Battle of the Bulge Reviews

Overlong at 167 minutes, almost completely devoid of plot, and as historically incorrect as one could imagine, BATTLE OF THE BULGE still manages to be a fairly entertaining war picture that glorifies and mythicizes battle in Ultra-Panavision, CinemaScope, and Technicolor. Col. Hessler (Robert Shaw), a master tactician in the German tank corps, is planning a full-scale attack on US troops. His Allied counterparts across the Bastogne are Gen. Grey (Robert Ryan), Col. Pritchard (Dana Andrews), and Lt. Col. Kiley (Henry Fonda), the last of whom feels keenly that the Germans are preparing an offensive. Kiley keeps after his superiors about the suspected pending attack, but they won't hear of it. Once he is vindicated, the rest of the film consists of a detailed (though fictionalized) account of the battle. The movie is very inaccurate and any veteran of the real battle will laugh at the climax, which takes place on a butte, with squadrons of tanks in a military showdown a la HIGH NOON.