Trivia

This film's most remarkable for the ironic choice of vehicles used. All of the German tanks represented in the movie are, in fact, M48 "Patton" tanks borrowed from the Spanish army. This is most likely the first and only time in history a general is unintentionally fighting to destroy his own namesakes! See more...

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Patton (1970) - 16 mistakes

starring George C. Scott (add more)

Genres: Biography, Drama, War

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Mistake Factual error: In one scene of the film, Rommel is shown wearing a swastika pin. Rommel was not a member of the Nazi party and refused to wear any Nazi insignia, instead he wore the traditional Prussian Iron Cross.

Mistake Revealing: Several maps of Europe shown in the film have Germany divided into East and West, and show national boarders from 1945 onwards.

Mistake Factual error: Patton arrives at Bradley's mobile HQ just after D-Day. As his jeep pulls up you can see the truck that pulls the HQ trailer. It appears to be a Mack Model "B", which did not enter production until 1953.

Mistake Factual error: When Patton is given command of an Army group in France in 1944, he says that the assassination attempt on Hitler took place several days ago. Later on we see Field Marshal Rommel in a German command HQ looking quite healthy. Rommel was actually severely wounded three days prior to the attempt on Hitler and was in the hospital.

Mistake Factual error: Before the Battle of El Gattar, Patton is shown reading a book on tank warfare purportedly written by Field Marshal Rommel, his German opponent. Rommel in fact wrote a book on infantry fighting and tactics based on his experiences in World War I. He never wrote a book on tank combat.

Mistake Factual error: In the washroom scene where Gen. Montogomery is speaking with Gen. Smith; Monty breathes on the mirror in order to make a drawing of Sicily. The condensed "breath" remains far too long, the same happens when Smith makes his drawing on the mirror.

Mistake Factual error: In the scene of the high level meeting during the initial stages of the Battle of the Bulge, Bedell Smith is conducting the meeting in General Eisenhower's behalf. In fact, General Eisenhower was present at the meeting.

Mistake Other: In the scene showing Patton's arrival in London, stepping out of a Packard limousine in the night, the car shown is a postwar model year, e.g. 1948. Patton did favor Packard cars, but this one could not have existed at the time.

Mistake Factual error: In a scene set in 1944 France, shortly after D-Day, Patton is riding in a very distinctive type of Jeep that first went into production in 1953. Another Jeep in that same scene dates from 1950 onwards.

Mistake Other: During the early part of the movie, when Patton is in Morocco, you can see two kids visibly mugging for the camera as they do cutaways on two distinct occasions.

Mistake Factual error: In the scene in North Africa when Patton's units ambushes the German Tanks and Infantry, All of the German tanks look like American M48 tanks and none of the American tanks are WW II Shermans.

Mistake Continuity: Shortly after Patton adds anticipated stars to his uniform in the presence of Omar Bradley, his drivers are shown changing a red signboard on his jeep to reflect the additional star (3 instead of 2). In a subsequent scene, however, as Patton visits an ancient battlefield, there are only 2 stars on the signboard.

Mistake Revealing: When Patton is inspecting the barracks at the beginning of the movie he swipes a picture of a "calendar girl" off the wall. If you look there are a number of scrapes already on the wall. There were obviously a number of retakes.

Mistake Continuity: When the Germans attack during the discussion about air support, Patton's office gets shot up. In one shot we see bullets strafe a wall with a vase in front of it - the vase wobbles but remains intact. Then we see another shot of the same wall/vase combo being strafed - you can see marks on the wall where the bullet impacts are about to be, and this time the vase shatters too.

Mistake Revealing: In the scene where a child is seen stealing a ring from a dead soldier's finger, the soldier's arm is visibly moving and twitching.

Mistake Revealing: In the beginning of the movie when the child is trying to remove the ring from a dead American soldier it is obvious that he is pulling on the finger and not the ring.

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