The movie appeared nearly twenty-five years after Patton died. American attitudes toward war, toward fighting, and toward the military had changed in many ways. The Vietnam War was happening at the same time the movie was made and shown. The older generation, who had fought in World War II or helped out on the , tended to support the war and the draft, which made young American men join the Army to fight. Younger people, who did not remember World War II or were born after it ended, were mostly against the war in Vietnam. "Patton" gave older and younger viewers a look back at an American war hero and leader, and it gave them things to think and talk about together.