1970 Best Picture:
Patton

Competition:
Airport, Five Easy Pieces, Love Story, MASH

Other Winners:
Best Actor: George C. Scott, Patton
Best Actress: Glenda Jackson, Women In Love
Best Supporting Actor: John Mills, Ryan's Daughter
Best Supporting Actress: Helen Hayes, Airport
Best Director: Franklin J. Shaffner, Patton

"Oh my God! The winner is George C. Scott in Patton!"  Goldie Hawn announces the controversial winner of the Best Actor Oscar.

Cast: George C. Scott, Karl Mulden, Michael Bates, Ed Binns, Stephen Young

Storyline: General Patton, the great World War II mastermind, is the subject of this film that traces his tour of North Africa and Europe, where his own ego is the key to his brilliance and his ultimate downfall.

Did it deserve to win: Goddamned right, it did!   A lot of information fills this epic, but biographers, take note, as this film focuses on the most important aspect of the man's career.  Geroge C. Scott, some great direction, and a tight script, give the viewer a first hand view of this man's thinking.

Critique: Rarely does an epic film rely so much on the performance on one actor, but if Scott wasn't up to the challenge of playing this maniac, in an over-the-top, yet very believable performance, the film might not have worked.  

Elaborate battle scenes aside, the character of Patton is the key to what made this film an instant classic.  

Patton plays like a well orchestrated chess match, with a view from with the mind of the champion player.  While other biographies tend to be sprawling, this one is tight and focused, and worthy of a great general who considered himself to be the great Caesar in another life.

Best Scene:  The slap heard round the world!  General Patton learns of the damage that a little bad PR can do when he slaps a soldier in makeshift hospital.  The soldier is having an emotional breakdown, something that Patton doesn't have much respect for.  After berating the man, Patton has him sent out to the front, to continue fighting.  

Behind the Scenes: At that years ceremony, Goldie Hawn, presenting the Best Actor award, uttered the famous line, "Oh my god, its George C. Scott."  It was a well known fact that Scott would not be attending the ceremony, and that he would not be accepting the Oscar.  He was the first winner in a major category, to officially boycott the Academy Awards.

Thirty-two year old, UCLA film school grad, Francis Ford Coppola wrote the screenplay for the film.  He also won his first Oscar.

The role of Patton was passed on by Rod Steiger, Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum, and Lee Marvin.

Helen Hayes beats Katherine Hepburn's record, by winning a second Oscar, 39 years after the first.

Best Actress nominee, Sarah Miles, was candid about her thoughts on the British Academy Awards.  In light of the fact that British actors had traditionally caused uproar among American patriots who resented them winning American awards, she stated that "The American Oscar is the only award that carries any weight.  Ours is just a lot of shit." 

Patton addresses a Ladies Group in Britain, under orders to watch his language.  In doing so, he inadvertently disses Russia.