During the Battle of the Bulge, an American squadron is trapped in a small French town, fighting not only the Nazis but also the elements of a brutal winter. The focus is more on characters than on action, and it is interesting to watch the interactions among the colorful characters played by a large cast of familiar faces. While the battlefield scenes are mostly effective, the film runs out of steam about two-thirds of the way through and bogs down in the latter stages. While the acting is good by the ensemble, particularly effective are Montalban, Thompson, Whitmore, and Hodiak, an actor who died too young. Playing a wise guy, Johnson provides most of the comic relief.

When I was a kid this Van Johnson film was a staple of the late show movies. I remember seeing it then and even when I see it now, I am impressed with it. This one has the feel of really being near Bostogne in 1944. I think what helps it is that it was made only 5 years after the war. You get the feeling that the film crew has a bunch of vets in it and they are busy behind the scenes making it feel like the real battle.In addition to Van Johnson in one of his better roles, we have James Whitmore and Ricardo Montoban in support. All the actors seem to be perfectly cast in this one. The main weakness in it is in the late scenes where things fall into place a little too perfectly to get to the happy ended. Up until that, the film feels like a real war.Still, the marching sequence at the end of the movie is so good that it is copied in technique several times in later combat films. This one is one of the better ones and if your too young to be in the greatest generation, this is as close as you can now get to feeling what the war in Europe in WW2 was really like.

...but "Battleground," an early Cold War salute to the "Battered Bastards of Bastogne," has a certain charm that transcends its limited portrayal of the rigors of war seen through the eyes of a fictitious platoon of the 101st Airborne during the Battle of the Bulge, which took place less than five years before the film was shot. As other wags on this site have noted, it was an obvious precursor to modern productions like "Band of Brothers" and "The Battle of the Bulge," not to mention "Saving Private Ryan" and "A Midnight Clear." Its Oscar for B&W Cinematography is well-deserved (combined with some excellent production and art design), given that it was shot almost entirely on a sound stage, but less so for its screenplay, which although good, is far from great, spending far too much time introducing characters with little depth, despite the veneer of idiosyncratic anecdote applied to them. Still, "Battleground" is better than many war films of the period, such as the uber-patriotic "Sands of Iwo Jima," a badly dated John Wayne vehicle. The ensemble cast works well together, with an obvious stand-out performance by James "The Shawshank Redemption" Whitmore as the platoon's grizzled sergeant. The film's "fog of war" perspective of small-unit action is commendable, as is its refusal to do much moralizing (with the exception of a chaplain's exhortation at film's end which seems to be more of a not-so-veiled pronouncement against the new bogeyman of communism than anything else); "Battleground" was one of the first post-WWII films to convey a genuine sense of the "dogface" experience. Recommended, with the caveat that the film is very much a reflection of its time.

It's rare to encounter a movie in this genre where most of the actors aren't obviously "acting." The cast, for the most part, seem to really live their part and know their stuff. The equipment, tactics, behavior, and language seems authentic and natural, not forced. That former members of the 101 Airborne helped train the cast really shines through.I appreciated how the movie didn't pull punches regarding the horrors of war. A character with a pleasing personality is just as likely to get killed as an "extra," and nobody comes across as being "bullet-proof." If your number's up, it's up, regardless of your "family back home" story. The wide variety of ages who fought in the war is nicely represented, as well. Memorable characters, with weaknesses not glossed over.The most realistic, naturally acted scene in the entire movie could have easily been cut, but I'm so glad it wasn't. The chaplain scene. So much was said, and not all of it with words. I won't spoil it, you'll know it when you see it.