More on Battleground (1949)

The text in this post is from this wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleground_(film).

Battleground was originally an RKO property, which was called “Prelude to Love” to hide its subject matter,[3] but was shelved when production head Dore Schary resigned, despite $100,000 having been put into the property to that point. When Schary went to MGM, he purchased the rights to the script from RKO, over the objections of Louis B. Mayer, who believed that the public was tired of war films. At MGM, Robert Taylor and Keenan Wynn were reported to be penciled in for the film, along with Van Johnson and John Hodiak, and the project was budgeted at $2 million.[4]

Robert Pirosh had based the script on his own experiences during the Battle of the Bulge, although he did not serve with the 101st Airborne. Many of the incidents in the film were based on actual events. Twenty veterans of the 101st were hired to train the actors and were used in the film as extras.[5]

The film was in production from 5 April to 3 June 1949,[6] with location shooting in northern California, Oregon and Washington state. Fort Lewis, Washington was used for the tank sequence showing the relief of the 101st Airborne by Patton’s Third Army. Shooting took 20 days less than was scheduled, due in part to innovations instituted by Schary such as processing film as itwas shot, and dubbing and cutting it so that scenes could be previewed with two days of being shot.[4] The film came in almost $100,000 under budget.[3]

Battleground received a number of premieres before its general release. A private showing for President Harry S. Truman was arranged[3] even before the premiere in Washington D.C. on 9 November 1949, which was attended[4] by Brigadier General Anthony Clement McAuliffe, who commanded the 101st during the siege of Bastogne.[7] Two days later, on 11 November, the film premiered in New York City, and then on 1 December in Los Angeles. The film’s general American release was on 20 January 1950.[8]

Battle 360 on the History Channel

When I first read on the HC that a series would follow the USS Enterprise in WW2, I thought: “good idea.  Folks will watch.”  Watching an episode, however, is another matter entirely.  The production has one thing down: the interviews and overall look of show (the CGI).  All are top notch.   But GOODNESS!  Are they series with all the add-on seizure inducing manipulation to graphics?  

An example: now this is going way, way back to the 1990s.  Once upon a time there was a crap movie called Reality Bites, about young 20-somethings trying to find their way in the world.  One of the characters is a filmmaker who attracts the interest of an MTV-like network.  Her documentary, which was a comment on AIDS and family life, was turned into something cartoonish and silly.  That’s exactly what the producers of Battle 360 have done.  All the graphic manipulation that is meant to “put us there” distracts from other narrative elements and CGI in the show.  

Watch if you must, but keep those with vertigo or epilepsy in the other room. 

The Greatest Battle (Audio book give away)

This is not SPAM, but a genuine offer made by the good folks over at the ww2db.com. So here’s the deal:

• go to a ww2-themed forum and drop some knowledge about the DB in a post;
• make a post in your blog about about the DB;
• Send an email to giveaway@ww2db.com with the URL describing what you’ve done.

This will put you in the running to win The Greatest Battle audio book, which is kind of cool if you are an ipod person or a commuter of any sort. All the details avaialble here.