Patton - "Old Blood & Guts"

Patton kicks so much ass that I won't be sitting down for the next week! As the year winds down and we're drowned in Hollywood's season deluge of Oscar-hopefuls it's my habit of revisiting past Best Picture winners just to keep contemporary films in perspective. The results are often similar to measuring Bush to Lincoln - they don't seem to be in the same league.

Once more I've watched George C. Scott as the titular Patton (Best Pic winner 1970) and was again reminded of the days when Hollywood could still throw its muscle behind a project and get it right. In the lean & mean 70's a film like Patton was a post-Easy Rider aberration: a grand-scale epic with a huge budget. BUT it's a Hollywood film that doesn't suck - it kicks. I doubt this year's winner will leave me with the same sore but satisfying sensation.