Trivia: As Patton and his convoy are coming into town, Patton's half-track mistakenly flattens a few live chickens. (00:16:55)
Trivia: This film's most remarkable for the ironic choice of vehicles used. All of the German tanks represented in the movie are, in fact, M48 "Patton" tanks borrowed from the Spanish army. This is most likely the first and only time in history a general is unintentionally fighting to destroy his own namesakes!
Trivia: In real life, the infamous soldier slapping scene actually had a somewhat happier outcome. Patton berated the shell shocked trooper largely out of a combination of sleep deprivation (he'd been going for nearly 48 hours without rest) and the emotional turmoil of having so many troops wind up in the hospital due to his commanding decisions. Afterwards he went to a tent, slept for several hours, came back and apologized to the solider.
Trivia: Both General Patton and actor George C. Scott are members of the Kappa Alpha Order college fraternity.
Trivia: This was the first PG-rated film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Trivia: Strangely, when "Patton" was first released, the most controversial scene in this film was that in which General Patton shoots a pair of mules that are blocking a bridge and dumps their carcasses over the side. While the true fate of the two animals is still unknown (were they actually shot, were they anesthetized, were they poisoned, were those real carcasses thrown from the bridge?), the fact is that no actual animal cruelty appears onscreen. Rather, in distinct cuts, Patton draws his revolver, gunshots are heard, two dead mules are seen in the roadway, followed by a wide, distant shot of the carcasses as they are tossed from the bridge. Any actual shooting or cruelty was, therefore, only inferred by the audience. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals protested the scene loudly in the press, but they did so with absolutely no evidence of animal cruelty in this scene.
Answer: "The front" means the front line, i.e., where the enemy is being engaged. He's saying that since the soldier isn't physically injured, he should be fighting, not (as Patton sees it) being a coward and shirking his duty.