Worth Watching: Battleground (1949)

John Nolte of Big Hollywood recently examined how Hollywood responded to cynicism about war, once upon a time, with a discussion of CASABLANCA (1942) and BATTLEGROUND (1949).

BATTLEGROUND is William Wellman's story of the Battle of the Bulge, with a superb cast including Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, James Whitmore, George Murphy, Don Taylor, and many more.
I recently recorded it during TCM's tribute to Ricardo Montalban, but haven't watched it myself yet.

However, Nolte has a clip as part of his piece which was so familiar I'm sure I've seen it during shows on World War II. In the video Leon Ames, as a chaplain, movingly speaks about the value of what the freezing soldiers are doing and leads them in prayer. I highly recommend checking it out; it'll make you want to watch the entire film.

Click the title of this post to read Nolte's piece and watch the video.

I think I might get the DVD for my teenage son's birthday in a couple months; it's currently only $7.50 at Deep Discount.

BATTLEGROUND has also had a release on VHS.

2017 Update: BATTLEGROUND is now available on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive. My review of the Blu-ray is here.