PATTON 243
Coppola split the difference by writing an ambiguous script that emphasized
Patton’s dual nature— part lunatic, part super- warrior— and depicted him as an
anachronistic, Quixotic figure who really belonged to a bygone era. Coppola’s
other choice was an easy one: to focus exclusively on Patton’s life during the Sec-
ond World War, a span of only two years and ten months (ten months of which he
was sidelined), that kept the narrative tightly focused and action packed. McCarthy
engaged William Wyler (The Best Years of Our Lives) to direct the picture but Wyler
didn’t like Coppola’s unconventional script, so James Webb (Cheyenne Autumn)
was brought in to write a new version. To play Patton, McCarthy and the studio
wanted George C. Scott, a superb actor and ironically an avowed pacifist, but Scott
found Webb’s script too reductive so he bowed out. Robert Mitchum, Burt Lan-
caster, Rod Steiger, and Lee Marvin all turned down the role. John Wayne badly
wanted to play Patton but his utterly dissimilar appearance, laconic manner, and
narrow range as an actor made him a poor choice to play the shorter, more volatile,
and markedly more educated and intelligent Patton. Fortunately, George C. Scott
consented to do the film when McCarthy agreed to revert back to Coppola’s script,
though veteran screenwriter Edmund H. North (Twelve O’Clock High) made further
revisions. Scott then proceeded to do exhaustive research on Patton, watching
newsreels and reading and re- reading every Patton biography in order to master his
character. In the meantime Wyler dropped out as director and was replaced by
Frank Schaffner (Planet of the Apes). By early 1969, after five years of shuffling and
reshuffling, Frank McCarthy fi nally had a script, a star, and a director.
Production
Principal photography began outside of Segovia, Spain, on 1 February 1969. Pat-
ton was filmed at 71 locations in six countries, but most of it was shot in Spain
because Francisco Franco’s Spanish Army could provide the needed WWII
equipment— though the rental of troops and equipment consumed half the film’s
$12 million production bud get. The film’s opening, showing the aftermath of the
American defeat at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass, was shot at the ruins of Taber-
nas Castle in Almeria Province on the coast of southern Spain. The place where
Patton halts Rommel’s advance towards Messina is located just below the village
of Turillas, 12 miles east of Tabernas. Some 600 Almeria residents worked as extras
for the scene depicting Patton’s arrival in Palermo, Sicily, which was actually filmed
in Nicolás Salmerón Park in the City of Almeria. After the Battle of El Guettar, Pat-
ton meets his new aide de camp at his headquarters, which was in real ity the Gov-
ernor’s Palace of Almeria, and when Patton marches down a long corridor after
the slapping incident, he is actually in La Granja Palace near Madrid. The winter
scenes in Belgium were actually shot near Segovia. The scene depicting Patton driv-
ing up to an ancient city that is implied to be Carthage was actually shot in the
ruins of the ancient Roman city of Volubilis in northwest Morocco. Patton’s speech
to the troops that opens the movie was shot at Bob Hope Patriotic Hall in down-
town Los Angeles.