History Film / Patton

* AFatherToHisMen: He can be gentle and understanding when the situation calls for it. Except when it comes to not grasping that "battle fatigue" is real.

* FieldPromotion: When an attack in Sicily doesn't go as quickly as planned, Patton fires the officer he deems responsible, and promotes the second in command.

-->'''Patton:''' There's absolutely no reason for us to assume the Germans are mounting a major offensive. The weather is awful, Their supplies are low, and the German Army hasn't mounted a winter offensive since the time of Frederick the Great. Therefore I believe that's ''exactly'' what they're going to do.

** Not in actual physical handsomeness, but the real Patton was a much less impressive orator than this movie would lead you to believe. He actually had a squeaky, somewhat high-pitched voice whereas Scott speaks with a deep gravelly voice. The real Patton still managed to steal the spotlight when speaking, but that was because he practiced his posture, poses, and facial expressions literally for hours in order to increase his stage presence, and purposefully cultivated his (deserved) badass image with his immaculate uniform, dual holstered pistols, etc, in large part to compensate for the fact that his voice was weak and uninspiring by itself.

* RealityIsUnrealistic: Patton actually had a quite high-pitched voice, unlike George C. Scott's gravelly tones.

--->'''Patton:''' There's absolutely no reason for us to assume the Germans are mounting a major offensive. The weather is awful, Their supplies are low, and the German army hasn't mounted a winter offensive since the time of Frederick the Great. Therefore I believe that's ''exactly'' what they're going to do.

* TheUnseen: UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower. Film makers wanted to cast someone to have Ike appear as a cameo but it never worked out. Instead, Eisenhower becomes a God-like being, able to pass judgment on Patton and his (mis)deeds.

* CelebratingTheHeroes: At the very end the title character narrates a story about the Roman Empire version of this:
-->For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and [[MementoMori whispering in his ear a warning...that all glory is fleeting]].

* SuddenlyShouting: Guess who.

-->For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning...that all glory is fleeting.

* FelonyMisdemeanor: Patton views being relegated to a reserve command in the upcoming Normandy Invasion over the private-slapping incident to be entirely unjustified. The Germans don't believe the western Allies would really put their best mobile force commander on the bench over something so minor, either... which allows the western Allies to exploit Patton's reputation to draw suspicion away from their ''actual'' plans by sending Patton all over the European Theater.

Their own experience of killing or leaving to die millions of [=POWs=] and civilians (albeit against "subhumans" in the Eastern theatre) meant that the Germans couldn't comprehend that their enemies might actually punish one of their officers for the non-event of them slapping someone. So when Patton was assigned to the [[BatmanGambit humiliating job of decoy]] while the Allies planned their Normandy invasion, the Germans were convinced (until it was too late) that Patton was leading a (fictitious) army into Calais, and it kept the German reserves inactive until the Allies had established a solid foothold in France. From the point of view of UsefulNotes/DwightEisenhower (commander over the European theater of the war) it was a win-win situation: the Germans were fooled, and he managed to sideline a general he regarded as an AxCrazy loose cannon ... ''until he could be unleashed at the right moment''.

* BerserkButton: Patton has the belief that all HumansAreWarriors, especially [[Eagleland Americans]], and is not fond of any soldier claiming to suffer from [[ShellShockedVeteran "Battle Fatigue"]]: to him, such a man is just a DirtyCoward.

* BerserkButton: Patton is not fond of cowards.

* WarriorPoet: Patton, arguably the TropeCodifier.

** When Rommel is introduced, he is listed as being the commander of the Afrika Korps. At the time of the Tunisia Campaign, he was in command of Army Group Africa. This can be justified as the Allies often referred to all of the German forces as the Afrika Korps, even when the German presence greatly expanded in North Africa.

* WartsAndAll: Despite the film portraying Patton as a brilliant commander, it also shows him as a complete and utter asshole whose bloodthirstiness and lack of tact caused no end of frustration to the Allies, to say nothing of him slapping a soldier suffering from shellshock for supposed cowardice, and immediately starting to antagonize the Soviets and trying to urge Eisenhower to start a war against them ''immediately'' after the Second World War has ended.

* OutscareTheEnemy: Patton says that he'll make his men unafraid of the Germans, but "I hope to God they never lose
their fear of ''me''."

* OutscareTheEnemy: Patton says that he'll make his men unafraid of the Germans, but "I hope to God they never stop being afraid of ''me''."

* OhCrap: The reaction of a sloppy DeskJockey officer when he is giving his excuses about a getting a new commanding officer and realizes that CO, Gen. Patton, is here now and he is obviously disgusted by the state of the unit.