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The larger-than-life character of Patton is best exemplified by scenes in the German camp where the tacticians are constantly trying to put themselves in Patton’s shoes.

"The difference between you and me is that I am trained to do this job. You love this job."

The presence of Karl Malden (as General Omar N. Bradley) doesn’t hurt at all. He plays the role of a general more in touch with the times and yet looks up to Patton, owing to a mentor-student relationship cultivated over a long career. Gen. Bradley acts as the voice of reason for Gen. Patton. I was looking out for the "Sekulovich" reference. This is Malden’s famous trademark, the mention of his birth name (Mladen Sekulovich) in most of his movies. It happens about an hour and ten minutes into the movie.

At times it feels like the biggest challenges for Patton are not so much the Germans but the war’s allies and the protocols that have to be adhered to. General Patton is constantly reprimanded for his actions on and off the field. It is fascinating to watch the course of events where he puts his own troops at risk to score one over the allied British General. The speech he gives at the women’s club is laced with humor and yet finds its way into controversy.

"Accept the challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory."

This movie is a great tribute to an extraordinary leader of men.

The Thin Blue Line

The Thin Blue Line (referring to the police) is a documentary covering the murder of a police officer. A hitchhiker is arrested based on different testimonies. The director goes about doing his own investigation through interviews of the people involved. I really liked the structured narration where Errol Morris, the director, goes about peeling layer after layer in a systematic fashion. As with good documentaries, the editing is top notch. In these cases, the usual approach is to get into the psyche of the accused and the officers involved in the case. With The Thin Blue Line, this extends to the witnesses and the support staff. One witness reveals her fascination for old detective movies and her eagerness to participate in the investigation. She is later found to be nothing more than an opportunistic person. In fact her daughter was due for an armed robbery hearing in the same court a week later. Randall Adams gets sentenced to death (later converted to life sentence) based on a jury that endured one false witness after another. He is later visited by a court order psychiatrist. “If you didn’t do the crime, of course you don’t show remorse” – that is the flaw in the evaluation of the court ordered shrink, nicknamed Dr. Death. Their premise for evaluation already identified the man as guilty and so, their results were obviously skewed.

The truth comes out in the final ten minutes of the documentary. It was instrumental in reversing the verdict on Adams.

One has to mention the background score by Philip Glass. I wasn’t expecting music to begin with but to have a compelling score that intensifies the drama really helps the narration.

Ended up with…

Whilst checking out the above movies, I invariably end up fattening my instant watch queue with some new additions. These go into my “Ended up with…” list and the plan is to watch them during the week ahead. NetFlix keeps tempting me to move each one of them to the top of the queue but I resist. These are movies that I plan to check out in the days ahead.

The Dead Pool

Clint Eastwood and Dirty Harry are back on my radar. Looking forward to watching a taut San Francisco based thriller with Harry putting bureaucrats and criminals in their proper places. This movie also features one James Carrey.

Raajneeti

Rajneeti has been the most successful movie in Bollywood this year. It takes the essentials of the Hindu epic, Mahabharatha and sets in the political milieu of Madhya Pradhesh. Its biggest pulling power was the multi star cast ranging from new sensation Ranbir Kapoor to proven performers like Nana Patekar.

Did You Hear About the Morgans?

It is with great pleasure that I choose Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker’s Did You Hear about the Morgans. I am going to have fun watching it and find out if it is so bad that it is good or if it is so bad that it is indeed bad.

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