"Patton 360" (2009) TV series 2009-

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

10 April 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | History | War

Plot:

As the United States enters World War Two, General George S. Patton sees the opportunity to fulfill his destiny...

Plot Keywords:

Archival Photograph | Some Scenes Animated | Archival Footage | Reference To George S. Patton | Some Scenes In Black And White

Cast

E.J. Snyder	...	Himself (10 episodes, 2009)
Bryan Stefancyk	...	Soldier (10 episodes, 2009)
Matthew Tremblay	...	Soldier (10 episodes, 2009)
Martin K.A. Morgan	...	Himself (8 episodes, 2009)
Erik Thompson	...	Narrator (7 episodes, 2009)

Series Directed by
Tony Long		(3 episodes, 2009)

Series Writing credits
Sam Dolan		(6 episodes, 2009)

Series Produced by
Robert Beemer	....	supervising producer (10 episodes, 2009)
Douglas Cohen	....	executive producer (10 episodes, 2009)
Sam Dolan	....	producer (10 episodes, 2009)
Ryan T. Hurst	....	associate producer (10 episodes, 2009)
Carl H. Lindahl	....	executive producer (10 episodes, 2009)
Louis Tarantino	....	executive producer (10 episodes, 2009)
Brian Thompson	....	producer (7 episodes, 2009)
Julian Hobbs	....	executive producer (5 episodes, 2009)

Series Original Music by
Eric Amdahl		(5 episodes, 2009)

Series Cinematography by
Tom Collins		(10 episodes, 2009)
Jason Newfield		(10 episodes, 2009)
Chris Raymond		(10 episodes, 2009)

Series Film Editing by
Conrad Stanley		(7 episodes, 2009)

Series Production Management
Emily Campbell	....	post-production supervisor (10 episodes, 2009)

Series Sound Department
Michael Phillips Keeley	....	supervising sound mixer / audio post-production mixer (10 episodes, 2009)
Corey Morgan	....	dialogue editor (10 episodes, 2009)
Stephen Parise	....	sfx editor (10 episodes, 2009)
Thanos Kazakos	....	dialogue editor (7 episodes, 2009)
Ryan Young	....	sound re-recording mixer (5 episodes, 2009)

Series Visual Effects by
Tarsus Jackson	....	visual effects coordinator (10 episodes, 2009)
Andrew Midgley	....	visual effects producer: Crazybridge Studios (10 episodes, 2009)
Steffen Schlachtenhaufen	....	visual effects producer (10 episodes, 2009)
Jose Lopez	....	modeler / texture artist (8 episodes, 2009)
Dan Della-Penna	....	lead environment artist (5 episodes, 2009)

Series Animation Department
Richard W. Lewis	....	map animator: Crazybridge Studios (5 episodes, 2009)

Series Editorial Department
Jnani Butler	....	assistant editor (10 episodes, 2009)
Rod Decker	....	on-line editor (10 episodes, 2009)
Chris Hicks	....	assistant editor (10 episodes, 2009)
Steve Kwant	....	assistant editor (10 episodes, 2009)
Irit Lockspeiser	....	post-production assistant (10 episodes, 2009)
Lilly Posner	....	assistant editor (10 episodes, 2009)

Series Music Department
Eric Amdahl	....	composer: theme music (5 episodes, 2009)

Series Other crew
Matt Compton	....	field production assistant (10 episodes, 2009)
Joel Franklin	....	production coordinator (10 episodes, 2009)
Andy Kastler	....	production assistant (10 episodes, 2009)
Jeff Larsen	....	production assistant / researcher (10 episodes, 2009)
Heidi Putallaz	....	vault manager (10 episodes, 2009)
David Michael Schulman	....	production assistant (10 episodes, 2009)
Phil Spangenberger	....	field production assistant (10 episodes, 2009)
Arno Stemmer	....	production assistant (10 episodes, 2009)
Quay Terry	....	military technical advisor (10 episodes, 2009)
Kevin Ercoline	....	production assistant (7 episodes, 2009)
Garth R. Hassell	....	field production assistant (2 episodes, 2009)

Production Companies

• Flight 33 Productions

Distributors

• History Channel (2009) (Australia) (TV)

Special Effects

• Crazybridge Studios (visual effects)

Also Known As:

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:M

Company:

Flight 33 Productions

Great Potential, Poor History

A thoroughly second-rate presentation of history, and a sad example of how history is presented in the common media. Apparently the only way to get people to watch history is to flash historic pictures, depict action with often inaccurate video-game quality graphics, provide a general commentary liberally splashed with superlatives, and intersperse the presentation with brief "I was there" comments and third-rate "experts".

The big feature of this (and similar) series is the CGI which purports to show what the commentary is describing. Unfortunately, much of the graphics are inaccurate, inconsistent with the dialog, or just plain wrong for the situation. An example is commentary describing GIs slogging their way through mountains against a dogged enemy defenses, yet the accompanying CGI shows tanks rushing across plains with no resistance. Also, the use of the same few pieces of CGI over, and over, and over again in each episode eventually causes one to begin ignoring the graphics altogether.

In addition to the CGI, is the constant barrage of historical pictures thrown onto the screen, often too quickly to be understood. While a potentially very helpful part of the presentation, the inaccuracy of so many of the photographs destroys much of the good they could do. Many of the period pictures have nothing whatsoever to do with the commentary. For example, in the Messina episode, the commentary describes how dangerous the German "88" was. Unfortunately, of the six quick-flash pictures shown, only three are certainly of the 8.8cm FLAK gun (the others appear to be a late ware 12.8 cm anti-tank gun, a 10.5 cm field howitzer, and something which may not even be a piece of German equipment).

The personal comments come from three sources. First are "historians" -- and this is in quotes, since many of the individuals are total unknowns in the field of history, often with a single coffee-table book to their credit. Second are veterans who were present in or near the action described. Unfortunately, many of their comments, while potentially interesting, are not applicable to the immediate subject, and too often serve only to distract from the current history. Third are current military personnel. While well intentioned, only one or two of these people appear to have any actual knowledge of the history presented, and simply provide comments which anyone with a grain of common sense would already know.

Interspersed all too rarely in the presentation are brief descriptions of specific weapon systems. These are the one decent thing in the programs. A weapon which is being described in the dialog is presented in the video equivalent of a text side-box. The details are reasonably (and unexpectedly) accurate as is the associated graphics. Unfortunately, these ten to fifteen second presentations are too short to give the viewer even a marginally adequate understanding of the equipment.

The series concept has great potential, unfortunately, it in no way lives up to that potential. The only way to effectively watch these shows is with someone who knows the history and can fill in the massive holes in the commentary and explain what to ignore.