Movies 
- Nazi Panzer forces stage a last-ditch Belgian front offensive that could turn the tide of WWII. Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw and Robert Ryan in the spectacular recreation of a crucial campaign.Year: 1965Running Time: 169 min. Format: BLU-RAY DISC Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: NR Age: 085391142621 UPC: 085391142621 Manufacturer No: 114262
Description
Nazi Panzer forces stage a last-ditch Belgian front offensive that could turn the tide of WWII. Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw and Robert Ryan in the spectacular recreation of a crucial campaign. Year: 1965Amazon.com
The German offensive in December 1944 became the basis for this all-star Hollywood take on the Battle of the Bulge. Henry Fonda is an officer who predicts the assault, Robert Ryan and Dana Andrews are Army brass skeptical of his intuitions, and Robert Shaw … More >>
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This is a great historical film. It shows how closely fought
the battle against evil was in WWII and how our greatest
generation responded to it.
The film stars Henry Fonda as an all-american Lt. Col. He
is hard working and dedicated. But his superiors are not.
They are chair-warming politically ambitious regular army
types who usually got undeserved promotions to general. Henry
Fonda gathers up the intelligence to show that the germans are
planning a sneak attack, but the generals don’t believe him.
On the other side is General Von Killowitz. The traditional
bloodthirsty prussian officer who loves war and death more than
anything. He is the same sort of German who the Romans guarded
their frontiers against 2,000 years ago. Savage, without
culture and only loving war and pillage. Killowitz is given
huge tank army and told to go capture the gasoline of the
American army. Killowitz isn’t expected to win the war, but
to get Germany enough gas to keep it going until they finish
their rockets, jet fighters and WMDs. Once the WMDs and the
other new weapons are finished, the germans will destroy all
freedom and conquer the world.
Because of the general’s incompetence, the US Army is caught
by suprise by the sneak attack. The germans take advantage
of the situation and revert to their usual barbarism. They
kill prisoners and everything else you would expect. But
after the attack, Fonda manages to find a fighting General and
using his intelligence reports on the german plan, they plan
a strategy to stop the germans.
Henry Fonda knows that Von Killowitz is in charge of the german
army and that the germans are running out of gas. So the
general carefully plans to win by destroying his own gas
supplies before the germans can capture them.
While the Germans have the upper hand for a little while,
they just end up culling out the poor soldiers from the
American Army. Then the real battle starts with the
real americans who have been hardened by war into pure
fighting machines.
Telly Savalas plays a tank commander whose brilliant leadership
and understanding of german tank tactics allows him to destroy
lots of enemy tanks. He was a real soldier. In those days,
men fought with what they had (even if it was a wrecked tank).
Things are really different today when soliders whine about
not having every vehicle armoured in Iraq. But thats what you
get with a so-called professional army.
The movie comes down a final showdown. Von Killowitz’s secret
american-speaking patrols have captured a large supply depot
and while Killowitz is racing there to refuel, Henry Fonda
shows up and discovers their plan. After killing all the
Germans, they improvise an attack on the germans. With real
American initiative, they use the very fuel the germans want
to capture as rolling weapons against the Tank Army of Von
Killowitz. He slows and then halts the advance of the german
tank army. The tanks are slowed just enough that they use
up their remaining fuel. Von Killowitz and his dreams of
war are stopped just short of victory by a handful of GIs.
Von Killowitz burns to death in his tank. Killed by the gas
that might have given Germany the world. His remaining army
has no choice but to abandon their tanks and march home to
germany. We then see Von Killowitz’s closest follower turn
his back on war and german militarism by throwing down his
weapon.
The film ends with a dramatic shot from the air of the
battlefield. We see how close Von Killowitz came and how
his dreams ended in a mass of burning and out of gas tanks
covering the dry arid lands of Belgium.
This is great for history fans and as an educational resource.
I would recommend in addition “Patton” which shows the other
half of the battle. Battle of the Bulge doesn’t tell the story
of how the fighting of the war was messed up by Montgomery. Or
how Patton was held back from finishing Germany off. All that
fuel the germans were going after was fuel that was kept back
from Patton and just piled up in supply dumps because Montgomery
was more interested in his own glory that working as part of a
team.
A++++ (five stars)
Rating: 5 / 5
ALL TV CUTS RESTORED, NOW THE ORIGINAL MOVIE WITH ALL CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT SHOWN, TRUE TO HOW WE FELT ABOUT GERMANY DURING THIS PERIOD DURING WORLD WAR II.
Rating: 5 / 5
Outstanding product.
Sent it to my brother-in-law in the Netherlands who had just visited the Bastogne area. He was unable to buy the movie in Europe
Rating: 5 / 5
My Grandson is crazy about Tanks.My self it’s not one of my favorite War Ficks.
Rating: 3 / 5
I seen this movie when i was a kid, around the age of 10 , i went to the hobby shop and bought a model of the tiger tank.
the elite german command, and tiger tanks proved a formidable enemy , and we see the americans in their retreat and chaos in which the over come and eventuallly won the battle.
the vhs copy was great, as i read their was more stuff filmed…so let’s get that dvd rolling on the production line.
Rating: 4 / 5