Battleground (film)

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Battleground
Official film poster
Directed byWilliam A. Wellman
Written byRobert Pirosh
Produced byDore Schary
Starring
CinematographyPaul C. Vogel
Edited byJohn D. Dunning
Music byLennie Hayton
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates
  • November 9, 1949 (1949-11-09) (Washington D.C., premiere)
Running time
118 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,631,000[1][2]
Box office$6,269,000 (worldwide rentals)[1]

Battleground is a 1949 American war film that follows a company in the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division as they fight in the siege of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, in World War II. It stars Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalbán, and George Murphy, features James Whitmore, and was directed by William A. Wellman from a script by Robert Pirosh.

The film portrays American soldiers as vulnerable and human. While they remain steadfast and courageous, each soldier has at least one moment in the film when he seriously considers running away, schemes to get sent back from the front line, slacks off, or complains about the situation he is in. One writer – discarding Warner's successful Fighter Squadron of 1948 – describes Battleground as the first significant American film about World War II to be made and released after the end of the war.[3]

Plot

In mid-December 1944, Private Jim Layton and his buddy Private William J. Hooper are assigned to the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. As a newcomer, Layton receives a chilly welcome from his squad. Private First Class Holley returns to the company after recuperating from a wound.

Instead of going on leave in Paris, the squad is trucked back to the front because of a surprise German breakthrough in the Ardennes. They stop that night in Bastogne and are put up for the night in the apartment of a young woman, Denise, to whom Holley is attracted.

Jarvess later stands guard in the village, where he runs into some battle-weary soldiers making a "strategic withdrawal". The next morning, led by Platoon Sergeant Kinnie, the men are ordered to dig in on the outskirts of town. Just as they are nearly done, they are sent elsewhere and must dig in all over again.

Holley, Layton, and Kippton man a roadblock that night. German soldiers

Latino from Los Angeles
, is delighted by the novelty of snow from a heavy winter storm, but "Pop" Stazak, awaiting a "dependency discharge" that will send him home, is unimpressed. Layton goes to see Hooper, only to find he had been killed, and no one in his company had even known his name.

Kinnie informs the squad about the infiltration and dispatches a patrol comprising Holley, Roderigues, and Jarvess. Just before they start out, the platoon is shelled by German artillery, causing Bettis to panic and desert. Holley's patrol briefly skirmishes with the infiltrators. Roderigues is wounded by machine-gun fire from an enemy tank. Holley conceals him under a disabled jeep half-buried in snow, promising to return for him. Unfortunately, by the time Holley can return, Roderigues has died.

Sgt. Wolowicz, wounded by shrapnel, and a sick Cpl. Standiferd are sent to a field hospital. Later, Doc informs the 2nd Squad that the hospital has been captured.

Holley is appointed the new squad leader and partnered with Layton, while Pop is paired with Hansan. Pop's discharge finally comes in, but they learn from Kipp they are surrounded, meaning he's stuck and unable to leave.

Moved repeatedly, the 3rd Platoon is attacked at dawn. When it appears, the platoon will be overrun, Hansan is wounded, Holley flees, and Layton follows Holley. Ashamed, Holley turns around and leads a flanking counterattack that stops the Germans, during which Abner Spudler is killed reaching for his boots, as he can't sleep with them on.

After they get Hanson to an

K.P. duty. Holley finds Layton being entertained by Denise. Later, while on guard duty, they encounter some Germans who have come under a flag of truce to offer Brigadier General McAuliffe surrender terms; his famous reply - "Nuts!" - puzzles the Germans.[4]

The squad is short of supplies, as bad weather has grounded the supply transport aircraft. Several men attend impromptu outdoor Christmas services held by a chaplain. (The chaplain had previously served as clergy at a Hanukkah ceremony, and when he asks a Jewish soldier how he did he responds, "Not bad for a beginner, padre.") The chaplain gives a short speech on the importance of the fight against fascism. He then asks "The 64 thousand dollar question is: was this trip worth it?" After giving an affirmative explanation, he says that people will forget, but they won't, and "don't let anyone ever tell you that you were a sucker to fight against fascism." That night, the Luftwaffe bombs Bastogne. Denise dies, and Bettis, slowed by his fear of returning to the lines, is killed by a collapsing house. The "walking wounded", including Hansan and a mess sergeant he befriends, are recalled for a last-ditch defense of the town.

As the platoon is down to its last few rounds of ammunition, the weather finally clears, allowing Allied fighter aircraft to attack the Germans and

C-47 transports
to drop supplies, enabling the 101st to hold. Afterward, Kinnie leads the platoon's survivors rearward for a well-earned rest.

Cast

Production

Battleground was originally an

MGM, he purchased the rights to the script from RKO, over the objections of Louis B. Mayer, who believed the public was tired of war films. At MGM, Robert Taylor and Keenan Wynn were reported to have been penciled in for the film, along with Van Johnson and John Hodiak, and the project was budgeted at $2 million.[6] Wellman put the cast through some military training with Robert Taylor, a former navy officer who dropped out believing the role was not right for him. He was replaced by Van Johnson.[7]

Robert Pirosh had based the script on his own experiences during the

, who had been the 101st's deputy divisional commander at Bastogne, was the film's technical advisor.

The film was in production from April 5 to June 3, 1949,

101st Airborne by Patton's Third Army. Shooting took 20 days less than was scheduled, due in part to innovative measures taken by Schary such as processing film as it was shot, then dubbing and cutting it so that scenes could be previewed within two days of being shot.[6] The film came in almost $100,000 under budget.[5]

Upon the conclusion of filming, cinematographer Paul C. Vogel described his work in a professional journal: “Except for the opening scenes (filmed at Sawtelle General Hospital) and the climax (shot at Fort McArthur), ‘Battleground’ was filmed indoors on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Stage 15. This is a cavernous affair, measuring 130x320 feet with a ceiling height of 70 feet, nearly three million cubic feet of air....All lighting...was from overhead....However, it frequently left actors' faces black under their regulation G.I. helmets. Supplementary lighting for face modelling was used from the floor up....despite the constant 40 degrees temperature maintained by the stepped-up air conditioning system, we discovered that soon after lighting the set each morning, the lamp heat started the air currents flowing—but not always in the same direction! We turned this meteorological oddity to advantage placing our fog machines—spraying vaporized light machine oil—at strategic positions, allowing the indoor currents to waft our fog into the desired place....En passant, the constant fog—chemical, not mental—in which we worked for more than seven weeks killed the desire to smoke. Cinematographers overly addicted to nicotine might try this effective, but drastic cure."[11]

Battleground received a number of premieres before its general release. A private showing for President

Washington D.C. on November 9, 1949, which was attended[6] by McAuliffe, who commanded the 101st during the siege. Two days later, the film premiered in New York City, and then on December 1 in Los Angeles
.

Response

Battleground was MGM's largest grossing film in five years.

Photoplay as the best picture of the year.[6]

MGM released a similar film in 1951, Go for Broke!, also starring Van Johnson and directed by Pirosh.[6]

Awards and nominations

Award Category Nominee(s) Result
Academy Awards[12] Best Motion Picture Dore Schary Nominated
Best Director William A. Wellman Nominated
Best Supporting Actor James Whitmore Nominated
Best Story and Screenplay Robert Pirosh Won
Best Cinematography – Black-and-White Paul C. Vogel Won
Best Film Editing John Dunning Nominated
Golden Globe Awards[13] Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture James Whitmore Won
Best Screenplay – Motion Picture Robert Pirosh Won
Photoplay Awards Gold Medal Won
Writers Guild of America Awards[14] Best Written American Drama Robert Pirosh Nominated

The film was nominated for the American Film Institute's 2001 list AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills.[15]

Historical accuracy

327th Glider Infantry Regiment held the western perimeter during the siege of Bastogne
.

Although the film is a fictionalized version of the siege of Bastogne, there were no Germans disguised as Americans GIs operating around Bastogne. Operation Greif only focused on the front of the 6th SS Panzer Army, many miles to the north. The scenes depicting US troops quizzing each other about their culture (like sports and films) to verify they were not German infiltrators did occur once news of the operation became known.

The unit portrayed in the film is the fictional "2nd Squad, 3rd Platoon of Item Company" of the real

327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division
. The 327th Glider Infantry Regiment never had an Item Company. When the airborne divisions were conceived early in World War II, glider regiments were given two battalions; the first had companies named Able, Baker, Charlie, and Dog while the second got Easy, Fox, George, and How. The 327th held the western perimeter of Bastogne.

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4391-0791-1. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help
    )
  2. .
  3. ^ "War and Anti-War Film". Filmsite.org.
  4. ^ The actual incident involved F Company, 2nd Battalion, 327th Glider Infantry on December 22, near Marvie, southeast of Bastogne. As depicted, the commander of the 327th GIR, Colonel Joseph Harper, was called upon to explain the term.
  5. ^ a b c Thompson, Lang. "Battleground". TCM.
  6. ^ a b c d e f TCM Notes
  7. ^ pp. 93–94 Davis, Ronald L. Robert Pirosh Interview in Words into Images: Screenwriters on the Studio System Univ. Press of Mississippi, 01/05/2007
  8. ^ Pirosh was a sergeant in Company G, 320th Infantry of the 35th Infantry Division, one of Patton's divisions assigned to break through to Bastogne.
  9. ^ S.L.A. Marshall Bastogne: The First Eight Days Archived September 2, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, Chapter 14 and notes.
  10. ^ TCM Overview
  11. ^ . Vogel, Paul. "Different...and Difficult." American Cinematographer 30:12 (December 1949), 456-57.
  12. ^ "The 22nd Academy Awards (1950) Nominees and Winners". Oscars.org (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences). Archived from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved August 18, 2011.
  13. HFPA
    . Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  14. ^ "Wga awards". Archived from the original on December 5, 2012.
  15. ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved August 20, 2016.

External links