Response Patton 1970s Analysis

American films from the 1970s “constitute a dialogue or debate about the nature and prospects of American society” and changes in American culture. The decade was a time of uncertainty and change. There was a struggle between emerging changes in American society and maintenance of “paternalistic authority and traditional morality.” The Great Society, fights for civil rights, deaths and violence mired America’s as the 60s ended. The social movements of the 1960s strongly influenced the 1970s movies that explored several key issues including the unpopular Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, women’s rights, economic and political issues, youth culture and African American culture and rights. Many of these 1970s films can be viewed “as responses

Other films in the 1970s “directly confront the American experience in Vietnam.” “Though the choice and framing of the [film’s] subject reflect to some degree the bitter controversies about Vietnam in 1970, the film Patton still maintains a close linkage with the consensus-building World War II movie.” The mood of the American people in 1945 (the time of the movie) began “turning anti-war, kind of like the Vietnam protests.” The film addresses broader issues from World War II that linger into the seventies -- racial conflicts, ethnic diversity and women’s rights. There are no black fighting soldiers in the film. The races were separated until President Truman integrated the U.S. military. At a time when African Americans were struggling to secure rights, Patton has a Black servant. Officers in the movie are Anglo Saxon while soldiers are portrayed as always from Italian, Polish and eastern European heritages. Women were shown in limited military roles only as nurses, never

In the film German strategists could not believe the U.S. would sacrifice its best commander because he slapped a mere soldier. It is an interesting contrast in society’s view of the value of personal dignity. In the film Patton talks about the death of soldiers in battle and referred to Norse mythology to emphasize the dignity of dying for a worthy cause. One commentator remarked the film “ideologically is flawed in that it glorifies war and minimizes the consequences of war by the statements of death in war being noble or glorious and omitting incidents such as the killing of surrendering soldiers.” The slapping incident challenged contemporary judgments about the treatment of human beings – soldiers or not. Patton later was ordered to publicly apologize for the