After a brief sketch of George S. Patton's social background, this first entry in the series deals with his part in Operation Torch, the landings against the Vichy French forces in and around Casablanca, in French Morocco, on the northwest coast of Africa.
It's an informative and factual program. In this instance, Patton drops out of sight for lengthy periods while the trials of his troops are dealt with in some detail.
We don't usually hear much about the invasion of North Africa by the Allies because it was fought mainly against the French, who were not aggressors. It's an uncomfortable thought, fighting against people who are your natural allies against Germany but who have been forced by circumstances to contend your landings. We prefer a black and white world of simple good and simple evil, and Operation Torch introduces a note of gray.
The program is a congeries of newsreel footage, reenactments, CGIs, animated maps, and comments from historians and from living participants.
But I can't say I like the presentation very much. Erick Thompson's narration is filled with irritating nuances and outright sneers. And there seems not a moment when something isn't zig-zagging or exploding on the screen. The camera wobbles as if held by a drunk. Sometimes strange, indecipherable characters flash from top to bottom as they do at the end of an old-fashioned 8 millimeter home movie. And when the image is necessarily static -- an old man is describing what it's like to be strafed -- the black background is an explosion of fireworks or a hurried trip through billions and billions of stars and galaxies.
I'd expect these attention-getting devices in a thirty-second television commercial for a men's after shave lotion but not in a serious documentary. I felt it was addressed to adolescents with stunted attention spans.
In the end, the viewer hasn't really learned very much about George S. Patton except that he was a demanding, brave, ambitious go-getter. Maybe later episodes will try to take us a little deeper into this remarkable character.
It's an informative and factual program. In this instance, Patton drops out of sight for lengthy periods while the trials of his troops are dealt with in some detail.
We don't usually hear much about the invasion of North Africa by the Allies because it was fought mainly against the French, who were not aggressors. It's an uncomfortable thought, fighting against people who are your natural allies against Germany but who have been forced by circumstances to contend your landings. We prefer a black and white world of simple good and simple evil, and Operation Torch introduces a note of gray.
The program is a congeries of newsreel footage, reenactments, CGIs, animated maps, and comments from historians and from living participants.
But I can't say I like the presentation very much. Erick Thompson's narration is filled with irritating nuances and outright sneers. And there seems not a moment when something isn't zig-zagging or exploding on the screen. The camera wobbles as if held by a drunk. Sometimes strange, indecipherable characters flash from top to bottom as they do at the end of an old-fashioned 8 millimeter home movie. And when the image is necessarily static -- an old man is describing what it's like to be strafed -- the black background is an explosion of fireworks or a hurried trip through billions and billions of stars and galaxies.
I'd expect these attention-getting devices in a thirty-second television commercial for a men's after shave lotion but not in a serious documentary. I felt it was addressed to adolescents with stunted attention spans.
In the end, the viewer hasn't really learned very much about George S. Patton except that he was a demanding, brave, ambitious go-getter. Maybe later episodes will try to take us a little deeper into this remarkable character.
