Patton · reception & legacy

1970 · Franklin J. Schaffner

How Patton has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

A huge hit and 7-time Oscar winner in 1970, landing right in the middle of Vietnam — and it's since settled in as one of the most respected of the classic Best Picture winners, powered almost entirely by the reputation of George C. Scott's performance.

What's debated

The eternal Patton debate: is it a glorification of a warmongering general or a sly critique of one — famously, hawks and doves both walked out of it in 1970 convinced the film agreed with them.

Its footprint

The opening — Scott delivering a profane speech in front of a wall-sized American flag — is one of the most parodied and referenced images in American film; the movie is also cultural lore for being Richard Nixon's favorite, which he reportedly screened repeatedly around the 1970 Cambodia decision.

Where it stands

Canon 'dad movie' royalty: a Best Picture winner that cinephiles keep on the shelf mostly as the delivery vehicle for one of the greatest screen performances ever given.

★ Did you know? George C. Scott won Best Actor for Patton and refused the award — the first actor ever to decline an acting Oscar — having dismissed the ceremony as a 'meat parade'; the screenplay Oscar went in part to a young Francis Ford Coppola, whose famous flag-speech opening had initially gotten his draft shelved.