Battleground
by Dave O'Brien, Tex Avery, William A. Wellman
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Colleen Collins, Daws Butler, John Hodiak, Pinto Colvig, Van JohnsonDirector: Dave O'Brien, Tex Avery, William A. Wellman
Brand: Warner Brothers
Writer: Dave O'Brien
Writer: Jack Cosgriff
Writer: Joe Ansen
Writer: Rich Hogan
Writer: Robert Pirosh
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Original Language); German (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 118 minutes
Published: 2004-05-01
DVD Release Date: 2004-05-04
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Battleground
Movie Review: The guts! The girls! The glory! of a lot of wonderful guys!
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Summary of Battleground
A squad of the 101st airborne division copes with being trapped in the besieged city of bastogne during the battle of the bulge. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 02/14/2006 Starring: Van Johnson Ricardo Montalban Run time: 118 minutes Rating: Nr Director: William WellmanSimilar DVD Movies
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