Hehe, can't you just picture how that came to pass?Patton is shown reading “The Tank in Battle, by Erwin Rommel”. There are two problems with this. In the first place, the name of Rommel’s book was not The Tank in Battle, it was The Infantry Attacks. There was a book by the name of The Tank in Battle, but it was written by General Heinz Guderian, not Rommel. In the second place, while Patton did read Rommel’s book, the scene shows him reading it in North Africa in 1943, while it was not even translated into English until 1944. Patton actually read it shortly before D-Day.
EDITORIAL MEETING TRANSCRIPT
Producer: Oh yeah, then there's the reading scene.....let's see...reads "Infantry Attacks" by Rommel...why "Infantry Attacks?"
Script writer: uh....apparently that was what Rommel's book was actually called. "Infantry attacks". Even our historical accuracy consultant Okayed this, and you know what a troublemaker he is .
Producer: Shouldn't a Rommel book be more sort of, you know....in character? You know, something like "the strike of the fox"? or "Death in the desert"?
Script writer: Great idea sir. It's just, er, there weren't actually any books called something like that. Especially not written by Rommel.
Producer: Who cares? We don't want to get caught up on trivia here, what's important is we convey the character of Patton's deadly opponent, we need something to underline that.
Script writer John: Yes sir, excellent idea sir, it's just, you know, quite a lot of people notice these things.....
Producer: Notice schmotice, the war nerds will come and see the film anyway. And they won't be happy unless they can find a bunch of mistakes so they have something to bitch about to their wives, the bunch of myopic losers.
Script writer John: Yes sir, quite, but I think I have a suggestion here, sort of a compromise?
Producer: Well?
Script writer John: Another German general apparently wrote a book called "The Tank in Battle". Maybe we could use that?
Producer: That's the stuff! "The tank in battle", that's Rommel AND Patton in a nutshell! And historical too!
Script writer John: Well sir, the book was in fact written by General Gude....
Producer: Yeah, whatever - practically historical. It's an actual book by an actual German general from the actual war, right? Whadd'ya think Bob?
Assistant Producer Bob: I think that's a wonderful concession to historical accuracy sir, and, if I may say so, a brilliant creative decision.
Producer: Right, that's settled then. Whoa there John, you should take a break, you look like you're gonna to burst.
Script writer John: No no, I'm....fine....it's just something I swal...I mean probably just something I ate.
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Or did I dream it?
cheers
