Battle of the Bulge (1965)

lwpcolonel January 14, 2018

★ 5/10

This film is created out of composite characters, most notably Henry Fonda, as a Lt. Colonel in Intelligence and Robert Shaw, as a Panzer Brigade Commander supposedly just recalled from the Russian Front, where he was "losing the war there". According to the official account, the part Robert Shaw fictitiously portrayed wasn't the Colonel Hessler he was titled as, but; Joachim Peiper, and the following is from the official account; "The 6th Panzer Army included the elite of the Waffen-SS, including four Panzer divisions and five infantry divisions in three corps. SS-Obersturmbannführer Joachim Peiper led Kampfgruppe Peiper, consisting of 4,800 men and 600 vehicles, which was charged with leading the main effort. However, its newest and most powerful tank, the Tiger II heavy tank, consumed 3.8 litres (1 gal) of fuel to go 800 m (.5 mi), and the Germans had less than half the fuel they …

Wuchak March 21, 2019

★ 7/10

***Nazi Germany’s last gasp*** “Battle of the Bulge” (1965) depicts the last major German offensive on the Western Front from December 16 – January 25, 1944-1945. The action takes place at the intersection of Belgium, Germany, France and Luxembourg. American forces were thoroughly surprised by the German attack on the morning of December 16th and took the highest casualties of any operation during WW2. There are glaring inaccuracies, most notably the absence of Tiger and Sherman tanks, substituted by the US M47 Patton and M24 Chaffee. But the filmmakers had to use what was available to them in Spain in the non-CGI era of 1964. Speaking of the Spanish locations, some battle scenes were shot in flat, bare territory whereas the real locations, the Ardennes, were/are mountainous and forested. Thankfully, there are some sylvan sequences, as well as snowy ones, just not as much s…

CinemaSerf April 6, 2024

★ 6/10

It's far too long this, but otherwise isn't an half-bad wartime adventure that shows off Robert Shaw's ability to play a baddie with aplomb. He's "Col. Hessler", the commander of a Panzer tank division at a crucial stage towards the end of the war. With the Allies pressing every advantage, he must follow his faintly ridiculous orders and counter-attack - aiming to regain the port of Antwerp - against the well armed troops of "Gen. Grey" (Robert Ryan) who is being aided by his shrewd eye-in-the-sky "Col. Kiley" (Henry Fonda). This gent is very suspicious of the way the Nazis seem to have gone quiet. He knows they still have a formidable arsenal, and that one false step could see them becoming the target. "Hessler" has one vulnerability, though, and this is fuel. His tanks are superior and he has an element of surprise, but he must find petrol and "Kiley" knows this. The cat and mouse game…