CineTV Contest: Bad Weather and War - Battleground

This week for the CineTV contest is a movie involving bad weather. Something I can relate to right now with just having had a fresh blizzard dropping over a foot of snow on us. But coming up with a movie relating to bad weather is a bit of a struggle, and had to give it a fair amount of thought. The end result is…

Battleground poster - IMDB

Battleground (1949) starring Van Johnson with Ricardo Montalban (can we say Khan! There, that’s my obligatory Star Trek reference) in an early film role. This film is about the Battle of the Bulge during World War 2, and one of the first serious films about The War produced after the war had ended in 1945. It is also considered by many, myself included (as well as my cousin Kenn, more on that later) to be the best film made concerning this major winter battle.

Note the fog in this scene (image cropped) - IMDB

Due to inclement weather – fog and snow – German Armored Divisions made a breakthrough push through the Ardennes Forest and the city of Bastogne. The 101st Airborne Division was ordered to the region to reinforce American units already in the area, but those units are not directly mentioned (again, more on that later).

Van Johnson - note the emotional look on his face - (image cropped) IMDB

The film focuses on one platoon of the 101st, with Van Johnson plays Holly, a PFC who ends up in charge of his squad, with James Whitmore playing the Platoon Sergeant Kinnie, and Ricardo Montalban as PFC Rodriguez, who is fascinated by the snow, and mentions that he had never seen snow close up before. The film covers all of the basic elements of the battle – the bitter cold, Bastogne, American forces cutoff and surrounded, with the Germans trying to force the defenders to surrender, the lack of supplies. It is a character study rather than a full-on action film, although there is enough action to convey the dire situation that the troops in the Bastogne region were facing. Being a character study, we become very knowledgeable of the principle characters, seeing the war, and the situation that they find themselves in through their eyes. The courage they display, and the sorrow when they lose one of their own. Each of the characters we meet in this film have their own backstory so we learn a lot about each of them.

Van Johnson and John Hodiak - resting place - IMDB

The foul weather during the battle prevents the 101st Airborne from receiving badly needed air support and supplies. They are discouraged, scared, want to be anywhere but where they are, and not afraid to admit their fears, and wishing for the weather to clear so that they would get the relief that they so badly needed. They all persevere through the hardships they face, not just the enemy, but the lousy weather that is preventing them from being relieved.

I grew up watching a lot of war films (along with westerns and science fiction films), and Battleground has always been a favorite of mine. Possibly because it is a character rather than action driven story, with a top notch cast who fully embraced their roles, makes it such a fine movie. I find films that are character studies to be far more interesting, and enjoyable, than action driven films where we don’t get to know the characters or develop a reason to care about them. Robert Pirosh, the screenwriter, hit all the right chords to get the audience to be engaged with his characters stories and care about them.

As it is a piece of history, we know how the battle ends – with an Allied Victory. I mentioned in the beginning of this post, my cousin Kenn (I have mentioned him in several posts in the past – Kenn Rust – a military aviation historian) had said to me that Battleground is the best depiction of The Battle of the Bulge he had seen. I think Kenn would know as he fought in this battle, not in the 101st, but in the 106th Golden Lions Infantry Division, in the 422nd Infantry Regiment (same regiment as Kurt Vonnegut, but to the best of my knowledge Kenn never knew Vonnegut). The 106th was forced to surrender in the opening days of that battle, after they ran out of ammunition.

Battleground is a fine film, and holds up well to this day, even though it is over 70 years old, and I think it is still the best film about the Battle of the Bulge that has been made.

Thanks for stopping by. And if you are hunkered down weathering out the current winter storm like we are, stay warm and safe.

for more on CineTV and this contest, check out - https://www.cinetv.blog/@cinetv/cinetv-contest-49-favorite-movie-with-bad-weather

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