Credit:Amazon.com
Director:
John G. Avildsen
Cast
Henry Fonda …. Lt. Col. Daniel Kiley
Robert Shaw …. Col. Martin Hessler
Robert Ryan …. Gen. Grey
Dana Andrews …. Col. Pritchard
George Montgomery …. Sgt. Duquesne
Ty Hardin …. Lt. Schumacher
Pier Angeli …. Louise
Barbara Werle …. Elena
Charles Bronson …. Maj. Wolenski
Hans Christian Blech …. Cpl. Conrad
Werner Peters …. Gen. Kohler
James MacArthur …. Lt. Weaver
Karl-Otto Alberty …. Maj. von Diepel (as Karl Otto Alberty)
Telly Savalas …. Sgt. Guffy
Steve Rowland …. Eddy
Robert Woods …. Joe (Kiley’s pilot)
The Movie
War Films of the 1950’s and 1960’s were always notable for their huge casts. Film’s such as The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far featured huge casts of notable stars such as John Wayne, Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford, Anthony Hopkins, and others. Showcasing such huge battles as the D-Day Invasion and Operation Market Garden, studios pulled in audiences with an overabundance of recognizable faces. Battle of the Bulge is in the same mold of these films.
Set near the end of World War II, America believes the back of Nazi Germany is nearly broken. Troops at the frontlines are young and inexperienced. No new information has been gained from interrogating prisoners. All indications are that the boys on the front lines will be home by Christmas. Only one man has his doubts about the situation. Lt. Col. Daniel Kiley (Henry Fonda) still believes that the Germans are planning one last major assault. He of course is laughed at and is threatened with demotion.
The front lines become chaos when Kiley is proven right. Nazi Col. Martin Hessler (Robert Shaw) leads the assault in a huge wave of tanks, killing everything in its wake. To make matters worse, the Nazis have infiltrated American ranks by Para trooping German soldiers in American. By undermining American forces from within, the German commandos are able to stir up chaos where ever they go and also keep the Nazi tank convoy on the march.
Fighting the good fight is Charles Bronson as Maj. Wolenski. Even with the huge numbers against him and his men falling all around, Wolenski keeps trucking. Fighting beside him is Henry Fonda’s Col. Kiley, desperately trying to figure out a weakness to massive Nazi Tank assault. Helping and providing comic relief is Telly Savalas’ Sgt. Guffy, who is scavenger when not driving his tank against enemy forces.
Things look bleak for Allied forces until Kiley finally comes up with the weakness in the German offensive. The Germans are desperately low on fuel and can only keep on the offensive for so long. If the Allies can keep the Germans busy until then, the Allies will have a clear chance for victory.
The Battle of the Bulge suffers the same problems of other war epics of its day. Instead a tight story with a ton of suspense and hard hitting action like The Guns of Navarone or The Dirty Dozen, the film tells a sprawling story where each star is so big, it’s actually kind of distracting. Also, with such a big cast no one gets enough screen time to really develop their characters. Everyone comes off as heroic or cowardly, or maybe cowardly then heroic, but that’s really all you get. The film relies too heavily on our preconceived notions of the characters going in instead of giving the actors real material to work with.
Henry Fonda comes out of the picture looking better than anyone else, but doesn’t really shine as he does in films such as My Darling Clementine and Once Upon a Time in the West. You just know his character is a good man because he’s being played by Henry Fonda. Charles Bronson’s performance is quite solid, but once again he doesn’t get enough screen time. When Bronson does finally get a monologue and chance to emote, the moment rings a bit false due to the miniscule amount of character development up to that point in the film. The film requires you to kind of associate this role with every other Bronson role up to that point such as The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven. Robert Shaw is good as the Nazi Commander, but also does far better in other films. Shaw had played the main villain in From Russia with Love a couple of years before this, and his character here is basically a reprisal of Red Grant.
Another problem with the film is the pace. Instead of being really engrossed in its story, Battle of the Bulge lingers too long. If the film had been shortened, with less characters and more suspense it would be much more entertaining. Instead, the film is a lumbering giant, typical of its genre.
Also for some reason, the film has a lot of shots with actors against blue screen instead of on location. I know to some degree, this is typical of the time period, but this seems to be done in excess. Actors will be shown in one shot, and in the next it will be a close up against a blue screen background. This is quite jarring and distracting when trying to get into the film.
The film does have some bright spots. The film has some pretty impressive battle sequences for its time. The main highlight is a climactic tank battle, featuring seemingly 30 tanks shooting at each other. Today the sequence would be packed with CGI tanks, so its quite nice actual tanks going at it. Other sequences at the beginning of the assault are staged quite nicely. Unfortunately, this is all under cut by the film’s short comings. The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far had many of the same problems that this film suffers from, but had even more elaborate casts to attract attention.
Score: 5.0/10
The DVD:
The Video
The transfer on this DVD is pretty nice. The film is presented in a Letterbox 2.35:1. The colors are bright and the picture is pretty clear. It’s nothing to write home about and it’s certainly not as good as some of Warner Brothers’ special editions, such as The Adventures of Robin Hood or Casablanca, but its not bad either.
Score: 7.5/10
The Audio
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track is pretty nice. The battles wise and the spectacle seem quite vivid audio wise.
Score: 7.5/10
Score: 6/10
SPECIAL FEATURES: Two Vintage Featurettes: The Filming of Battle of the Bulge, History Recreated
The Filming of Battle of the Bulge: Featurettes of the day were never really very impressive. This is pretty standard stuff with cast and crew patting each other on the back as if this picture were the next Ben Hur.
History RecreatedThis one really falls flat as Battle of the Bulge is a bit notorious for not being very accurate. Apparently the film was disowned by former President Dwight D. Eisenhower for its inaccuracies.
Score: 4.5/10
