Patton
July 2008 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: Blu-ray	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

In the history of Hollywood biographical films, there is perhaps no actor who is so thoroughly identified with the real-life character he played than George C. Scott. Scott read up thoroughly on General George Patton and created a performance so detailed that Patton’s relatives were thoroughly pleased and people who had known the charismatic officer thought he was brought back to life. As if to underscore his importance and further shine a light on the character, the other generals in the film, American, British, and German, were made into cardboard cutouts.

However, the producers were unable to obtain permission from Patton’s family to film anything about his personal life, so what we got was a thorough retelling of his military actions during World War II. In one brief scene, Patton talks about writing his wife, but that is all we know of his family life. History Through the Lens -- Patton: A Rebel Revisited, one of the three documentaries included on the second disc of this set, fills one in on Patton’s social life, as well as his upbringing and early military schooling. This is a fascinating documentary, adroitly mixing scenes of Scott as Patton with newsreel footage of Patton himself. Through these scenes, interviews, and Burt Reynolds’ narration, the viewer is informed of the accuracy of different scenes in the film and how the movie might have diverged from fact, or melded several events into one.

Though most would acknowledge him as a great general, not all thought Patton was a great man. In Patton’s Ghost Corps, a documentary about the troops Patton left behind in his final drive north at the end of the war, survivors who are still alive tell horrible stories of slain comrades and misjudged situations, with some degree of blame laid at Patton’s feet. The third documentary is a period featurette, largely devoted to extolling the many virtues of director Franklin J. Schaffner.

One has to admire the care that Fox took in transferring Patton to HD video. The picture shows few signs of damage and is sharp and clean. There are many scenes where someone is driving, walking, or marching to or from the camera, and these have such well-balanced foreground and background definition that they appear to have tremendous depth. Colors are fast and true, and contrasts are right on the mark. Patton was one of composer Jerry Goldsmith’s best scores, and it sounds splendid in the transfer to DTS. There’s more surround information than you might expect, though most of it sounds a lot more like simplistic front-to-back material while ignoring the sides. Bass is good, but some of the explosions distort and shatter.

On the first disc, complementing the film, there’s a cogent commentary by Francis Ford Coppola, who scripted the movie. In this as well as a five-minute introduction, the now-famous director divulges great insight into the making of Patton, especially from a scriptwriter’s prospective. In addition to the three documentaries on the second disc there are two unusual still-frame galleries. One is a behind-the-scenes gallery with an audio essay on Patton; the other displays production stills with the complete Goldsmith score as a soundtrack. This is the one place where Fox dropped the ball. The music is mono, whereas in the movie it is stereo surround. There was a stereo soundtrack album released, too, so one would think that stereo sources might have been used.

This edition of Patton is the next best thing to Criterion and shows how a great older film can live again on Blu-ray. Let’s hope everyone gets on the bandwagon and follows this example. Patton arrived on Blu-ray as part of a five-title Father’s Day promotion. The other titles are A Bridge Too Far, Battle of Britain, The Longest Day, and The Sand Pebbles. While taking some issue with Fox and MGM for thinking that all dads are sitting around salivating for World War II movies, one must appreciate that these major studios have reached into their back catalogs for popular titles and refurbished them sufficiently to make the effort worthwhile.

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