![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
New Years - Battle of the Bulge Edition
Jan. 1st, 2021 10:10 amWhen I was a small boy, too young to stay at home by myself, my parents went out for New Year's Eve. I stayed with my grandparents. For some reason, WGN seemed to think that the movie The Battle of the Bulge was the thing to show. When the (shortened for TV) movie was over, they'd cut to a hotel ballroom where Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians would ring in the New Year in the Central Time Zone. Guy's long dead, but I decided to revise the tradition and watch Battle of the Bulge last night. As history, it's not very good, even by Hollywood standards. As a movie it's quite good.
Let's get the history out of the way first. The movie was filmed in Spain, so even when they remember to put snow on the ground it doesn't look very much like Belgium. Also, they couldn't get Sherman or King Tiger tanks, so they used American tanks, specifically M-24 Chafees (which were at least around in WWII) and post-war M47 Pattons with German markings painted on them. All the tanks were provided with drivers and support crew by the Spanish Army from their then-current inventory.
Composite characters are used, which for the Germans obfuscates moral responsibility for the Malmedy massacre. Lastly, the plot makes it look like the Germans were much closer to victory then they were. This point is probably what caused Dwight Eisenhower to come out of retirement and hold a news conference complaining about the movie. To be fair, the moviemakers knew they weren't filming history - there's a written disclaimer in the end credits.
But as a piece of entertainment, the movie was quite good. Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw and Charles Bronson chewed a lot of scenery, Telly Savalas (who got special billing in the credits) played a fairly complex character and the (albeit historically inaccurate) battle scenes were well done. My on-demand copy was the long version that played in theaters, and included a pre-credit musical overture, a musical intermission, and a musical "exit music" after the final credits. Overall, an interesting way to see out the year 2020.
Let's get the history out of the way first. The movie was filmed in Spain, so even when they remember to put snow on the ground it doesn't look very much like Belgium. Also, they couldn't get Sherman or King Tiger tanks, so they used American tanks, specifically M-24 Chafees (which were at least around in WWII) and post-war M47 Pattons with German markings painted on them. All the tanks were provided with drivers and support crew by the Spanish Army from their then-current inventory.
Composite characters are used, which for the Germans obfuscates moral responsibility for the Malmedy massacre. Lastly, the plot makes it look like the Germans were much closer to victory then they were. This point is probably what caused Dwight Eisenhower to come out of retirement and hold a news conference complaining about the movie. To be fair, the moviemakers knew they weren't filming history - there's a written disclaimer in the end credits.
But as a piece of entertainment, the movie was quite good. Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw and Charles Bronson chewed a lot of scenery, Telly Savalas (who got special billing in the credits) played a fairly complex character and the (albeit historically inaccurate) battle scenes were well done. My on-demand copy was the long version that played in theaters, and included a pre-credit musical overture, a musical intermission, and a musical "exit music" after the final credits. Overall, an interesting way to see out the year 2020.