Eisenhower Came Out of Retirement to Denounce the Movie “Battle of the Bulge”

War History Online ^ | 29jul19 | Matthew Gaskill

[headstamp 2]

[[I don’t know whether it’s actually true, but I’ve read that the reason for the scads of star cameo roles in such movies was to give audiences easy reference points for fixing different units and missions in very large and complex operations. Makes sense to me. ]]

A number of them were over there filming Cleopatra and had a lot of down time with production delays. Roddy McDowell comes to mind and also Richard Burton. That’s what I’ve read anyway.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

The 1949 film Battleground is considered one of the best portrayals of the Battle of the Bulge. It is generally regarded as accurate. On top of that it is also a very good movie, winning two Academy Awards. James Whitmore steals the show. This movie comes around often, probably next showing will be Memorial Day weekend on TCM.

 

[Hardastarboard]

I watched The Battle of the Bulge just recently. I was telling friends I thought "The Panzer Lied" should be the official theme song of the Democrat Party. They should sing it at their next Presidential nominating convention (yeah, I know it's actually already "The Internationale", but "The Panzer Lied" is just so much more lively). Or maybe more appropriately "The Pant Suit Lied".

I hadn't noticed it before, but in my last viewing of the film, I had heard about historical inaccuracies, but didn't really much pay attention. It struck me that the movie really goes off the rails when it focuses solely on the Germans capturing that fuel depot. It's no longer about the Battle of the Bulge, and more about a generic, mediocre war movie.

[Dan in Wichita]

Although I have long been aware of the historical inaccuracies of the movie “Battle of the Bulge”, I still enjoyed it every time I watched it (maybe 3 times in my life). Robert Shaw was great, and the musical score was quite memorable, IMHO.

[norwaypinesavage]

I was born just a year after the end of WWII. I was among the first of the Baby Boomers. Thus, I learned little of WWII. The teachers had experienced it, so no teaching was necessary. It was too early for history books, so little was taught in history classes. My real exposure was talking to relatives, and movies. Relatives in the war said little. I mostly heard of the civilian activities at home.

I did learn from movies - "Battle of the Bulge", "Tora, Tora, Tora", "The Longest Day", etc., and replays of the B&W patriotic movies made during the war.

In my opinion, real action, using real tanks, real airplanes, and real vehicles, simply painted with enemy insignia, are vastly superior to the fake "Star Wars" type animations of recent remakes. So what if tank suspensions aren't "historically accurate". The actors will never be either. The stories are about the people, the real heroes, not the tablecloths.

[IronJack]

I suspect the movie wasn’t intended to be a documentary. Cinema in those days was much more stylized than today’s gritty “realism” school.

[a fool in paradise]

Woody Gutherie’s guitar didn’t “fight fascism” until after Pearl Harbor and prior to that, yes he stood with the US Communists in opposing the US entering that war.

[redfreedom]

“why is it we’ve never seen a movie about the anti-war protests from the Left in the US in the early 1940s?”

Interesting comment. I’ve heard much of it from elders, but seeing or hearing of it today just does not happen.

Also there was rampant socialism startups in the Great Depression. There were commune homes built with socialist style work groups created to live in them near by.

Our nation seems to cycle with socialist attempts. The one in the 30’s to early 40’s. The one now. It’s just our sense of history only knows about the current, and will always devalue the former. I think socialism had a greater grip on our nation back in the 30’s.

[4everontheRight]

Bookmark

[gbaker]

Telly Savalas character in Kelly’s Heroes was more accurate for a GI than his character in BotB. Heck KH had more accurate battles scenes in it for that matter.

[wally_bert]

He’s Telly after all.

[wally_bert]

I’ll give 60s Star Trek a break since it was low budget TV.

The History Channel when it was really good had things like movies through time where experts picked movies apart for accuracy.

[Vaquero]

Yeah. History channel till they focused on…

…This Guy!

[srmanuel]

Last May I went on a two week Band of Brothers Tour with Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours, a fantastic two weeks, Toccoa to England, Normandy, Holland, Belgium and end up in Berchtesgaden

[Political Junkie Too]

And, in this case, it was a free trip to Spain for everyone!

-PJ

[daler]

It’s my understanding that Ike walked out of The Longest Day after just a few minutes, due to its inaccuracies.

[Bartholomew Roberts]

I have tried to do some research on the subject of:

“Attacks/Fatalities of Allied Occupation Forces After the War in Europe and Japan”

But information is equally unavailable.

[Fiji Hill]

When I saw it, I wondered why the Germans were riding around in American tanks made after the war.

[DIRTYSECRET]

I’m good with the flick. Robert Shaw was great showing the mindset of those that were losing but were crazy enough to fight on. Charles Bronson confronting Col. Kessler. Kessler then explaining why it was wrong to kill prisoners at Malmady. Telly Savalas’s ‘don’t forget to feed the chickens’ love scene. James MacArthur coming of age as a young officer. I could go on.

[Spok]

War is a mixture of tedium and horror. The sounds, smells and sights cannot be duplicated in a theater. Even the memories of the participants are reconstructed by the mind to preserve their sanity, or they refuse to think or talk about the experience at all. If you don’t learn how to coexist with the demons they will destroy you. If you want to honor a veteran, thank him but ask no questions. He talk about it he wants to. Or not.