An interesting cast and fairly bomb-proof premise are squandered in Ken Annakin's Battle of the Bulge. Henry Fonda is the purer than water ex- cop who, miraculously, is the only person in the entire US Army who predicts an offensive move by the weakened Germans. Naturally, he's right, and the rest of the US Military Intelligence community has egg on their face, presumably. Robert Shaw is on typically badass form as an uber-Nazi spearheading the offensive, and there's fun support from Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas and a pre-Hawaii Five-0 James MacArthur.
Can't go wrong with this set-up, right? Then how does the film mange to feel overlong, boring and uninteresting? Simply put, this is war-film- making by numbers. The characters are all but paper thin, the exposition is textbook (and too long), even the score is like a parody of itself. Worst of all, the action sequences are particularly wet. I know we're a few years of The Wild Bunch here, but something really bothers me about seeing men being riddled with bullets and simply falling over with a groan - not a bullet hole or a drop of blood in sight. I know what defenders of the film are thinking right now and the answer is yes, I'm perfectly capable of using my imagination but, by that token, why bother watching a film at all? I might as well stare at a blank piece of paper and imagine a decent war movie.
After nearly three hours, I wish I had....
Can't go wrong with this set-up, right? Then how does the film mange to feel overlong, boring and uninteresting? Simply put, this is war-film- making by numbers. The characters are all but paper thin, the exposition is textbook (and too long), even the score is like a parody of itself. Worst of all, the action sequences are particularly wet. I know we're a few years of The Wild Bunch here, but something really bothers me about seeing men being riddled with bullets and simply falling over with a groan - not a bullet hole or a drop of blood in sight. I know what defenders of the film are thinking right now and the answer is yes, I'm perfectly capable of using my imagination but, by that token, why bother watching a film at all? I might as well stare at a blank piece of paper and imagine a decent war movie.
After nearly three hours, I wish I had....