This clip is from the 1970s Francis Ford Coppola film, Patton. George C. Scott plays the unforgettable WWII General, George Patton. This speech is modeled after an actual speech Patton delivered in June of 1944 in an unrecorded place in England. For the movie, the screen writers and Coppola cleaned up the expletives that were used in the original speech, due to the unknown protest and potential misinterpretation in the context of the film.
According to the Aristotelian Rhetorical speech model, Patton’s speech can be considered to be categorized under the “deliberate” type of speech. This speech, in the film, was meant to excite and persuade the listeners into taking action during World War Two. Patton was considered to be of strong military background and an inspirational speaker for the men who had been drafted into the war.
Patton begins his speech with a short syllogism—“… no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.” The next short syllogism is, “Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser.” And the final short syllogism is, “the Nazis are the enemy.” All of these syllogisms lead to the enthymeme of: the Nazis are the enemy and it is our job as Americans to, not only participate, but to win the battle against the Nazis. Or what can be stated another way as: Americans are winners, Nazis are un-American; therefore, Nazis could only lose, never win.
In addition to the very persuasive enthymeme, Patton also uses many different language techniques to be as convincing as possible. First and the most used was pathos-laced language. The most often used emotion used throughout the speech is anger. He uses the idea that losing in this war is an intolerable outcome, and that if it were to happen it would never be accepted, “…Americans have never lost and will never lose a war because the very thought is hateful to Americans.” He continues to say that due to our natural ability and hunger for victory he “pities the bastards,” because we are going into battle with the desire to “spill their blood” and “shoot them in the belly.” And the most infamous line filled with the most emotion is, “We’re not just going to shoot the bastards, we’re going to cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks.” These words are very emotionally powerful, and were used in this instance to stimulate the soldiers in war.
In the end, the use of these powerful words and commanding enthymeme are influenced heavily by Patton’s use of the two of the three important qualities of an effective Aristotelian speaker. First was his employment of eunoia—acting the part. At the time of WWII Patton was an older gentleman, and had been recognized for his impeccable leadership skills. Therefore, in the film we first see Patton dressed in army fatigues giving directions—“Ten-hut. Be Seated.” Being that he is a General in the U.S. Army, if he had come onto the stage saying, “hello folks” the soldiers wouldn’t have taken him seriously.
In addition to Eunoia, he also used Arête language. Patton’s language eluded that his intentions were to better the world. He used several phrases to elude to the fact that he was of good character and the opposition was not. However, one sentence in particular encapsulates his entire view of the war. It follows immediately after the question of what will happen if a soldier finds himself unsure if he can fight or not. His answer is, “The Nazis are the enemy…When you put your hand into a bunch of goo that was a moment before your best friend’s face, you’ll know what to do.” Some would view that war is an unnecessary brutality in the world; however, Patton refutes this by saying that the Nazis will kill, and that it is our job to end the violence. It is not a matter of whether it’s wrong, but rather, in this instance, if the victory will better the world.
Ultimately, Patton’s speech in the film is filled with very emotional, or pathos, language. It was meant to persuade the men in the military to go into war wholeheartedly, knowing that their sacrifices will have a positive effect. The speech was, in the end, very influential with the use of the very basic Aristotelian models of rhetoric and that of a ethical rhetorical speaker.
Works Cited
Farago, Ladislas. "Patton Script - Transcript from the Screenplay And/or George C. Scott
Movie." Drew's Script-O-Rama: Free Movie Scripts and Screenplays, Baby! Web. 111
Feb. 2011.
Leitch, Vincent B. et al., ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: Norton,
2001. Print.
Province, Charles M. "The Famous Patton Speech." Patton Society Homepage. Web. 10 Feb.
2011.
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