World War II had been over for four years and the public wanted to forget.  There was no appetite for war movies.  That was the conventional wisdom in 1949 when Dore Schary was trying to convince RKO and later, MGM, to make Battleground.  Eventually, the film was made and became one of the most popular and endearing war films ever made.

As the film begins, we are introduced to a squad drilling at a camp “somewhere in France.”  Two replacements admire the professionalism and precision of the squad.  That night in their tent, the squad welcomes back a member (Van Johnson as Holley) who has been recovering in Paris from a wound but they are not as welcoming to their new replacement Layton.  We learn a little bit about every member of the squad during this tent scene.  Most of them are planning on leave in Paris the next morning.  The next morning, they are awoken to the news that they are making a move to the front to stop a German breakthrough.  The squad arrives in a town where they take shelter in a house with a woman and two children.  The shot pans right to tell the town is Bastogne.

The next morning, the squad is ordered to move up to the front line.  They begin digging in only to learn they have been ordered to move and start all over.  This begins a series of events during which the squad’s situation continues to worsen.  They face German probes, patrols, and assaults.  They experience Germans disguised as Americans slipping through the lines.  For much of this time, they do not even know where they are but, eventually, they learn they are in Belgium and are surrounded in the critical road junction of Bastogne.  The squad is slowly reduced in size through combat, illness, and combat fatigue. Finally, the weather clears and the remnants of the squad move to the rear, resuming the drill cadence they displayed at the beginning of the film. 

For its time, Battleground was gritty and realistic.  The film never really questions the heroism of the soldiers but does show them near their breaking point.  They have been through Normandy and Market Garden and they are homesick.  They gripe about always being the ones who get the dirty jobs.  Many of them experience a moment of panic or weakness during the film.  Bettis (Richard Jaeckel) flees to the rear when the shelling starts and ends up pulling kitchen duty in Bastogne.  Holley panics and flees a German attack.  It is only when Layton follows him that he comes back and leads a flanking attack that wins the fight for the squad.  This type of realism was never a part of war movies until Battleground but became far more common in later films. 

The characters in Battleground are diverse and interesting and there are some great performances by the actors portraying them.  Two stand out.  Marshall Thompson plays Layton, the replacement who is excited to join the elite squad but finds himself ignored by the other members.  Gradually, he works his way to acceptance.  James Whitmore earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his portrayal of Kinnie, the tough sergeant who leads the squad yells the cadence while they march.  

Battleground is full of enjoyable moments highlight the members of the squad.  Holley obtains some eggs but cannot seem to catch a break as he tries to cook and eat them.  Eventually, they are destroyed by an enemy shell.  Rodrigues from Los Angeles shows childlike excitement when he experiences snow for the first time.  When he is wounded later in the film, he takes shelter beneath a destroyed jeep that is half-buried in the snow.  Abner from Texas has a silly song for every situation and says “That’s for sure.  That’s for dang sure” whenever he agrees with someone.  This drives Jarvis crazy.  Kippton constantly clicks his dentures when making a point. 

Battleground is an essential film for anyone who enjoys war movies.  It tells the story of an important historic event in a realistic fashion.  It shows how a group of soldiers with diverse backgrounds can come together as comrades in a citizen army.  It portrays soldiers at their best and their worst.  The combat scenes are as good as they could be given the Hollywood code and the lack of CGI.  It is still worth watching today.