Battleground

The Original Band of Brothers
Of the dozen or so films that use the Battle of the Bulge as a backdrop, BATTLEGROUND stands out as one of the best. Starring Van Johnson and John Hodiac, look for other young and upcoming stars of screen and television tube such as Marshall Thompson, Ricardo Montalban, James Arness and Richard Jaeckel.

The date is December 1944. The place is Bastogne, Belgium. The Germans have just unleashed their last major offensive in the west and the US 101st Airborne is rushed in to stem the tide. The film focuses on one platoon of airborne troopers and their actions outside of Bastogne.

If you thought the Bastogne sets for HBO'S BAND OF BROTHER'S were fantastic, get a glimpse of the equally fantastic sets for BATTLEGROUND. The story is presented from the GI point of view, so there are few opportunities to see the German soldiers up close.

In terms of historical accuracy, BATTLEGROUND was so well researched that even the weather conditions are matched with...

Best War Film From the G.I. Perspective.
Of all the films to emerge from World War II, "Battleground" best portrays basic survival from an infantryman's perspective. Even the battle scenes illustrate the closed-in battlefield and confusion experienced by the individual G.I. For example, the scene of the pre-dawn attack by German infantry when the American private takes the initiative to fire his M-1 rifle into the darkness at sounds rather than a visible target, thus spurring the other men in his squad to begin firing accurately portrays the confusion and fear oftentimes emminating from the foxhole. Several times in the film, the theme of officers and NCOs removing badges of rank in order to not expose themselves to enemy snipers is not often shown in other films of this genre. Even Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) in "Saving Private Ryan" boldly wore his Captain's bars on his helmet throughout the entire film (as did also his platoon Sergeant wear his stripes on the outside of his combat jacket). The ethnic...

Tribute to the World War II Veteran
I love this World War II movie about the Battle of the Bulge. I like this film because it focuses on the ordinary infantryman and is told in a very gritty fashion for its time (1949). Producer Dore Schary had the good sense to let director William Wellman (World War I veteran) film this movie in a more realistic style than a major Hollywood studio would normally have done. Robert Pirosh's competent and honest script breathes reality into the life and death daily existence of these soldiers through their turgid dialog. Paul C. Vogel's black & white cinematography is bleak and adds a sense of anxiety that puts the viewer directly into the story. Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, James Whitmore, Richard Jaeckel and Marshall Thompson are all excellent in their roles. This move is a tribute to the ordinary guy that had to leave home, go out and defend our freedoms.

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