Jerry O'Neill wrote:
As an interesting side note about the film, for many years Patton's family was against putting his story onto film for they were nervous about how he would be portrayed. They didn't want a negative portrayal, but they also didn't want a white wash. Once they agree to Francis Ford Coppola's script and the film was finished, his children came out of the screening saying, "that was Dad."
Even with the inaccuracies in the film, it captured the essence of the man, as best as a 3 hour film could do.
Jerry
General Bruce C. Clarke (Clarke of St Vith), told me when I visited him once in the 1980s that they should have called the movie "Bradley" because Omar Bradley had so much influence over the movie, and canted it towards his view of Patton...
Clarke, for those who are unaware of him, was a 4th Armored Combat Commander, who had joined the NYARNG in 1917 as a private. Getting into and through West Point, he became an officer commissioned into the Engineers, and progressed with the military, making his first star in December 1944. He was then transferred to the 7th Armored Div, where, again, he took up a Combat Command. About to leave for 3 days in Paris, he got turned instead to St Vith, another key crossroads in the Bulge area, on 16 December, with orders to hold a German advance for a short time. He held them 2 weeks, saving his area as long as possible. After the war, he went on to command I-Corps in Korea during the Korean War, as well as made 4 stars in the early 1960s. He was in charge of USAEUR during the "Checkpoint Charlie Incident", and also created the US Army NCO Academies. And he had a major hand in restructuring the NCO ranks in the 1950s. (He stated, when told the proposed rank of "Sergeant, Second Class" that "There are NO Second Class Sergeants!" and forbade the term be used) He also did a couple inspection tours of Vietnam after he was retired(by form letter, no less!)
Of Clarke, with whom he had a good working relationship & close contact, Patton stated that he would have had his star years earlier, had he been commissioned into the Cavalry, Infantry or Artillery after graduating West Point, rather than as an Engineer.
I got to spend a few hours talking with Gen. Clarke at his home in McLean, Va. back in the mid 1980s. And for a man in his late 80's, he still stood every inch of his over 6' height. Very impressive gent. His wife(whom he married around 1918) was still with him. When she passed, he made it about 2 more years without her, and passed away himself around 1990 or so, as I recall.
He often had people confuse him with another WWII General- Mark Clark. He stated he was the one with the "e" at the end.
His biography is "Clarke of St. Vith- The Sergeants' General" is by Wm. D. Ellis & Col. Thos. J. Cunningham, Jr. from Dillon Liederbach Publishers. I do not have the ISBN, as Gen. Clarke had personalized the copy for me, pasting several of the paper placards he produced over he years into it, one covering the Library of Congress info...
Robbie
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