Cheap Battle of the Bulge (Video) (Ken Annakin) Price

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Customer Reviews of Battle of the Bulge

One of the Worst War Movies Ever
The other customers are WAY too kind in their reviews of this turkey. The multitude of inaccuracies and exaggerations in this movie might be forgiven if they weren't further compounded by more drawbacks: wooden, cliched characters (Henry Fonda's); worn-out storylines (James MacAruthur's); corny dialogue . . . For the incredible all-star cast, the acting is, well, OVERacting. <
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>I liked this thing as a kid but it's almost unwatchable for me now. It looks even worse compared to more modern productions, especially Saving Priate Ryan. <
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>For a far more realistic, gripping, and intelligent film on the Battle of the Bulge, watch the 1949 classic, Battleground. One of the most underrated war films ever.

Triumph of storyline over historical accuracy
The "Battle of the Bulge" is a big budget war movie predating "Patton" and made long before the CGI-assisted ultra-realistic films like "Saving Private Ryan". It largely succeeds in presenting a decent set of basic characters with some thematic elements to make a reasonably interesting retelling of a fairly complex and prolonged event, namely Hitler's last gasp gamble to fend off defeat on the Western Front in December 1944. Unlike "Midway" (a terrible film), Henry Fonda is given some interesting things to do, and we get to see Telly Sevales before his comedic reprise in "Kelly's Heroes." <
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>It's important to understand that "Bulge" really focuses (using some fictional reference points) on the several opening days of the campaign when a single panzer knifed through the Monshau Gap and achieved an early penetration before being stopped in the rugged hill country well north of Bastogne. The most famous and dramatic episode is only briefly touched on, which was the enirclement of th 101st Airborne at Bastogne by the Fifth Panzer Army (superbly depicted in the middle sections of HBO's "Band of Brotthers") The film gives the impression that the battle at most last a week; in fact, some of the hardest fighting occurred throughout January 1945 as American forces struggled to reduce the bulge. <
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>High points: "Panzerlied" (you will hum this for days to the alarm of your friends) and the "Trojan Horse" German paratroopers who created havoc in rear areas. (The movie does not show the summary execution of the paratroopers caught with American uniforms). The soundtrack is good (really good on home theater) as is the opening battle sequence of tanks storming through the snowy forest. And the " chocolate cake" scene. <
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>Flaws: A few. The Germans get big American tanks, [probably M-48s), the American get little ones. The model work is haphazard; the scene of the model German tank poking its barrel into a model railroad tunnel and blowing up an HO train is laughable. Most of the movie involves, as it should, hills, forests and deep snow, and then when the climatic tank battle occurs using real tanks, it takes place in.... a sagebrush, flat, snow-less desert. Huh? That doesn't like like Belgium to me. And while fun to watch, no self-respecting panzer general is going to line up all his tanks hub to hub to bombard a town, no matter how cool it looks. <
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>It was not necessary to cut corners on equipment: the later "Kelly's Heroes", a WW2 comedy, used real Shermans (lots of countries still used them back then) and some nicely simulated Tigers. If you are going to do a movie based on a tank battle, try harder. I am just not being "nerdular" about this. <
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>So, fun poopcorn fare, but in need of a serious remake if one does not count Band of Brothers. The HD version simply emphasises the flaws. <
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