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on June 15, 2015
Typical WW II movie . Good acting for that day in time.
BATTLEGROUND is an interesting movie, but there is not enough substance or excitement to warrant repeated viewings.
VINE VOICEon September 4, 2016
BATTLEGROUND is an ensemble piece, taking place in rural areas of France in World War II. The story concerns the adventures, tribulations,and accomplishments of several soldiers during the SIEGE OF BASTOGNE in the BATTLE OF THE BULGE. The film stars Van Johnson and James Whitmore. Other actors portraying soldiers include George Murphy and Ricardo Montalban. George Murphy later became a U.S. Senator from California (1965-1971). Ricardo Montalban, of course, is a household word in America because of his role in the television series, Fantasy Island (1977-1984). BATTLEGROUND is somewhat like FURY, starring Brad Pitt, in view of the fact that both films track the adventures and accomplishments of an ensemble of U.S. soldiers, in rural areas of France during WWII. Also, both films have an actor who is Hispanic. Ricardo Montalban (1920-2009) was born in Mexico to Spanish parents. FURY includes Hispanic actor Michael Pena. According to Wikipedia, "With his addition [Michael Pena] to the cast, Fury became one of the few films to show Hispanic-Americans serving in WW2." There is yet another parallel between BATTLEGROUND and FURY. In BATTLEGROUND, one of the soldiers is hillbilly, who speaks clumsily and has the habit of making hillbilly expressions using the term, "dang." In FURY, one of the actors, Jon Bernthal, plays a hillbilly-type from Louisiana. His nickname in FURY is "Coon-Ass." As is well established, the term "coon-ass" is common in Louisiana.
SOUND AND VISUAL ENGINEERING. The sound in BATTLEGROUND is excellent. Throughout much of the film, the viewer will hear the constant sounds of distant bombs blowing up. On occasion, the viewer will be treated to the ominous whistling sound of ballistics approaching and then blowing up very close to the actors. The visuals are really second-rate, though the contrast of the black and white images is fine, and the image is sharp and not blurry. The problem is that, there are on occasion dark vertical lines that mar the visuals, and at other times, there are white-colored vertical lines that mar the visuals. These defects are very minor and do not detract from the movie.
MILITARY MACHINERY. There is not much in BATTLEGROUND, in the way of military machinery, to excite the viewer. Much of the movie takes place near an overturned jeep. As we all know, jeeps are not very exciting pieces of military machinery. Often, we see rifles and machine guns being toted around by the actors. There is a minute or so of visuals showing tanks, near the end of the movie. Near the end of the movie, we see a groups of C-47 transports flying above, and dropping supplies, to the battle-weary ensemble of soldiers. If your main interested is seeing images of tanks, bombers, fighter planes, and cannons, then this movie WILL NOT BE RIGHT FOR YOU. This movie is an ensemble piece where the focus is on chit-chat banter and dialogue.
THE PLOT. BATTLEGROUND starts out by showing U.S. soldiers engaging in marching drills, where the marching formations resemble those of cheerleaders at football games. This is not a criticism of the movie. Although I have seen about a dozen movies about World War II, the war in Vietnam, and a couple of movies about the war in Afghanistan, I have never seen the depiction of fancy marching formations, as we find in BATTLEGROUND. Most of the movie takes place in rural France and in a rural village. The first half of the movie contains continual chit-chat banter. In my opinion, the dialogue is only somewhat engaging. Throughout the first half of the movie, there are repeated references to three types of comedic effects: (1) UNCOOKED EGGS. There are repeated depictions of a soldier's attempts to cook eggs in his helmet. The man's attempts are repeatedly interrupted. We see repeated depictions of the soldier putting on his helmet, and we see uncooked eggs dripping down from the helmet and on the soldier's face. My response to this is, "Ha, ha, ha, so funny I forgot to laugh." Comedic scenes that concern the uncooked eggs are repeated on about a half-dozen occasions. (2) FALSE TEETH. On about a dozen occasions, the movie includes comedic scenes that concerns the false teeth of one of the soldiers. The sound track includes the particular clattering sound of the false teeth, over and over again. Ha, ha, ha, so funny I forgot to laugh. (3) HILLBILLY EXPLETIVES. As I mentioned above, one of the soldiers in the ensemble plays a hillbilly-type who uses the word "dang" as part of his hillbilly expletive. As part of this comedic scene, which is repeated several times over the course of the movie, another of the soldier complains about the hillbilly term "dang" and asks the soldier to stop using it. What I say is, "Ha, ha, ha, so funny I forgot to laugh."
CONCLUSION. This is not really a must-see movie. There are plenty of WWII movies, filmed in the 1940s to 1960s, as well as WWII movies filmed in the present era (the years 2000-2015) which are infinitely better than BATTLEGROUND. My short list of WWII movies that are truly excellent, and that are infinitely better than BATTLEGROUND, is as follows:
(1) FURY starring Brad Pitt
(2) UNBROKEN, produced and directed by Angelina Jolie, and based on the 2010 non-fiction book by Laura Hillenbrand,
(3) GREAT ESCAPE starring Steve McQueen
(4) SINK THE BISMARCK based on the book The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck by C. S. Forester, and starring Kenneth More and Dana Wynter and directed by Lewis Gilbert.
(5) RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster.
(6) PEARL HARBOR starring Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale, Josh Hartnett, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight, Colm Feore and Alec Baldwin.
(7) TUSKEGEE AIRMAN, starring Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding, Jr., John Lithgow, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner. (Warning: there exists another movie about the Tuskegee Airman called RED TAILS. But RED TAILS is mediocre, when compared to TUSKEGEE AIRMAN starring Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding, John Lithgow, and Malcom-Jamal Warner.
(8) THE TRAIN, starring Burt Lancaster. The footage of locomotives and railroading machinery is absolute eye candy. The plot-element where the good guys concealed the names of the French railway stations and tricked the Germans was a clever and enjoyable part of this movie.
To conclude, BATTLEGROUND is a low-key movie about a significant battle in World War II, where the emphasis in the first half of the movie is semi-amusing chit-chat banter, and where the emphasis in the second half of the movie is increasing tensions, with direct military encounters and gun-fighting with German soldiers. But I am not sure that anybody would include BATTLEGROUND in one's own list of the top ten best films about World War II.
SOUND AND VISUAL ENGINEERING. The sound in BATTLEGROUND is excellent. Throughout much of the film, the viewer will hear the constant sounds of distant bombs blowing up. On occasion, the viewer will be treated to the ominous whistling sound of ballistics approaching and then blowing up very close to the actors. The visuals are really second-rate, though the contrast of the black and white images is fine, and the image is sharp and not blurry. The problem is that, there are on occasion dark vertical lines that mar the visuals, and at other times, there are white-colored vertical lines that mar the visuals. These defects are very minor and do not detract from the movie.
MILITARY MACHINERY. There is not much in BATTLEGROUND, in the way of military machinery, to excite the viewer. Much of the movie takes place near an overturned jeep. As we all know, jeeps are not very exciting pieces of military machinery. Often, we see rifles and machine guns being toted around by the actors. There is a minute or so of visuals showing tanks, near the end of the movie. Near the end of the movie, we see a groups of C-47 transports flying above, and dropping supplies, to the battle-weary ensemble of soldiers. If your main interested is seeing images of tanks, bombers, fighter planes, and cannons, then this movie WILL NOT BE RIGHT FOR YOU. This movie is an ensemble piece where the focus is on chit-chat banter and dialogue.
THE PLOT. BATTLEGROUND starts out by showing U.S. soldiers engaging in marching drills, where the marching formations resemble those of cheerleaders at football games. This is not a criticism of the movie. Although I have seen about a dozen movies about World War II, the war in Vietnam, and a couple of movies about the war in Afghanistan, I have never seen the depiction of fancy marching formations, as we find in BATTLEGROUND. Most of the movie takes place in rural France and in a rural village. The first half of the movie contains continual chit-chat banter. In my opinion, the dialogue is only somewhat engaging. Throughout the first half of the movie, there are repeated references to three types of comedic effects: (1) UNCOOKED EGGS. There are repeated depictions of a soldier's attempts to cook eggs in his helmet. The man's attempts are repeatedly interrupted. We see repeated depictions of the soldier putting on his helmet, and we see uncooked eggs dripping down from the helmet and on the soldier's face. My response to this is, "Ha, ha, ha, so funny I forgot to laugh." Comedic scenes that concern the uncooked eggs are repeated on about a half-dozen occasions. (2) FALSE TEETH. On about a dozen occasions, the movie includes comedic scenes that concerns the false teeth of one of the soldiers. The sound track includes the particular clattering sound of the false teeth, over and over again. Ha, ha, ha, so funny I forgot to laugh. (3) HILLBILLY EXPLETIVES. As I mentioned above, one of the soldiers in the ensemble plays a hillbilly-type who uses the word "dang" as part of his hillbilly expletive. As part of this comedic scene, which is repeated several times over the course of the movie, another of the soldier complains about the hillbilly term "dang" and asks the soldier to stop using it. What I say is, "Ha, ha, ha, so funny I forgot to laugh."
CONCLUSION. This is not really a must-see movie. There are plenty of WWII movies, filmed in the 1940s to 1960s, as well as WWII movies filmed in the present era (the years 2000-2015) which are infinitely better than BATTLEGROUND. My short list of WWII movies that are truly excellent, and that are infinitely better than BATTLEGROUND, is as follows:
(1) FURY starring Brad Pitt
(2) UNBROKEN, produced and directed by Angelina Jolie, and based on the 2010 non-fiction book by Laura Hillenbrand,
(3) GREAT ESCAPE starring Steve McQueen
(4) SINK THE BISMARCK based on the book The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck by C. S. Forester, and starring Kenneth More and Dana Wynter and directed by Lewis Gilbert.
(5) RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster.
(6) PEARL HARBOR starring Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale, Josh Hartnett, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight, Colm Feore and Alec Baldwin.
(7) TUSKEGEE AIRMAN, starring Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding, Jr., John Lithgow, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner. (Warning: there exists another movie about the Tuskegee Airman called RED TAILS. But RED TAILS is mediocre, when compared to TUSKEGEE AIRMAN starring Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding, John Lithgow, and Malcom-Jamal Warner.
(8) THE TRAIN, starring Burt Lancaster. The footage of locomotives and railroading machinery is absolute eye candy. The plot-element where the good guys concealed the names of the French railway stations and tricked the Germans was a clever and enjoyable part of this movie.
To conclude, BATTLEGROUND is a low-key movie about a significant battle in World War II, where the emphasis in the first half of the movie is semi-amusing chit-chat banter, and where the emphasis in the second half of the movie is increasing tensions, with direct military encounters and gun-fighting with German soldiers. But I am not sure that anybody would include BATTLEGROUND in one's own list of the top ten best films about World War II.
on February 16, 2013
The story was good, but the quality of the DVD was poor. The sound was very poor. In parts, I could barely hear it; in other parts, it was very loud (irrespective of the gunfire).
on April 6, 2015
Good profile movie but I was looking for more on the history of "The Bulge".
on February 18, 2014
This reviewer loves the WWII war movies and has yet to view a bad one. Van Johnson failed to be convincing that he was facing real bullets.
