Patton/Awesome

• Patton saying, "Rommel, you Magnificent Bastard, I read your book!", while his army is crushing those sent by Rommel.
  • Erwin Rommel actually did write several books. The one Patton was talking about is appropriately titled Attacks.
• Patton standing in the middle of the street during an air raid taking potshots at the fighters, defying them to hit him "right in the nose," and not even flinching when one of them nearly succeeds in strafing him. Didn't happen in Real Life, but still, it was typical Patton.
• The entire opening monologue. George C. Scott, in six minutes, summarizes Patton's character, from the fierceness ("We're going to rip out their guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks") to the surprising tenderness ("I will be proud to lead you wonderful guys into battle anytime, anywhere"), and wins himself an Oscar doing it.
  • "Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."
• Patton ordering a chaplain to make a "weather prayer" so that they could take their next target, which the forecast predicted would be the center of a blizzard , and the fact that the prayer worked.
• Patton taking potshots at enemy planes during an air raid with a pistol without flinching.
• Patton, alone among the Allied generals, expecting and preparing for the German offensive at the Battle of the Bulge, so that when it happens he calmly tells Eisenhower that the Third Army can launch its own surprise counterattack in less than 48 hours. "This is where it pays off, the training and the discipline. No other outfit in the world could pull out of a winter battle, move a hundred miles, go into a major attack with no rest, no sleep, no hot food. God... God, I'm proud of these men!"
• This troper thought it was both moving and awesome when Patton went to the ruins of an ancient battle and said that he was there. It speaks of his talent in recognizing the significance of history and his belief in reincarnation, but in a deeper symbolic sense it seemed to be speaking of the spirit of the soldier which Patton had always been in touch with. Patton may not have literally fought in that battle but his spirit had always been with them whether in the form of a past life or because he was carrying on their traditions, either way it has poetic significance for Patton's character.
• "You know how I know they're finished? The carts."