1949 - BATTLEGROUND, award winning war film is mighty dated

During World War II, the German Army makes one final large scale attack on the Allies.  The Ardennes Offensive also know as The Battle of the Bulge was designed to take the U.S. Army by surprise by overwhelming them. General Eisenhower sends in one of the toughest regiments, the 101st Airborne also known as "The Screaming Eagles" to hold a key key city in the battle, Bastogone. 

The film Battleground is based on the siege of Bastogone.  The film was originally set up at RKO studio by Dore Schary.  When Schary took over as head of production at MGM studios he brought the Battleground script with him.  MGM under Louis B Mayer was primarily a studio that emphasized wholesome entertainments and musicals.  Mayer had no interest in a World War II film.  But Schary soldiered on as it were.   

William Wellman aka "Wild Bill"  Wellman a World War I veteran directed.  The story and screenplay was by a writer named Robert Pirrosh an actual veteran of The Battle of the Bulge.  MGM's contract players filled the roles of the foot soldiers and the film was released to good reviews and commercial success.  Viewed today the film while well intended looks mighty dated with only a few good scenes that convey the intense nature of the battle fought in the freezing winter.

The film was primarily shot on a large soundstage at MGM which gives it a very phony look. The award winning screenplay has the usual foot soldier troupes.  The green kid, the tough guy tobacco chewing sergeant, the scrounger and finally the sensitive newspaper reporter turned soldier.  In an obvious attempt to humanize and identify with the soldiers there is a lot of humor in the film and talk lots of talk.  It's amazing that the 101st had time to fight with all the chatter that went on in the foxholes.

Using MGM contract players to play the soldiers turns into a spot the star viewing experience.  Look there's 40's actor Van Johnson who usually played in romantic comedies and musicals.  James Whitmore a character actor and had actually served in World War II in the Marine Corps.  A personal favorite of mine character actor Richard Jaeckel had a long career in Hollywood and had been in the Merchant Marines.  Mr. Roarke himself Ricardo Montalban covered the ethnic soldier angle.  Finally James Arness, Marshall Matt Dillon from Gunsmoke had been at the Anzio invasion.  What these actual veterans must have thought about running around big phony soundstage battle sets playing soldier boys will unfortunately never be known.

For a war veteran and veteran director William Wellman's direction isn't very good. He doesn't seem to  be able to get across the intense nature of the Ardennes Offensive.  Probably shooting almost entirely on sound stages didn't help.  The pack of war cliches that film is loaded up with from Robert Pirrosh also seriously dates the film.  Pirrosh had better luck with his screenplay Hell Is For Heroes which was a lot tougher of a war film than this.  But really the film to watch about the foot soldier is A Walk in the Sun now that's a good war film.  Battleground gets a big gold star for good intentions but a big demerit for execution.

The running time is 118 minutes.