Saturday Night at Market Chess Cinemas

If you have not seen the sweeping film, Patton (1970), based on real-life General George S. Patton, then you are missing out on beautiful storytelling about an American legend. 

George C. Scott plays Patton brilliantly, with the accompanying swagger, timely smirks, and true purpose of carving out his place in military history.  In addition, Karl Malden turns in a very credible showing as the mild-mannered but formidable General Omar N. Bradley, who would ultimately lead the Allies in the D-Day invasion under Dwight D. Eisenhower while Patton served as a decoy. 

Francis Ford Coppola co-wrote the script, and you can practically feel his famous talents, too, in terms of his ability to maintain quality throughout the three hour epic. 

The film also did a good job not deviating from historical fact on many fronts. It is refreshing to see such a military bent to a film which could have easily succumbed to a given political bias.

After all, historical figures like Patton and German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel were lifelong soldiers and military men, largely looking to stay as far away from politics as possible (Rommel's decency in the face of Hitler's orders to murder POW's and Jews would ultimately cost Rommel himself an early demise at the hands of the Gestapo).

And this film illustrates as much.