Patton 360

I've seen the movie "Patton" countless times, but this series so far (after viewing two episodes) takes Patton's battles and breaks them into fine details. It's interesting to view how difficult things were for him, far more than depicted in the movie.

The movie opens up after the U.S. defeat at Kasserine Pass. The first two episodes of this series, however, goes way back before that, showing the triumphs and difficulties that Patton had in North Africa before and after. It details Kasserine Pass, and several other battles with great graphics, and accounts from soldiers still alive today.

To date the series has been more about Patton's military tactics, feelings and actions as a soldier, rather than him as a personal man. So, don't take this series as a documentary on Patton solely. It's about his battles, and what he had to do to help win the war.

Big history fan.

Big Patton fan.

Big fan of trying something different.

NOT a big fan of people who can't control their urges to colorize, pixelize, and otherwise "-ize" every single frame. Map coordinates going on forever. Narrator's faces spliced up in quick cuts. The same CGI shown over and over (wasn't too good the first time). The cribbing of Goldsmith's theme (pay for it for cryin' out loud so you don't have to "almost" use the music).

I did like the dissection of the tactics and concentrating on elements that don't always get attention, but the "look at me, I have a computer" enhancements made me cringe. A few (very few) of these effects were interesting, but this show was relentless.

A thoroughly second-rate presentation of history, and a sad example of how history is presented in the common media. Apparently the only way to get people to watch history is to flash historic pictures, depict action with often inaccurate video-game quality graphics, provide a general commentary liberally splashed with superlatives, and intersperse the presentation with brief "I was there" comments and third-rate "experts".

The big feature of this (and similar) series is the CGI which purports to show what the commentary is describing. Unfortunately, much of the graphics are inaccurate, inconsistent with the dialog, or just plain wrong for the situation. An example is commentary describing GIs slogging their way through mountains against a dogged enemy defenses, yet the accompanying CGI shows tanks rushing across plains with no resistance. Also, the use of the same few pieces of CGI over, and over, and over again in each episode eventually causes one to begin ignoring the graphics altogether.

In addition to the CGI, is the constant barrage of historical pictures thrown onto the screen, often too quickly to be understood. While a potentially very helpful part of the presentation, the inaccuracy of so many of the photographs destroys much of the good they could do. Many of the period pictures have nothing whatsoever to do with the commentary. For example, in the Messina episode, the commentary describes how dangerous the German "88" was. Unfortunately, of the six quick-flash pictures shown, only three are certainly of the 8.8cm FLAK gun (the others appear to be a late ware 12.8 cm anti-tank gun, a 10.5 cm field howitzer, and something which may not even be a piece of German equipment).

The personal comments come from three sources. First are "historians" -- and this is in quotes, since many of the individuals are total unknowns in the field of history, often with a single coffee-table book to their credit. Second are veterans who were present in or near the action described. Unfortunately, many of their comments, while potentially interesting, are not applicable to the immediate subject, and too often serve only to distract from the current history. Third are current military personnel. While well intentioned, only one or two of these people appear to have any actual knowledge of the history presented, and simply provide comments which anyone with a grain of common sense would already know.

Interspersed all too rarely in the presentation are brief descriptions of specific weapon systems. These are the one decent thing in the programs. A weapon which is being described in the dialog is presented in the video equivalent of a text side-box. The details are reasonably (and unexpectedly) accurate as is the associated graphics. Unfortunately, these ten to fifteen second presentations are too short to give the viewer even a marginally adequate understanding of the equipment.

The series concept has great potential, unfortunately, it in no way lives up to that potential. The only way to effectively watch these shows is with someone who knows the history and can fill in the massive holes in the commentary and explain what to ignore.

The WW2 battles of General George S Patton, from North Africa, to Sicily, to France, Belgium and Germany.

Using a similar format as the producers used in Battle 360 - the WW2 history of USS Enterprise - an examination of the WW2 history of George Patton. Quite interesting and edifying, covering many lesser-known battles and campaigns as well as the well-known ones. In addition to seeing the bigger campaign picture we often see the fighting at platoon level. Interviews with living veterans of Patton's battles adds a human touch to proceedings.

Good use of CGI, though the graphics do feel a bit basic.

Good narration that doesn't paper over Patton's flaws.

However, it's not all good. The 'experts' that are wheeled in to provide an analysis of Patton and his tactics are largely just cheerleaders, providing empty platitudes. Particularly irritating was the US Army Sergeant Major who had absolutely nothing useful to say the entire series, yet said a lot. Everything he said was just superficial gung ho nonsense. After a while I mentally shut him out, and this helped relieve the irritation.

The other annoying thing was the repetition of previous information. After every ad break spot the producers would take about 2 minutes to recap what we had already learned. Pads the series enormously.

Take out the cheerleading experts and the recaps and we would have had a series of about 6-7 episodes, instead of 10, with no annoying bits, and an almost perfect documentary series.

I am somewhat disappointed in beginning of the show where Patton lands in North Africa. They don't talk about what was Patton doing in trying to get his southern and northern pincers off the beach. They only talk about Patton trying to get his central force off the beach. If the French had a Rommel or Napoleon, Patton's two forces would have been crushed, and then Patton would have to withdraw his central force. Patton was pretty lucky that help came to his forces in the nick of time; otherwise, the British would have a lower opinion of the American soldier's fighting ability.

They did not seem to comment on Patton slapping the soldier too much.