GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

classicsoncall Writer Robert Pirosh drew on his own real life experience as a soldier during the Battle of the Bulge, while director Robert Wellman brought in a couple dozen veterans of that campaign to lend further authenticity to the dialog and on screen drama for this film. The result is a compelling World War II movie that relies more on character driven vignettes than on epic battlefield action. More so than most war films, this one puts you right in the bunkers and foxholes, and you can almost feel the unbearable discomfort of freezing in the mud and snow as enemy fire punctures the stillness of the battlefield. The picture honors it's heroes, the 'Battered Bastards of Bastogne' as fighting forces intent on stopping the Nazi war machine. In a thoughtful scene, Army chaplain Leon Ames attempts to answer the question 'Is this trip necessary'? Generations of Americans to follow owe their freedom to men like the soldiers who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, screaming eagles who valued their patriotism and were willing to die to prove it.

atlasmb "Battleground" is a film that would not and could not have been made just five years before. During WWII, films were used to motivate and inspire viewers, especially those at home who were constantly prodded to back the war effort.In this film most of the story takes place in snowy, foggy woodlands. The mood is claustrophobic and depressing. No doubt this accurately portrays the actual conditions under which the 101st Airborne operated around Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. Much of the dialogue consists of black humor.The soldiers had to contend with deprivations and hardship. With the enemy obscured by the weather conditions, and the battle lines constantly changing, they were plagued by shortages in rations, ammunition, and fuel. The actors' portrayals in "Battleground" include the usual caricatures--the hardened sergeant, the relatively new lieutenant, the farmboy and the city smart alecks.The action moves at a slow pace as the men slog through the snow and suffer from the cold. But the story is solid until a sermonizing speech given, appropriately, by a Lutheran chaplain. It deals more with the propaganda of war and future defense spending than with spiritual matters. Then the story gets back on track and we follow the weary sadsacks to the end of their campaign.

LeonLouisRicci In Reality, one of the Major Concerns or the Director/Writer, is that there is Literally No Real Ground in this Staged Production. It will probably come as no Surprise to those Watching this that almost all of it was Filmed on a Stage and Back Lot. Sorry, but that does not allow for a whole lot of Battleground Realism.So this is a Character Study, or more Accurately, a Multiple Character Study of the Men in and around Bastogne. The Grunts are Stereotypical and are a group of Multi-National Melting Pot Joes. There is some Believable Banter among the Brothers and most of the Movie is mostly that. A lot of Banter about this and that, Insignificant Stuff like False Teeth, Newspapers, and Mom's Home Baked Pies.Sure, this happens but here a lot of it Smacks of Cliché, with Actors on Stage given a lot of "get to know Me" Dialog before they are Forced to do Battle. There are some Battles but not many. There is some Combat Tension, but not much. The Preacher's Sermon is straight out of Post-War Anti-Communist Rhetoric, and there again, so much for Realism.This is a Fondly Remembered and well Liked Film. Multiple Oscar Nominee, including Best Picture, but it is Really not that Great and is Overrated and much Loved more for its Real Life Participants and Events, than this rather Stiff War Movie. It almost seems like one of those TV Playhouse 90 Things. Perhaps, Subconsciously, TV was already starting to influence Movie Making, even in the Early Years.

wes-connors In the waning months of World War II, a group of war-weary American soldiers fight off The Third Reich's second wind. "Battleground" suffered from a lot of backstage studio machinations, but rose to become one of the most critical and popular success stories of the era. It starts with a fine script from Robert Pirosh, who manages to make the otherwise stereotypical characters human. Drawing on his own experiences, Mr. Pirosh is able to covey the soldiers' reluctance, determination, love and sacrifice. The fighting men seem theatrical, but real. And, war veterans William Wellman (director) and Paul Vogel (cinematographer) know how to put over Pirosh's thesis. Their final argument is superfluous, but does not undermine anything - the trip was necessary, as was entering this war.********* Battleground (11/9/49) William A. Wellman ~ Van Johnson, John Hodiak, James Whitmore, Marshall Thompson