67Dart273
Well-Known Member
Started with great fanfare, Henry Fonda, Robert Ryan, Robert Shaw, Charles Bronson, others. But it did not take long to "notice things." Terrain in the movie looked more like the SW US than the forests of the Ardun, (turns out it was Spain) and there was no snow and not much cold weather evident. So I looked it up........
Battle of the Bulge (1965 film) - Wikipedia
Battle of the Bulge is a 1965 American widescreen epic war film produced in Spain, directed by Ken Annakin, and starring Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Telly Savalas, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews, and Charles Bronson. The feature was filmed in Ultra Panavision 70 and exhibited in 70 mm Cinerama. Battle of the Bulge had its world premiere on December 16, 1965, the 21st anniversary of the titular battle, at the Pacific Cinerama Dome Theatre in Hollywood, California.
The film is a highly fictionalized account of the battle. The filmmakers attempted to condense the Ardennes Counteroffensive, a World War II battle that stretched across parts of Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg and lasted nearly a month, into under three hours, and shot parts of the film on terrain, and in weather, that did not remotely resemble the actual battle conditions. That left them open to criticism for lack of historical accuracy, but they claimed in the end credits that they had "re-organized" the chronological order of events to maximize the dramatic story.
Unlike most other World War II epics, Battle of the Bulge contains virtually no portrayals of actual senior Allied leaders, civilian or military. That is presumably because of controversies surrounding the battle,
Historical inaccuracies
The film's opening narration by William Conrad inaccurately states "to the north, stood Montgomery's Eighth Army...." In fact, the British Eighth Army, Montgomery's previous command, was in Italy at the time; Montgomery's northern command was the 21st Army Group. The narration continued, "...To the south, Patton's Third Army." Although Patton's Third Army was indeed to the south it was not tasked in any way with defending the Ardennes. Instead, it was dug in on the west bank of the Rhine River, a component of a much larger force of four American armies of the 12th Army Group under General Omar Bradley poised to cross it into Germany.
After the introduction there is no reference to British forces in the area, though they were largely kept behind the Meuse River and thus almost entirely out of the fighting. Consequently, there is no mention of General Eisenhower's decision to split the Bulge front into two, transferring temporary command of two American armies to Field Marshal Montgomery in the northern half of the Bulge. As a result, the film implies an all-American operation.
The film was shot on location in the Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range and Madrid, Spain, which bear no resemblance to the rugged, heavily wooded Ardennes of Belgium, Luxembourg, and western Germany. Aside from the initial American encounters with the German offensive the weather during filming was also at odds with the actual battle, which was fought during waves of heavy snow. The film's major tank battle scene, and some battle scenes, were fought in flat, bare, arid territory.
The aviation reconnaissance scenes with Henry Fonda were filmed with one or more Cessna L-19 aircraft, which did not fly until December 1949, instead of the Piper L-4 that was widely used during World War II.
The final tank battle is a rough depiction of the Battle of Celles on December 26, 1944, where the U.S. 2nd Armored Div. smashed the German 2nd Panzer Division. The film creates the false impression that large numbers of American tanks sacrificed themselves against heavy Tiger IIs and, in the process, lured the enemy off course, which caused them to run out of gas. In reality, they were already stranded. The tanks that were used, despite the claims of the producer in an interview in one of the DVD extras, are not historically accurate. Although the M24 Chaffee light tanks used in the movie in lieu of the ubiquitous M4 Sherman were introduced during World War II-, they were not used in the scale shown in the film but were relatively rare.
U.S. M47 Pattons were used to represent German King Tiger tanks (of which none existed to use), in spite of being over 20 tons lighter.
Absent from the movie is the response of the U.S. Third Army under General George Patton in relief of the bypassed but encircled city of Bastogne, a famed effort but of little consequence to success or failure of the German offensive.
There is also no mention of the key turning point in the battle, which was not an armor and infantry effort but Allied air power hitting the Germans spearhead hard at the first sign of clear weather, only the German HQ receiving word that the weather was set to clear.
The characters of Kiley, an American lieutenant colonel, and Hessler, a regular Wehrmacht tank commander, were loosely based on Colonel Benjamin Abbott "Monk" Dickson and Waffen-SS lieutenant colonel Joachim Peiper. However, the fictional characters bore marked differences. For example, Peiper did not die in a kamikaze tank attack. He was tried and sentenced to death at the War Crimes Tribunal for his role in the Malmedy massacre, but released after serving twelve years in prison. He lived until 1976, when he was murdered in France by French vigilantes.[4]
Battle of the Bulge (1965 film) - Wikipedia
Battle of the Bulge is a 1965 American widescreen epic war film produced in Spain, directed by Ken Annakin, and starring Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Telly Savalas, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews, and Charles Bronson. The feature was filmed in Ultra Panavision 70 and exhibited in 70 mm Cinerama. Battle of the Bulge had its world premiere on December 16, 1965, the 21st anniversary of the titular battle, at the Pacific Cinerama Dome Theatre in Hollywood, California.
The film is a highly fictionalized account of the battle. The filmmakers attempted to condense the Ardennes Counteroffensive, a World War II battle that stretched across parts of Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg and lasted nearly a month, into under three hours, and shot parts of the film on terrain, and in weather, that did not remotely resemble the actual battle conditions. That left them open to criticism for lack of historical accuracy, but they claimed in the end credits that they had "re-organized" the chronological order of events to maximize the dramatic story.
Unlike most other World War II epics, Battle of the Bulge contains virtually no portrayals of actual senior Allied leaders, civilian or military. That is presumably because of controversies surrounding the battle,
Historical inaccuracies
The film's opening narration by William Conrad inaccurately states "to the north, stood Montgomery's Eighth Army...." In fact, the British Eighth Army, Montgomery's previous command, was in Italy at the time; Montgomery's northern command was the 21st Army Group. The narration continued, "...To the south, Patton's Third Army." Although Patton's Third Army was indeed to the south it was not tasked in any way with defending the Ardennes. Instead, it was dug in on the west bank of the Rhine River, a component of a much larger force of four American armies of the 12th Army Group under General Omar Bradley poised to cross it into Germany.
After the introduction there is no reference to British forces in the area, though they were largely kept behind the Meuse River and thus almost entirely out of the fighting. Consequently, there is no mention of General Eisenhower's decision to split the Bulge front into two, transferring temporary command of two American armies to Field Marshal Montgomery in the northern half of the Bulge. As a result, the film implies an all-American operation.
The film was shot on location in the Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range and Madrid, Spain, which bear no resemblance to the rugged, heavily wooded Ardennes of Belgium, Luxembourg, and western Germany. Aside from the initial American encounters with the German offensive the weather during filming was also at odds with the actual battle, which was fought during waves of heavy snow. The film's major tank battle scene, and some battle scenes, were fought in flat, bare, arid territory.
The aviation reconnaissance scenes with Henry Fonda were filmed with one or more Cessna L-19 aircraft, which did not fly until December 1949, instead of the Piper L-4 that was widely used during World War II.
The final tank battle is a rough depiction of the Battle of Celles on December 26, 1944, where the U.S. 2nd Armored Div. smashed the German 2nd Panzer Division. The film creates the false impression that large numbers of American tanks sacrificed themselves against heavy Tiger IIs and, in the process, lured the enemy off course, which caused them to run out of gas. In reality, they were already stranded. The tanks that were used, despite the claims of the producer in an interview in one of the DVD extras, are not historically accurate. Although the M24 Chaffee light tanks used in the movie in lieu of the ubiquitous M4 Sherman were introduced during World War II-, they were not used in the scale shown in the film but were relatively rare.
U.S. M47 Pattons were used to represent German King Tiger tanks (of which none existed to use), in spite of being over 20 tons lighter.
Absent from the movie is the response of the U.S. Third Army under General George Patton in relief of the bypassed but encircled city of Bastogne, a famed effort but of little consequence to success or failure of the German offensive.
There is also no mention of the key turning point in the battle, which was not an armor and infantry effort but Allied air power hitting the Germans spearhead hard at the first sign of clear weather, only the German HQ receiving word that the weather was set to clear.
The characters of Kiley, an American lieutenant colonel, and Hessler, a regular Wehrmacht tank commander, were loosely based on Colonel Benjamin Abbott "Monk" Dickson and Waffen-SS lieutenant colonel Joachim Peiper. However, the fictional characters bore marked differences. For example, Peiper did not die in a kamikaze tank attack. He was tried and sentenced to death at the War Crimes Tribunal for his role in the Malmedy massacre, but released after serving twelve years in prison. He lived until 1976, when he was murdered in France by French vigilantes.[4]
