General George S. Patton: Hollywood Vs. History

Patton: Hollywood vs. History Being one of the most controversial generals of World War II and in American history, General George S. Patton is today regarded as a folk hero due to the eponymously named 1970 film, Patton. Well known for his aggressive battle strategies, charismatic personality, profane language, and contentious public comments, Patton often brought forth an amalgam of frustration and admiration among his colleagues and soldiers. His posthumous biographical film which details a section of his life is, for the most part, historically accurate in both its telling of World War II battles and of Patton’s personality, ambitions, and beliefs. However, where the film suffers primarily is the slight oversimplification of Patton’s disposition

A particular scene in the movie depicts Patton’s blitzkrieg campaign through France, only to be halted by a lack of fuel. This is entirely precise to the details of Patton’s actual French campaign, where a lack of fuel prevented him from quickly marching to the Battle of the Bulge and through the Siegfried Line. Another facet of WWII perfectly presented in the film are the uniforms, which were actual regalia from the war itself. Notwithstanding the brilliant attention to detail throughout the majority of the film, Patton’s largest failure in properly depicting the war comes from its presentation of women and minority groups. In multiple hospital scenes, women are grossly underrepresented in an area where they would have been extremely common. Further, most troops in the movie are presented as white, with only a single black man being presented as part of the military despite nearly ten percent of the military during World War II being black. While these slight discrepancies do not draw away from the enjoyability of the film, they do lessen its historical accuracy by a significant