20 Facts You Might Not Know about 'Patton', Both the Man and the Movie

General George S. Patton (1885-1945) was a great American general who led armies to victory in north Africa, Sicily, France, and Germany during World War II. He had a larger than life personality and was, at times, as controversial as he was successful. In 1970, actor George C. Scott depicted him in the blockbuster movie Patton.
In 2012, Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, a professor at the US Naval War College, wrote a book about the creation and influence of this film: Making Patton: A Classic War Film's Epic Journey to the Silver Screen. It contains fascinating bits of information about the real Patton and the film Patton. Here are some that I've gleaned from Sarantakes's book:

1. Gen. Patton believed that he had been reincarnated from many previous military lives. Specifically he believed that he had been a Greek soldier who resisted the Persian invasion of Ionia, a Roman soldier in the Tenth Legion under Julius Caesar, a Viking warrior, a Scottish Highlander fighting for the House of Stuart, a French soldier who escorted Napoleon Bonaparte on his retreat from Russia, and a member of a New York regiment during the American Civil War (8-9).
2. The opening speech in the film is a compilation of several that Gen. Patton gave (2).

Read the rest over at Neatorama