Such a frustrating disappointment

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Many reviews here mention the seeming tragedy that this film has been 'forgotten' or 'underappreciated' by the public...and I have to say...'it's forgotten for a reason'...and the reason is, it's just not that good. As another reviewer mentioned, there is much discussion in the film about frivolous things like homemade pie, the token southern guy with the twang/accent and various minutia from the home front. And....that's about 90% of this colossal bore. It's one thing to develop the characters, it's another to devote the entire film to said 'development' (which, I have to say, was ineffective anyway. Who really cares about the guy constantly chattering with his false teeth? This is supposed to be funny? Try tedious and juvenile)."Battleground" trades as a war film (read the film's title again), but it's as much a war film as "Macbeth" is a murder mystery. It's not a war film. It's more like "A day in the life" drama that happens to be set in Bastogne in December '44. And they picked a rather sappy group of schleps to profile, unfortunately. I found almost none of these characters interesting in the least; no heroes, no villains, almost no one with whom I can relate, or even sympathize; just a bunch of lackluster stiffs. The character played by Ricardo Montalban was really the only one I found to be genuine, personable or relatable.The film won an Oscar for B&W cinematography, which was quite good I have to say. But did anyone else notice the 'snow' often looked more like white sand than it did snow? As this was filmed on a sound stage, I'm sure it was sand. Anyone who has walked in both snow and sand knows the difference in textures, and this was not snow. Also, if it is so bitterly cold, where is the condensation when the men breathe? It was not there, for the scenes either indoors or out, which gives the film another serious hit on the 'realism' front.The film is not all bad, it has some moments. It reminded me of "Destination Tokyo," another 'war film' heavy on character development at the expense of plot that bordered on criminal. And like "Tokyo," it's not terrible but it's certainly not memorable. I can safely put it on the 'don't care to ever see this again' list. 6/10.

Several of the reviews posted here are written by people who were actually active in the Infantry and without exception they attest to its authenticity. I'm happy to take their word. One of director Wellman's main achievements is to create, on an MGM sound-stage, the feel of winter on the French-Belgian border in 1944. The cast work extremely well as an ensemble and although Van Johnson - basically the only big 'name' at the time gets both a top credit and the lion's share of screen time everyone, including Leon Ames who, as a chaplain in the last couple of reels, has probably less screen time than Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, James Whitmore et al, pulls his weight and honours are evenly divided. A fine addition to the canon of war movies.

The black and white photography, simplicity, cast, acting and writing make this one of my favorite war films. It's the little things that make this film great. Screenwriter Robert Pirosh based this story on his experiences as an infantryman during the Battle of the Bulge. As a Vietnam War veteran, this film captures World War II and the era in a realistic manner. I have rarely seen a film where every actor was good as in Battleground. The standout performance, though all were outstanding, was James Whitmore, who was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Battleground was nominated for Best Picture of 1950 and could very well have won if it were not for "All the Kings Men," regarded by some as one of the best films ever made. William Wellman's direction was superb and he was an Oscar nominee. Battleground has a rare quality of being a well written drama made into a great film. Pirosh won an Oscar for Best Screen Play. Interestingly, another of my top 10 war films, "Twelve O'Clock High" with Gregory Peck was also nominated in 1950 for Best Picture of the Year. Peck's performance was Oscar worthy but Best Actor went to Broderick Crawford in "All the King's Men". 1950 was quite a year for outstanding war films as John Wayne was nominated for Best Actor for "Sands of Iwo Jima."

Dedicated to the battered bastards of Bastogne, this major player in the war film genre is directed by William Wellman & tells the story of a U.S. Army division involved in what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. The terrific cast features George Murphy, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, Van Johnson and James Whitmore. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and won two: one for Robert Pirosh's bold and fluctuating screenplay and one for Paul Vogel's realism inducing black-and-white cinematography.Battleground is an important war film in many ways. Coming as it did at the tail end of the 40s, it was not required to be a flag waving morale booster for a country at war. Free of this burden, Wellman & Pirosh {an actual veteran of the Bastogne engagement}, crafted a grunts eye view of the war. Forcing us the viewers to spend the whole of the movie with one army squad {the 101st Airborne Divsion}, we get to know them, their fears & peccadilloes etc. Pirosh cleverly telling it as it was, scared men doing their duty. It's that we have been with them as their persona's have been laid bare, that makes the battle sequences even more potent. The jokes have stopped, the camaraderie and harmless rivalries replaced by men crying for their mothers or in some mud hole fighting for their lives. This snow covered, and fog shrouded part of Belgium a bleak canvas for the harshness of war {amazingly shot on the lot}. It's a stunningly structured film, one that doesn't resort to type, it subverts the many war film plot developments that are rife in genre pieces that both preceded and came post its release.The cast are uniformly strong, and all get get ample time to impact on the narrative. Something that isn't always the case with ensemble pieces. Somebody else was strong too, Producer Dore Schary, who had to fight an unconvinced Louis B. Mayer {MGM head man} to get the film made. Schary's faith in the piece was rewarded as the film became a critical darling and a box office winner. It's not hard to see why for this is a realistic and gritty look at the hardships of war and those that fought in it. Influencing many that followed it by entertaining without gusto histrionics, Battleground is still very much a template war film. 8.5/10