Wednesday, January 10, 2007
BLOOD AND GUTS
I finished the last two day's NYTimes Best 1176 Film
Like I said yesterday, it is mostly vignettes based on 'quotes' that were reported by others or his own writings.
It is pretty good but it has to skip a lot to get the arc of his career from 1943 to 1945. A lot was going on.
He is an interesting character and George C. Scott channels him pretty well.
One is bothered a bit from time to time with echoes from Jack T. Ripper in Strangelove a few years before.
A nice part of it is his relationship with Omar Bradley whose books provided additional background. Karl Malden is as mild as Scott is dramatic.
The production is beautiful. The battle scenes are mostly hard to fathom. A lot of coming and going and blasts and all. But it is pretty.
I liked it but also had the odd feeling that I was being conned a bit. Everything is a bit too pat on both the plus and minus side of Patton's character. He is not quite a cartoon but he is certainly a creation of a wonderful actor.
So it is theater.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
