{"id":15214,"date":"2011-06-17T20:59:16","date_gmt":"2011-06-18T04:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=15214"},"modified":"2011-06-17T22:08:51","modified_gmt":"2011-06-18T06:08:51","slug":"battleground-william-wellman-1949-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=15214","title":{"rendered":"Battleground (William Wellman, 1949): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed on TCM.<\/p>\n

\"\" Battleground<\/a> <\/em>is\u00a0a true story of\u00a0the week long Siege of Bastogne in Belgium, which was held by U.S. troops\u00a0in the Battle of the Bulge, during WWII.<\/p>\n

It’s December 1944 and\u00a0just five months\u00a0shy\u00a0to\u00a0the end of the\u00a0conflict in Europe.\u00a0\u00a0Replacement recruits Layton (Marshall Thompson) and Hooper (Scotty Beckett),\u00a0are buddies stationed two hours from Paris in the 101st Airborne Division.\u00a0 Layton is enthusiastic about their deployment, but Hooper is cynical saying “there must be a\u00a0difference [in glider infantry] or they wouldn’t give you\u00a0extra pay,”\u00a0while complaining that he’s been assigned to “K Company.”<\/p>\n

Stationed with I Company, Layton fervently\u00a0looks for an empty cot and\u00a0stitches his Screaming Eagles badge to his jacket sleeve, while the seasoned men eagerly\u00a0talk of their anticipated leave in Paris the following day.\u00a0 Come morning to their dismay, they soon discover that leave has been cancelled, they’re ordered to\u00a0strip all\u00a0badges from their sleeves, and instructed to put on several pairs of pants since\u00a0they’re returning to the front lines.<\/p>\n

After an endless march, gas masks are tossed into a nearby ditch to lighten their load, and despite\u00a0numerous\u00a0orders to care for their masks properly,\u00a0it now seems pointless, and Layton is amongst those tossing his away.<\/p>\n

When\u00a0the\u00a0men\u00a0are\u00a0ambushed, the irreverent pfc. Holley (Van Johnson) immediately checks the eggs he has stolen from a farmhouse, just as a fellow soldier is shot beneath a crucifix.<\/p>\n

On this impromptu\u00a0mission at the outskirts of Bastogne, the squad is soon told to “dig in,” but being the odd man out, Layton must dig a foxhole for three.\u00a0\u00a0As cigarettes are passed around he’s pleased at being offered but declines, saying “I don’t smoke,” and just\u00a0when the\u00a0foxholes are finished, to their chagrin, the\u00a0men are ordered to pick up and move out.<\/p>\n

A thick fog rolls in\u00a0as Layton discovers that K Company is nearby, where he inquires after Hooper, as Holley attempts to cook his eggs in his hard helmet.\u00a0 Asking about Hooper, the men of K have never heard of him, until they realize that he “was the kid that got it last night.”\u00a0 Soon after, the men learn they are surrounded by the German Offensive.<\/p>\n

As time wears on for this ill equipped troop, they run short on food, ammo, and nerves in the bitter snow, and in a short time Layton learns to chain smoke, swig liquor from a bottle, and crack wise, in order to process the death of his comrades.<\/p>\n

Despite the\u00a0film being told through Layton’s eyes, he’s actually a subtle character, not prominent, and his story is really not much different from all the guys in his Company – starting out naive, and eager, and\u00a0ending up war weary.<\/p>\n

An outstanding film with a terrific\u00a0ensemble of John Hodiak, George Murphy, Ricardo Montalban, and James Whitmore; but make no mistake, the star of the film is the photography, where nearly every frame, which is beautifully shot, tells its own story.\u00a0 With superbly polished writing and directing, the drama\u00a0and action sequences are so evenly balanced, that one does not overpower the other – not easily accomplished in a war film.<\/p>\n

No surprise, the film earned two Oscars – Best Writing and Best Cinematography!<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed on TCM. Battleground is\u00a0a true story of\u00a0the week long Siege of Bastogne in Belgium, which was held by U.S. troops\u00a0in the Battle of the Bulge, during WWII. It’s December 1944 and\u00a0just five months\u00a0shy\u00a0to\u00a0the end of the\u00a0conflict in Europe.\u00a0\u00a0Replacement recruits Layton (Marshall Thompson) and Hooper (Scotty Beckett),\u00a0are buddies stationed two hours […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd","category-films","category-online-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}