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Patton's personality was a complex one - he was obsessed with glory, but behind the ivory-hilted pistols, the egomania, the forbidding scowl, and the rows of ribbons, there was a much more ambiguous figure.

In 1969, at the age of 19, I was lucky enough to work with George C. Scott in the definitive portrayal of his career over a period of many months and several countries on the definitive film version of Patton's WWII career.

There are people to whom heroism under fire comes naturally and seemingly without effort, but Patton was not one of them.

Patton was living in the Dark Ages. Soldiers were peasants to him. I didn't like that attitude.

During the war, I saw many films that made me fall in love with the cinema.

It was a scene I was really looking forward to, and one that I embraced, and when we were filming it, George got closer and closer and closer with that camera - he was practically up my nose for the final shot. So I knew it was a moment that I had to do my best to get right.

Any time you do a movie, there are going to be war wounds that you end up getting.

Notoriously outspoken, his sentences always punctuated with profanities, General George S. Patton was the epitome of what a leader should be like - or so he thought. Patton believed a leader should look and act tough, so he cultivated his image and his personality to match his philosophy.

Most of the time I'm thinking, I'm glad that scene was improvised.