Battle of the Bulge
Directed by Ken Annakin
Written by Philip Yordan, Milton Sperling, and John Melson
1965/USA
United States Pictures/Cinerama Productions Corp.
First viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] Col. Martin Hessler: They have the fuel and planes to fly Cake over the Atlantic Ocean. Do you know what this means?[/box]
Building on the success of The Longest Day (1962), this movie is long on star power, explosions, and Cinerama moments and short on story.
By its own admission, this is a “generalized” and “synthesized” version of the last German offensive of WWII. Col. Hessler (Robert Shaw) is ordered to launch an all-out attack on American forces with his Panzer division. He has only 50 hours before his tanks will run out of fuel. In the meantime, intrepid surveillance officer Lt. Col. Dan Kiley (Henry Fonda) attempts to warn the brass of the impending battle but is not believed. All hell breaks loose. With Robert Ryan and Dana Andrews as Fonda’s superiors and Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, and James MacArthur as soldiers.
This film was denounced by former President (and Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during WW2) Eisenhower soon after its release in a press conference due to its glaring historical inaccuracies. For one thing, it completely omits the major role the British Army played in the fighting. For another, it was shot on Spain in terrain vastly different than that encountered by the participants.
Leaving that aside, the film is almost three hours of footage in search of a story or compelling characters. On the other hand, if you are in the mood for explosions and awesome Cinerama visions of approaching tanks you could do far worse. Shaw’s performance as a hardened Nazi warrior is the highlight of the performances.
