A few more historical errors to correct:
1. Re "Patton" is a "whitewash" - the film tells much of Patton's story from the point of view of Omar Bradley (and is indeed based in part on Bradley's memoir). Bradley hated Patton and this comes through loud and clear in the picture. From Wikipedia: "In a review of the film, Brigadier General S.L.A. Marshall, who knew both Patton and Bradley, stated, 'The Bradley name gets heavy billing on a picture of [a] comrade that, while not caricature, is the likeness of a....glory-seeking buffoon.'" 2. Re "'Patton' is a whitewash written by a former member of Patton's staff" - this apparently is a reference to Frank McCarthy who produced the film. In terms of writing, many scripts for "Patton" were in existence in the 1960s when the studio asked Francis Ford Coppola to write a version. This was the version eventually used although Edmund North received co-writing credit. Perhaps North served on Patton's staff; I can find zero evidence of this through a perusal of several obits of the man. 3. The film makes quite clear that de-Nazification was not a Patton priority. 4. He was, sadly, anti-Semitic. 5. Re he was a "nut alright" - I myself don't feel qualified to say. I think a man of Patton's historical importance deserves some caution when it comes to remarks like that; I would be interested in learning the specific source for the remark and of course the definition of "nut" (beyond the anti-Semitism, which perhaps is enough). Patton was certainly unbalanced at times. Perhaps some of this was due to the several head injuries he suffered; perhaps some of it was an act (he was a consummate actor, feeling that he needed to inspire awe, fear, etc.). I would say (a) genius is often unbalanced, ruthless, overly aggressive, ego-driven, and flat-out nasty, and (b) [just as an opinion] every once in a while a country needs a genius in the battlefield. 6. He has a camera strapped to him in his first scene of the film, in North Africa, some months before he got anywhere near Europe. Dunno if it's a Leica. 7. The best recent analysis of the respective performances in World War II of Patton, Bradley, and Ike by a professional military historian can be found in "The Soul of Battle" by Victor Davis Hanson, who basically rips Bradley and Ike new ones for their shocking timidity and praises Patton to the skies. Among other things, Hanson notes that if Patton's genius had been given free rein, a great many Jews might have been saved from the gas chambers (the Nazis stepped-up the ferocity of their maniacal genocide in 1944-45) and Eastern Europe might have been saved from two generations of Stalinist murder and soul-killing oppression.
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