Battle of the Bulge (film)
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| Battle of the Bulge | |
|---|---|
 Original movie poster |
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| Directed by | Ken Annakin |
| Produced by | Sidney Harmon Milton Sperling Philip Yordan |
| Written by | Bernard Gordon John Melson Milton Sperling Philip Yordan |
| Starring | Henry Fonda Robert Shaw Robert Ryan |
| Music by | Benjamin Frankel |
| Cinematography | Jack Hildyard |
| Distributed by | Warner Brothers |
| Release date(s) | December 16, 1965 |
| Running time | 167 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Battle of the Bulge is a war film released in 1965. It was directed by Ken Annakin. It starred Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Telly Savalas, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews and Charles Bronson. Axel Anderson plays a minor role in the film.
Battle of the Bulge had its world premiere on 16 December 1965 at the Pacific Cinerama Dome Theater in Hollywood, California. The feature was filmed in Ultra Panavision 70 and exhibited in 70 mm Cinerama.
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[edit] Plot summary
A Hollywood film inspired by, but not very faithful to, the World War II Battle of the Bulge. A Panzer brigade, led by the fictional Colonel Hessler (played by Shaw), leads a German last-ditch secret counter-attack against the Allied front in the heavily wooded Ardennes Sector of Belgium/Luxembourg. An American Intelligence officer (played by Fonda) tries in vain to persuade his superiors of the German intentions. The Americans are surprised, with heavy casualties. Hessler's initial success ends as his unit runs out of gas. German commandos dressed as American soldiers (Operation Greif) are portrayed in the film, as well as the Malmedy massacre of American POWs.
[edit] Historical accuracy
Compared to more modern World War II dramatizations, such as Band of Brothers, the movie does not provide an accurate historical record of the battle. All the characters portrayed in the movie are fictional. Some, like Shaw's character, are based on real individuals.
The battle scenes—mostly set pieces between masses of armor—though exciting, are not accurate, except for showing how the German King Tiger tanks were superior to the American M4 Sherman tanks. But the Tigers are actually portrayed by American M47 Patton tanks, which weren't developed until the Korean War, and the Shermans are portrayed by M24 Chaffee Light Tanks, only two of which type ever appeared in the actual battle. Nonetheless, producer Milton Sperling, in a 1965 television interview (included as part of History Recreated, one of the special features on the 2005 Battle of the Bulge DVD from Warner Video), gives a different impression. When asked, "Where did you manage to find all the authentic equipment that you use in the film," Sperling answers:
- Well, we had to scour Europe for this. There are places where such tanks do exist, you know—sometimes in junkyards, sometimes in existing armies, and sometimes just by chance one finds a cache of tanks, guns, old planes, and various other relics of World War II. We managed to assemble these great numbers of tanks you saw in the film after looking about for months and months. We found both the German tanks, still relics of World War II, and American tanks, which are sometimes still used by our own forces. So what you see on the screen are truly the tanks that were fought in the Battle of the Bulge and throughout the Western Front and on the Russian Front in World War II.
All "American" vehicles in the movie are painted in Spanish army camouflage schemes whereas U.S. vehicles in 1944 were generally painted in olive drab monotone schemes. "German" vehicles are painted in a light grey scheme, which was inaccurate for any period during World War II.
Shaw's character seems to be inspired by Joachim Peiper, but is portrayed as a Heer officer. Peiper was an officer of the Waffen-SS. Likewise, while Shaw's character is shown near the beginning reviewing German tanks and crews from his tank, a scene based on a World War II German newsreel showing a German Panzer officer reviewing tanks and crewmen, the actual officer survived the war. Shaw's character may also have been influenced by one of the film's technical advisors, the Heer officer Major General Meinrad von Lauchert, who had been put in command of the German 2nd Panzer Division the day before the attack was launched.
The film was made in Spain, and some of its battle scenes take place on open, rolling plains in bright sunshine. The historical battle, however, took place in poor weather in winter (December/January) in one of Europe's most dense forests, where roads liquified under the tanks' tracks, and armored units were forced to march in vulnerable one-vehicle lanes which some of the opening battle scenes reflect.
Heroic stands by small platoons of American troops, and to a much larger extent, the holding of the strategic crossroads town of Bastogne by the U.S. 101st Airborne Division, greatly hindered the ultimate success of the German offensive. However, these events are only briefly shown in the movie.
The film simplifies the outcome of the battle to the Germans' desperate shortage of fuel, which was only partly responsible for the Germans ultimate demise. Absent from this movie's version of events are three rather significant facts that weighed heavily in the final outcome of the battle. The first is General Patton's U.S. Third Army relieving the encircled crossroads town of Bastogne, which would break the German supply line. The second being the weather greatly improved, which allowed the previously grounded (due to fog & snow) Allied air forces to attack anything that moved on the ground, and destroy or immobilize it, which they did to great effect. The third being the contibution of the British Army. During the battle Bradley decided to reorganize the defence and gave Montgomery command of some US units which, with 29th (British) Armoured Brigade and elements of Horrocks XXX Corps, held the Meuse river. British casualties were 1,400 (200 killed).
[edit] References in popular culture
John McClane references the film in Die Hard with a Vengeance. Simon Gruber's (Jeremy Irons) use of English-speaking Germans to steal gold parallels Hitler's Operation Greif, depicted in The Battle of the Bulge.
[edit] External links
- Marcus Wendel (14 May 2006), "Heer Units". Viewed December 26, 2006.
