Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Battleground Blu-ray Movie Review

The Real Fog of War

Reviewed by Michael Reuben January 15, 2017

Howard Hughes didn't want to make Battleground at RKO, and Louis B. Mayer didn't want to make it at MGM. Both studio heads were convinced that, by 1949, audiences had wearied of films about World War II. But producer Dore Schary, newly installed as MGM's head of production, was determined to make the movie as a prospective antidote to the disillusionment that had set in after the previous world conflict, when doubts arose about whether it had been worth the sacrifice to send American soldiers to fight and die overseas (a sentiment eloquently expressed in King Vidor's The Big Parade, to name one example). Schary, who was never shy about mixing filmmaking with a political agenda, wanted to remind viewers why America joined the fight against fascism and why that battle had to be fought. At the same time, he wanted to acknowledge the contributions of the ordinary soldier, just as John Ford honored the contributions of lowly PT boat crews in 1945's They Were Expendable. Working with combat veteran Robert Pirosh (who would later help create the classic TV series Combat!), Schary set out to develop a battlefield saga that cannily anticipates the celebration of World War II fighters encapsulated in the title of Tom Brokaw's book, The Greatest Generation, published half a century later.

Schary's devotion to the project was rewarded with box office success that gave MGM its highest grossing film in five years. Battleground was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning for Pirosh's screenplay and for the expressive black-and-white cinematography by Paul Vogel (another war veteran). The film is part of the MGM library acquired by Warner, and it is being released by the Warner Archive Collection as its first title of 2017.

The film's opening text sets the stage and, in effect, summarizes the entire plot:

"Bastogne must be taken. Otherwise it will remain an abscess on our line of communication. We must clean out Bastogne and then move on." —General Heinrich von Lüttwitz, 47th Panzer Corps

This story is about, and dedicated to, those Americans who met General Heinrich von Lüttwitz and his 47 Panzer Corps and won for themselves the honored and immortal name—"The Battered Bastards of Bastogne."

Battleground is set during the so-called "Battle of the Bulge", which lasted from December 1944 through January 1945 and constituted the Nazis' last-ditch attempt to turn back the Allied advance after the Normandy invasion on D-Day. But the soldiers who populate the film have never even heard of "the Bulge" until they read about it in Stars and Stripes. They only know that they've been told to hold a series of positions near the Belgian town of Bastogne, where seven major roads converge, making the locale a potential choke hold on the Allies' supply routes. With a dense fog preventing any possibility of air support, these men of the 101st Airborne Division must cope with dwindling rations, freezing temperatures, recurrent shelling from German artillery and Nazi infiltration units dressed as G.I.'s (and, in some cases, speaking perfect English). They also have to endure these hardships without the comfort of knowing their commanders' overall strategy or whether they're winning or losing. About the only thing of which they can be certain is that, as soon as they finish gouging foxholes out of the frozen earth, they are likely to receive orders to relocate somewhere else where they'll have to dig in anew.

Pirosh's script assembles an array of personalities, many of whom are recognizable archetypes from the genre, but all of whom register as distinctive individuals. Jim Layton (Marshall Thompson) is the new arrival, who serves as the eyes and ears of the audience. Sgt. Kinnie (James Whitmore) is the platoon leader whose cynical banter effectively covers his self-doubt. ("Me and General McAulliffe decided to move I Company up on the line", he says, relaying new orders to the company). Pvt. Hansan (Herbert Anderson) has left his watch set to the local time in his hometown of Springfield, Illinois, so that he can imagine what's happening there at any given moment. "Pop" Stazak (George Murphy) has just received special dispensation to return home for a family emergency, but after fog and the German advance prevent his departure, he bitterly jokes about his new status as a "civilian". Pvt. Jarvess (John Hodiak) is a newspaperman from Chicago, who is used to knowing what's happening in the world and can't conceal his frustration at being constantly in the dark ("I guarantee you my wife knows what's going on in Bastogne. All I know is what's going on in the 2nd squad of the 3rd platoon of I Company"). Pvt. Roderigues (Ricardo Montalban) is a Los Angeles native, who is transported when snow descends on the squad, because he's never seen it before. "Kipp" Kipton has had all his teeth replaced with a set of dentures, which he keeps losing; when they're in, they clack constantly, either from cold or from nerves. Holley (Van Johnson) flirts with a woman in town (Denise Darcel) before stealing the eggs from her chicken coop; his frustrated efforts to cook scrambled eggs in his helmet are an extended gag—and also a reminder of how desperate these soldiers are to get something to eat other than Army rations.

Pirosh's script and William Wellman's (Wings) fluid direction shuffle these disparate personalities (and many more) on and off the screen while the members of I Company do what constitutes so much of a soldier's activity, which is to sit and wait. Battleground captures the degree to which combat involves long stretches of boredom and inactivity, which the men do their best to fill with small talk, stories of home, acerbic commentary and (when they're lucky) mail deliveries. Gunfire and explosions erupt abruptly and end just as quickly, and after the dead and wounded have been accounted for, the waiting begins anew. At one point or another, every member of the squad panics. As Jarvess reassures a fellow solider who confesses to being scared: "You just joined the biggest club in the army. Everybody belongs."

Wellman shot Battleground almost entirely on soundstages artfully constructed to simulate the wintry conditions in the dense forest of the Ardennes, and he used veterans of the 101st Airborne Division as both extras and technical advisors to ensure authenticity. (I Company itself is a fictitious squad.) The result is a remarkably effective ground-level re-creation of how groups of ordinary men won a difficult battle simply by holding out and watching each other's backs. The film begins and ends with a sequence of soldiers marching in formation. The early group is performing a routine drill at an Allied base, and they march in lockstep with perfect synchronization. The later group limps and staggers after enduring long days in the frozen woods—but they're still in formation.

Battleground Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Battleground's original camera negative was one of the many lost in 1978 when a fire swept through the storage vaults of the George Eastman House. For this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, the Warner Archive Collection undertook an extensive restoration project to recapture the full impact of cinematographer Paul Vogel's (High Society) Oscar-winning black-and-white photography. A second-generation fine-grain safety master was scanned at 4K in an effort to extract every possible iota of picture information from a less-than-optimal source. Extensive cleanup and digital repair took over a year to complete. The resulting image reflects a truly astonishing level of clarity and fine detail, given the compromised source. Snowflakes, pine needles, the soldiers' grizzled features and even the texture of the frozen ground are rendered with remarkable immediacy. Both blacks and fine shades of gray are superbly realized, lending depth and scale to the image. The occasional inserts of archival footage taken by combat photographers (see screenshot 23) have a soft indistinctness that only emphasizes the vivid sharpness of Vogel's photography and WAC's restoration.

The film's grain pattern is well resolved, although the grain is somewhat coarser and more pronounced than usual on WAC's Blu-rays because of source limitations. There is also an occasional overlay of video noise that is probably a by-product of scanning a compromised element at high resolution. Fortunately, no filtering or noise reduction appears to have been applied. The disc has been authored at WAC's usual high average bitrate, specifically 34.99 Mbps.

Battleground Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Battleground's mono soundtrack has been encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. The source is a so-called "safety track positive" made from the nitrate track negative in the 1960s as part of MGM's early preservation efforts. Audio cleanup has removed any pops, clicks or other distortions, and hiss is almost entirely absent. The dynamic range is limited by the source, but it is sufficient to render aircraft, artillery and weapons fire effectively. The dialogue is clearly articulated. Battleground has almost no underscoring, but what little it has is credited to Lennie Hayton, who was MGM's music director at the time.

Battleground Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The extras have been ported over from Warner's 2004 DVD of Battleground and remastered in 1080p. The Blu-ray adds the film's trailer (also in 1080p).

• Little Rural Riding Hood (1080p; 1.37:1; 6:18): This 1949 MGM cartoon is Tex Avery's take on the classic fairy tale. In this version, the wolf is more amorous than hungry.



• Let's Cogitate (1080p; 1.37:1; 8:00): This 1948 short is one of a series narrated by the nasal-toned mockery of Pete Smith. It's a collection of comic sketches linked by questions that begin with "Have you ever wondered . . . ?"



• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1.37:1; 1:58): The trailer notably includes behind-the-scenes shots of the cast and crew at work, and it cleverly concludes with the crowd-pleasing exchange between a German officer offering terms for an Allied retreat and an American colonel delivering General McAuliffe's unequivocal reply.

Battleground Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Battleground's single most dramatic scene doesn't involve combat. It's a short sermon by a chaplain who tries to answer for his frost-bitten audience what he calls "the $64 question": Was this trip necessary? The chaplain's response has an elegant clarity that cuts through the fog, and it encapsulates the message that the film's producer wanted to convey. Almost seventy years later, we are still searching for a similar kind of clarity in an increasingly complex world, but Battleground reminds us of a time when a vast cross-section of Americans united in a dangerous but essential crusade. Highly recommended.