Patton (1970) - 19 mistakes

Factual error: In one scene of the film, Rommel is shown wearing a swastika pin. Rommel was not a member of the Nazi party and refused to wear any Nazi insignia, instead he wore the traditional Prussian Iron Cross.

Revealing: Several maps of Europe shown in the film have Germany divided into East and West, and show national boarders from 1945 onwards.

Factual error: Patton arrives at Bradley's mobile HQ just after D-Day. As his jeep pulls up you can see the truck that pulls the HQ trailer. It appears to be a Mack Model "B", which did not enter production until 1953.

Factual error: When Patton is given command of an Army group in France in 1944, he says that the assassination attempt on Hitler took place several days ago. Later on we see Field Marshal Rommel in a German command HQ looking quite healthy. Rommel was actually severely wounded three days prior to the attempt on Hitler and was in the hospital.

Factual error: In a scene set in 1944 France, shortly after D-Day, Patton is riding in a very distinctive type of Jeep that first went into production in 1953. Another Jeep in that same scene dates from 1950 onwards.

Factual error: In the washroom scene where Gen. Montogomery is speaking with Gen. Smith; Monty breathes on the mirror in order to make a drawing of Sicily. The condensed "breath" remains far too long, the same happens when Smith makes his drawing on the mirror.

Factual error: In the scene in North Africa when Patton's units ambushes the German Tanks and Infantry, All of the German tanks look like American M48 tanks and none of the American tanks are WW II Shermans.

Factual error: In the scene of the high level meeting during the initial stages of the Battle of the Bulge, Bedell Smith is conducting the meeting in General Eisenhower's behalf. In fact, General Eisenhower was present at the meeting.

Other: In the scene showing Patton's arrival in London, stepping out of a Packard limousine in the night, the car shown is a postwar model year, e.g. 1948. Patton did favor Packard cars, but this one could not have existed at the time.

Factual error: Before the Battle of El Gattar, Patton is shown reading a book on tank warfare purportedly written by Field Marshal Rommel, his German opponent. Rommel in fact wrote a book on infantry fighting and tactics based on his experiences in World War I. He never wrote a book on tank combat.

Other: During the early part of the movie, when Patton is in Morocco, you can see two kids visibly mugging for the camera as they do cutaways on two distinct occasions.

Continuity: When the two Jeeps arrive at the Kasserine Pass to survey the results of the battle, the second Jeep comes to stop just short of running over a dead soldier. At the end of the scene, the same Jeep drives away, going forward as if to run over that body, but the body has vanished.

Factual error: During the early portions of the film, General Bradley's Jeep is a proper WWII Willys Jeep Model MB (wipers on top of windshield), but the second Jeep that follows Bradley's is a 1950-1952 Model M38 (wipers below windshield) which won't exist until five years after WWII ends.

Continuity: When the three small boys run up and salute Patton, the middle boy stops with the other two slightly behind him to each side, and is the first to salute. When the camera angle changes to view them from in front, the middle boy is instantly behind the other two, and is the last to salute.

Continuity: Shortly after Patton adds anticipated stars to his uniform in the presence of Omar Bradley, his drivers are shown changing a red signboard on his jeep to reflect the additional star (3 instead of 2). In a subsequent scene, however, as Patton visits an ancient battlefield, there are only 2 stars on the signboard.

Continuity: When the Germans attack during the discussion about air support, Patton's office gets shot up. In one shot we see bullets strafe a wall with a vase in front of it - the vase wobbles but remains intact. Then we see another shot of the same wall/vase combo being strafed - you can see marks on the wall where the bullet impacts are about to be, and this time the vase shatters too.

Revealing: When Patton is inspecting the barracks at the beginning of the movie he swipes a picture of a "calendar girl" off the wall. If you look there are a number of scrapes already on the wall. There were obviously a number of retakes.

Revealing: In the scene where a child is seen stealing a ring from a dead soldier's finger, the soldier's arm is visibly moving and twitching.

Revealing: In the beginning of the movie when the child is trying to remove the ring from a dead American soldier it is obvious that he is pulling on the finger and not the ring.