The Forgotten ‘Battleground’

Lest we forget, we are at war. 

Men and women at this very moment are fighting for their lives and for the lives of those they took an oath to protect and defend. 

There have been some recent films about war and what it means for the “average Joe” to be at war. A few of these are receiving deserving accolades for their realism. No, not the realism of blood and guts spilled, which is what war is, of course, but the realism of human behavior in adverse conditions, or as Hemingway put it, grace under pressure. This is the human condition that we all face, in one form or another, each and every day of our lives. Of course, most of us can face our pressures, make our decisions, get through our daily angst without wondering if a shell is going to go off five feet away, having the vehicle we’re riding in targeted for destruction or being exposed to combinations of chemicals not even named yet. No, we don’t have that extra worry. But some out there do.  (more…)

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Tags: 101st airborne, american, battle of the bulge, battleground, classic
Posted Mar 17th 2009 at 3:34 pm in Entertainment, Military | 8234256 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smann/2009/03/17/the-forgotten-battleground/The+Forgotten+%27Battleground%272009-03-17+22%3A34%3A52Schizoid+Mann

James Whitmore Has Died

In less than two months we’ve lost three of the stars of “Battleground“ (1949). In December, Van Johnson was taken from us, last month it was Ricardo Montalban, and now James Whitmore. In the William Wellman classic, Whitmore plays Sgt. Kinnie, the battle hardened leader of a small group of soldiers lost and confused in the midst of the Battle of the Bulge. Because of frostbite, Kinnie limps through most of the film as he leads the men through increasingly difficult times right up to that dreaded moment where bayonets are necessary because the ammunition’s run out.

Whitmore’s superb in the role, was nominated for an Oscar as a supporting actor (he won the Golden Globe), and launched a sixty year career that would include memorable turns in “The Asphalt Jungle” (1950), “Kiss Me Kate” (1953), “Them!” (1954), “Planet of the Apes” (1968), “Tora! Tora! Tora!” (1970), “Chato’s Land” (1972), “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994), numerous television appearances and two successful one man stage shows as Will Rogers and Harry Truman. (more…)

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Tags: battleground, golden globe, James Whitmore has died
Posted Feb 7th 2009 at 9:55 pm in Entertainment, News | 4505037 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/02/07/james-whitmore-has-died/James+Whitmore+Has+Died2009-02-08+05%3A55%3A55John+Nolte

Big Hollywood’s Reverse-Rick-Arc

In Doug TenNapel’s look at how politics undermine the enjoyment of modern day films, he writes:

…when a new trailer is released that takes place during the Iraq War[,] I turn to my wife and whisper, “Don’t tell me; it’s about a gung-ho soldier who wants to fight for the good cause of America then sees enough friendly fire and slaughtered children to gain a conscience that the whole war is a lie for oil.”

Don’t we all. (more…)

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Tags: battleground, bogart, Casablanca, rick blaine, william wellman
Posted Feb 1st 2009 at 6:30 am in Entertainment, Politics | 3741428 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/02/01/big-hollywoods-reverse-rick-arc/Big+Hollywood%27s+Reverse-Rick-Arc2009-02-01+14%3A30%3A20John+Nolte