The guts! The girls! The glory! of a lot of wonderful guys!
For fans of the genre, without question the worst part of any combat war movie is the first third. Granted, a lot of movies take a while before shifting into gear and getting serious about things. Combat war movies are uniquely hobbled, though. They usually have a large, ensemble cast and their raison d'être is to display men at war. Their large cast has to be introduced and the audience has to identify and bond with them. I suppose. Why we have to waste time warming up to the cast is a little mystifying, though. They could hang cardboard signs over the characters - the Grizzled Vet (James Whitmore), the Short-Timer (George `Pops' Murphy), the Nominal Hero (the one who possesses the skills and guile to survive, Van Johnson), the Greenhorn (the rookie through whose eyes we generally experience the film, Marshall Thompson), the Ethnic (Ricardo Montalban.) Somehow BATTLEGROUND left out the Brooklyn Kid, although it does contain his typical foil, the Hillbilly Rube, herein played by Jerome Courtland.
William Wellman's BATTLEGROUND overcomes its opening act intact, though. We all have pet and anti-pet actors, and Van Johnson, the star of this movie, is one of my least favorite actors. Watching him kick his heels and cavort in Bastogne prior to the German assault is tolerable, although not something I looked forward to. Johnson never seems real to me, as though at some time he peered long into the mirror, discovered there was no depth to parade in front of a camera, and from that point on decided to lard every character he played with artifice and loud noises. There are moments of the bad Van in the opening, especially when he's making sweet with a young woman from Bastogne. Soon enough, though, the men are ordered to "Move out" and the movie proper begins in earnest.
BATTLEGROUND is the story of the 101st Airborne's role in repelling the last major offensive action by Germany in World War II. It's a story, one story, of Allied operations during what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. The conditions were brutal - severe winter weather, a clinging fog that cancelled out Allied air superiority, the infiltration of German soldiers disguised as American troops. Supplies couldn't be renewed. BATTLEGROUND was made a few years after the end of the war, and some veterans of the 101st appear in the movie. Wellman, as he did in 1945's THE STORY OF G.I. JOE., seamlessly integrates documentary footage of the battle into the movie. Adding yet another layer of realism to things is the understated approach. Nobody makes big speeches. The Whitmore character - Whitmore is the best thing in this great movie - is a sergeant with a perpetual cheekful of tobacco and a bad case of trenchfoot. I think a lot of movies would succumb to the temptation to make much of Whitmore's sore feet, but they're only briefly mentioned one time. This is a heroism that doesn't announce itself.
I'm a big fan of HBO's `Band of Brothers,' a mini-series that is also about the 101st and devotes an episode to the defense of Bastogne. I like both very much, although it'd be nice to see steamy breath when you're trying to convince someone that the action is taking place in a frigid environment. Neither BoB or BATTLEGROUND get THAT right. There are differences, of course. BoB boasts much better special effects, wounds are graphically displayed and artillery shells are powerful enough to fell trees. On the other hand, BATTLEGROUND is so near in time to the events it recreates that it seems a little truer to the spirit of the times. Highest recommendation for this great combat movie.
Triumph under fire
Being entitled Battleground you might think this film to be non-stop combat, but it isn't. It is so much more than an ordinary "war" film. One won't spy a tank in this film, for instance, until more than 90 minutes into this story; the story of the boys of the 101st who held out in Bastogne until the skies permitted aerial support to come to the rescue in this Battle of the Bulge. Skirmishes there are, however, up until this point, as a prelude---seemingly---to that which will ultimately test them; in which these soldiers show their individual mettle as well as insecurities. It's the story of a historically significant moment, but told from the vantage point of foxholes, in other words, and the GIs that dug them, holed up in them, and sprung from them to engage hostile German combatants. Van Johnson and company are convincing & the direction in this film is commendable. A number of scenes and/or specific camera shots are simply well framed & thus add to the dramatic effect of the lines being delivered by members of this fine cast. There are not that many World War Two-era films as well presented as this one. Do give it a chance (but keep in mind that it's a measured film---almost 2 hours in lenth, & more dramatic than action-packed). My only complaint herein or rather wish would be that they would've filmed more of Battleground beyond MGM's soundstage doors---dialogue in one particular street scene, for instance (wherein troop trucks roll into a town) bares the traces of an indoor echo. In addition, the artificial snow utilized is no better than passably realistic at times. (04Dec) Cheers!
Full Screen Nonsense
I actually consider this movie to be a 5-Star Movie of the highest caliber. However, it is only available in Full Screen format. That is why I only give it 3-Stars. I would really like to see this movie in widescreen format. It has a great cast of characters, has great actions sequences, and some great humor. I love it when Van Johnson is unable to eat the eggs he pilfers from the French woman, Denise. And, I always laugh when he puts his liner in his helmet, puts on his helmet, and he has raw beaten egg dripping down in front of his face. This is an all-time classic, and even though the action and realism pale in comparison to Saving Private Ryan, it doesn't detract at all from the movie. Given a choice between watching the two, I'd more than likely watch Battleground over Saving Private Ryan. There is a certain quality about the "sterile" war movies made in the late 40's up and 50's that appeals to me.
Now, if this had been the colorized version of the movie, I would have given it 1 star. "That's for sure, that's for dang sure."
Audie Murphy, the most decorated American soldier in World War II, enjoyed a Hollywood acting career after the fight. In this 1955 autobiographical film, however, he plays himself re-creating his own actions and movements in key battles. As strange as this project might have seemed to him at the time, the results are pretty impressive. The film, despite a flat script, is really a pretty good war drama about Murphy and his buddies making their way from North Africa to Berlin. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Audie Murphy - Marshall Thompson Director(s): Jesse Hibbs DVD Release Date: Released the 25 May 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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In The Enemy Below Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens are respectively captains of a U.S. destroyer and a German U-boat whose vessels come into conflict in the South Atlantic. Both are good men with a job to do, the script noting Jurgens' distaste for Hitler and the Nazis and engaging our sympathy with the German sailors almost as much as the Americans. Made at the height of the cold war of the 1950s, the film delivers a liberal message of co-operation wrapped inside some spectacular action scenes and a story which builds to a tense and exciting, moving finale. --Gary S. DalkinMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Robert Mitchum - Curd Jürgens Director(s): Dick Powell DVD Release Date: Released the 25 May 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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John Wayne and Anthony Quinn star in this touching 1945 drama inspired by real-life heroism in the Philippines following General MacArthur's withdrawal in 1942 and the islands' subsequent conquest by the Japanese army. Wayne plays Colonel Joe Madden, an American who stays behind to organize a ragtag guerrilla army in the forests and hills. At his side is Captain Andres Bonifacio (Quinn), grandson of a legendary revolutionary martyred in the nation's old war against Spanish colonialists. Joe, Andres, and their fearless irregulars (with support from a schoolteacher, played by Beulah Bondi) sap the enemy's resolve through hit-and-run missions, but as time passes the locals wonder, with pronounced disillusionment, why America doesn't return with masses of troops and weapons. Wayne's star... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Wayne - Anthony Quinn Director(s): Edward Dmytryk DVD Release Date: Released the 04 May 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The offbeat casting of Cary Grant as a submarine captain pays off in this tense WWII underwater picture; he ably trades in his sophistication for the sweaty close quarters of an action movie. The mission? Infiltrate the mined harbor of Tokyo itself, a feat bookended by a brief confrontation in the Aleutians and a depth-charge chase through the open sea. Skipper Grant is supported by the usual stock crew of Navy melting-pot types, with John Garfield drawing duty as the resident dame-crazy fantasist. (Somebody forgot to put the saltpeter in his chow, apparently.) The solid action alternates with dialogue that tends toward the schmaltzy or jingoistic (the movie's become somewhat notorious for its unusually nasty propagandistic jabs at the Japanese enemy). Destination Tokyo was the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Cary Grant - John Garfield Director(s): Delmer Daves DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The German offensive in December 1944 became the basis for this all-star Hollywood take on the Battle of the Bulge. Henry Fonda is an officer who predicts the assault, Robert Ryan and Dana Andrews are Army brass skeptical of his intuitions, and Robert Shaw (his hair dyed yellow and his eyes glinting with malice) is a German officer leading the tank attack. Shaw is certainly the most compelling thing about the film, especially in his philosophical debates with ambivalent underling Hans Christian Blech. Elsewhere, the movie jumps around to sidebar stories (cowardly James MacArthur becomes a leader, wheeler-dealer Telly Savalas falls in love) while messing around with the historical facts of the battle. There are interesting episodes, such as the Malmedy massacre of American POWs and the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Henry Fonda - Robert Shaw - Robert Ryan Director(s): Ken Annakin DVD Release Date: Released the 03 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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