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“Patton” is the story of General George Patton, a complex man who was religious and profane at the same time. This film isn’t a biography of Patton, but it does show him during WWII. Franklin Schaffner portrays Patton in a more objective manner than usual with this type of film. This is one of the few films where you will like and dislike the main character at the same time.

On to the DVD. The picture quality is excellent, but there is some age evident in the print used. This is an early 16:9 enhanced disc by Fox, though the packaging does not indicate so. There is a tad too much edge enhancement and it annoyed me, but it isn’t terribly intrusive.

The sound is a remixed DD 5.1 track. The surrounds get quite a bit of use, but don’t expect “Saving Private Ryan” type sound here. The soundtrack sounds a bit dated, and the ADR sounds obvious when it appears.

On Disc One, an audio essay by a Patton historian is included and runs about 81 minutes. It is not screen specific, nor is it a commentary, so kudos to Fox for not saying that it is. Trailers for “Tora! Tora! Tora!” “Patton,” and “The Longest Day” are included also. A French mono track and Spanish subtitles are included.

Disc Two contains a documentary on the filming of “Patton” which runs about 50 minutes. It was included on a previous LaserDisc release of the film, but given that it is on a separate disc, they could have lengthened it. An option to play the isolated score from “Patton” is included, which will run over the documentary if selected. Only about 30 minutes of the film were scored, so including the isolated score on Disc One would have left a lot of silence during passages.

Fox has a winner on their hands with “Patton,” with its good video/audio quality and fairly good extras. Dissmissed!
Patton Two Disc Collector

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