner, and through the incredible score written by composer Jerry Goldsmith.  It is here that there is a nit for the history pedant.  Patton notes of a Carthaginian battle against the Romans that after the former’s defeat, “Arabs stripped the bodies.”  During the Punic War period, from 264 to 146 BC, there would have been no Arabs, as they did not arrive in Tunisia until the late 600s AD.  It would have been correct to say that Berbers had stripped the bodies.  I only point this out as something the real Patton would have been aware of.  

There is a scene in the movie where a British commander assures Patton that they have command of the skies, only to be rudely interrupted when a German plane strafes Patton’s HQ.  However, it is a fantastic scene culminating in Patton’s claim to wish to give the German pilots a medal. Great moment.  Too bad it never actually happened.  Patton, like many generals ranging from Washington to Grant, was disdainful of enemy fire, but he never fired his sidearm at enemy aircraft.  

And this brings us to the battle of El Guettar.  Again, as a boy, the depiction of this conflict was one of the most thrilling I had ever seen. When we got the VHS version (I am not a young man but middle-aged), I would rewind and watch the battle again and again, including the moment when a German tank ran over a German soldier.  And here is where my growing knowledge started to impede my enthusiasm.  I learned about the Panzer Mark III and Mark IV tanks, as well as the Shermans. (I also knew about the Grant/Lee tank, with its side-mounted barrel, which seemed odd, but I digress.)  I later learned that the tanks used in the movie Patton were primarily M47 and M48 Patton tanks, not the M4 Sherman tanks that were actually used in World War II.  While the film used newsreel footage of Shermans, the primary action sequences featured post-war Patton tanks, which were visually distinct.

And if you look closely at the troops fighting in the battle, there are very few blonds represented, although this was a German versus American conflict.  It was because the picture was filmed in Spain, and those extras are Spanish.  

Was the movie version of El Guettar like the original?   In no way was the battle as simple as depicted in the movie.  Although it was the German 10th Panzer Division, an elite unit, that was attacking, the 1st Infantry Division was initially targeted, not the armor, as shown in the picture.  Kevin M. Hymel, writing for Warfare History Network, notes of the climax of El Guettar, “Patton rushed the 7th Field Artillery Battalion, then supporting the 1st Armored Division, to the battlefield. It arrived in the nick of time to turn back the Germans’ morning assault.”  

The movie then moves to Sicily, where he is shown to defy orders.  Patton’s original role was to support Montgomery’s drive from Syracuse to Messana, in the NE corner of the island. Instead, in command of the American Seventh Army, he led a controversial charge across the island, disobeying directives to primarily focus on supporting Montgomery’s advance.  The most controversial aspect, both in the movie and in reality, was the casualties Patton incurred in central Sicily and outside of Messina to arrive before Montgomery.  As historians, we are left to ponder whether Patton’s opening a second path into Massena saved lives by ending the Sicilian campaign more quickly than would have happened if he had stuck to his supporting role.  

And then the reality of the slapping incident.  Patton confronts a soldier suffering from what we would call today, PTSD, branding him a coward. Patton screams at him and slaps the soldier so hard that his helmet comes off.  In the Simpsons episode “Bart the Soldier,” the celebrated animated show parodies Patton, but poses a pertinent question.  Bart confronts a “soldier” who says he’s lost his nerves, to which Bart responds by slapping him and saying, “I won’t have cowards in my army.” Grandpa Abe Simpson then slaps Bart and says, “You can push them out of a plane. You can march them off a cliff. You can send them off to die on some God-forsaken rock. But for some reason, you can’t slap them. Now, apologize to that boy right now.” During the same sequence of events, Patton is shown forcing an end run, landing in Sicily, in which hundreds are killed, again, to outdo Montgomery.  Abe Simpson has a point.

Patton was subsequently required to apologize and was removed from command and publicly put on ice.  As the movie correctly portrays Patton thundering that the largest war ever fought in the history of mankind, he was, in fact, on the sidelines.  Patton rues his use of force on the soldier and tells his aide, “I should have kissed the son of a bitch.”  

But it was not just the slap. In one notable speech, Patton discusses how the US and Britain will take over the world after victory, purposefully excluding the Soviets.  It is worth noting that in the European Theater of Operations, the Soviets were facing 2/3 of the German forces, while the Americans and British were facing 1/3.  

The final sequence of the movie shows Patton, after D-Day, receiving a new command: the 3rd Army. Ironically, he is now serving under his one-time subordinate, Bradley, who states that if he had a choice, he would not have picked Patton, but it was Ike who made the call.  Justifying Eisenhower’s faith, Patton drives his unit clear across France, brilliantly handling a mechanized force.  He is not stopped by the German army, which, at this point, is in disarray but has run out of gas supplies.  After a particularly horrific battle, the movie again offers two insights into Patton.  He tells his aide how much he loves war, and encountering an apparently unwounded but stupefied soldier sitting against a burned-out tank, Patton leans down and kisses him. Even Patton is capable of learning from his mistakes.

Perhaps one of Patton’s most incredible maneuvers occurs near the end of the movie.  After a surprise German counteroffensive in the winter, the Battle of the Bulge, Patton does the near impossible of pulling his 250,000-man army out of an offensive and repositioning it for a northward advance to rescue a division trapped in the city of Bastogne. The fact that this was done in 48 hours is a testament not just to Patton’s brilliance but to the dedication of his men.  And once again, Jerry Goldsmith’s score highlights a scene where Patton walks down a hill to march with his men towards victory.  If you can watch the scene without getting a thrill up your spine, then you are a more stoical person than I.  

Ultimately, the movie suggests that with peace in Europe, Patton will begin to crack up and reveals some of his more controversial decisions, such as his opposition to the Russians and his policy of denazification in his zone of command.  Patton used known Nazis in administrative roles, figuring they already knew the jobs.  And he is again, subsequently relieved of command.  In a piece of foreshadowing, a runaway cart nearly kills Bradley Patton, and sure enough, the real Patton never left Europe.  Eight months into the peace, on December 9th, a car wreck left Patton with a broken neck and paralysis from the neck down.  Twelve days later, he died.  The movie does not say, but after considering an offer to lie with French Marshals in Paris, or be flown home, his wife decided his final resting place was in a Hamm, Luxembourg cemetery, surrounded by the fallen of his beloved 3rd army.  

I have noted many Hollywood embellishments or simple inaccuracies, as no director (without the aid of CGI) could muster 100 authentic Panzer Mark IVs or Sherman tanks.  Yet, like any work of art, there is substance and there is essence.  There are enough accuracies in the movie to give a World War II history buff a solid lesson in who, what, where, and when.  In some regards, even more importantly, we have the essence of one of the greatest American military commanders, both his brilliance and his flaws.  It is a holistic portrait of an incredible man.