Battle of the Bulge (1965) on Netflix
Lieutenant Colonel Dan Kiley photographs a German staff car in the Ardennes and concludes an offensive is coming; his superiors dismiss him. Colonel Hessler readies a tank drive on Antwerp.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.8/1019,314 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes63%
Trailer
Plot summary
The German plan puts Colonel Hessler in command of a brigade of King Tiger tanks, bound for Antwerp, though his crews are inexperienced replacements and fuel is short. English-speaking paratroopers under SS Lieutenant Schumacher will be dropped behind American lines disguised as military police. Lieutenant Colonel Dan Kiley, who photographed a German staff car from a reconnaissance plane over the Ardennes, reads it as the warning of an attack; Major General Grey and Colonel Pritchard reject the conclusion. Prisoners for questioning would have to be taken at the Siegfried Line. Major Wolenski sends Lieutenant Weaver, in his first battle, and Sergeant Duquesne out on patrol. Sergeant Guffy deals in black market goods with Louise, his Belgian partner.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Battle of the Bulge (1965)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
Henry Fonda's Lt. Col. Daniel Kiley and Robert Shaw's German tank commander Martin Hessler were loosely based on Colonel Benjamin Abbott "Monk" Dickson and Waffen-SS Lt. Col. Joachim Peiper. Unlike the film's Hessler, Peiper did not die in a kamikaze tank attack.- Columbia Pictures obtained a 1964 injunction against Warner Bros. over the Battle of the Bulge title, and to get Columbia to drop it, Warners agreed not to mention Eisenhower, Montgomery, Bradley, Patton, Anthony MacAuliffe and 10 others.
- For an economical price and with no restrictions, the Spanish army supplied the production with an estimated 500 fully equipped soldiers and 75 tanks and vehicles, some of them of World War II vintage.
- The film influenced the original Star Wars trilogy during the making of The Empire Strikes Back (1980), whose Battle of Hoth was shaped by both the real battle and this film.
- To stand in for German King Tiger tanks, none of which existed to use, the production used U.S. M47 Pattons, more than 20 tons lighter.
- The film was shot in the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains and Madrid, Spain, terrain that bears no resemblance to the rugged, heavily wooded Ardennes of Belgium, Luxembourg and western Germany.
