I didn't expect much of this -- I was wrong. Wellman rates pretty low on the Andrew Sarris "auteur" scale, and, frankly, most of his movies are pretty dull fare (ever watch "Blood Alley" or, despite its reputation, "Nothing Sacred"?). But this is a first-rate war film, as gripping as Walsh's "Battle Cry" or "Objective: Burma," or Dwan's "Sands of Iwo Jima." The cast could not be bettered, with outstanding work from Van Johnson, James Whitmore, John Hodiak, Marshall Thompson, Jerome Courtland, Ricardo Montalban, Douglas Fowley. It doesn't have the breadth of the three above-mentioned films -- there are no away-from-the-battlefield scenes that give the characters more dimension -- some might say "dilute the intensity" -- but "Battleground" is very intense and involving. Astonishing that it was made entirely on an MGM sound stage.
Review of Battleground
