Rating: NR
Genre:
War
Release Date: 05/03/2005
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD1
Run Time: 118 Minutes
Flags: Violence, Questionable for Children
Distributor/Studio: Warner Home Video
Incoming
MGM production head
Dore Schary ramrodded
Battleground into the studio's schedule over the virulent protests of
MGM boss
Louis Mayer. The result was an award-winning box-office hit, as well as the beginning of the end of
Mayer's power. This dramatization of the battles of Bastogne and the Bulge in the waning days of World War II concentrates on a single infantry unit.
Van Johnson and
John Hodiak are the ostensible stars, but the film is stolen by
James Whitmore as the cigar-chomping, battle-stained sergeant. Also appearing is
Ian MacDonald as General McAuliffe, whose legendary response to the Nazi's suggestion that the Americans surrender consisted of a single four-letter expletive: "Nuts".
Whitmore's final scenes of near-delirium before the relief troops arrive are unforgettable.
Battleground tries within
MGM limits to be wholly realistic, though it is slightly compromised by the scripters' inability to use Army profanity, and by pointless subplot involving actress
Denise Darcel. The film doesn't hold up as well as such wartime efforts as
The Story of GI Joe or
Walk in the Sun, but in 1949
Battleground was regarded as an important milestone in the field of truthful, de-glamorized combat flicks. Please avoid the colorized version: this is a black-and-white subject if ever there was one.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
