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Battleground Movie Review

Battleground is a 1949 war film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Van Johnson, Ricardo Montalban and James Whitmore. It’s a surprisingly strong WWII feature.

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“What’s a bulge?

Search me“

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It tells the true tale about a squad of soldiers coping with being trapped by the Germans in the besieged city of Bastogne, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944. This movie was released the same year the stuffy drama ‘Twelve O’Clock High’ came out. The two movies couldn’t have been more different from each other. In fact, this is one of the rare WWII films from the period that has stood the test of time and is still an engaging watch.

The prime reason why Battleground works as well as it does and why it feels so modern to this day lies in its approach. Instead of patriotic speeches and sweeping tales of heroism, here we have a more grounded take on what war does to people. Not only are the soldiers more realistic in their behavior, but we get to see many of them experience fear and panic. This was crucial in making us feel empathy for them.

With that being said, the characterization on this film is still quite subpar. The squad consists of way too many soldiers for the movie to meaningfully portray any let alone all of them. I appreciated some of their quirks and especially that we see their insecurities and how well they functioned as a group, but individually they were somewhat underdeveloped.

This cast contains actors that look the part and they fit so well within the war context. Van Johnson was very believable and Ricardo Montalban is quite charismatic in one of his earlier roles. James Whitmore was nominated for his pretty solid turn as one of the more memorable characters in the film.

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William A. Wellman is a director behind the superb ‘Wings’, so of course he could shoot war action scenes phenomenally as was the case here. Every single scene of destruction and mayhem was suitably intense and harrowing, but it is in the more intimate character moments with a lot of dialogue where the movie shined the most. The dialogue is exceptional and the comradery and friendship were lovely to witness. The movie is quite grim and depressing at times, but it still ended on such an uplifting note thanks to that heartwarming final sequence. The score is great too and the cinematography is stellar with the snow landscapes being memorable and so cinematic.