Editing Battleground (film) (section)

==Production==

===Background===
Robert Pirosh had based the script on his own experiences during the [[Battle of the Bulge]],<ref>Pirosh was a sergeant in Company G, 320th Infantry of the [[35th Infantry Division (United States)|35th Infantry Division]], one of Patton's divisions assigned to break through to Bastogne.</ref> although he did not serve with the 101st Airborne, but with the [[35th Infantry Division (United States)|35th Infantry Division]]. 

Many of the incidents in the film were based on actual events, including the rejection of a German demand for surrender on December 22, 1944, with Brig. Gen. [[Anthony McAuliffe]]'s one word response, "Nuts!".<ref>[http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/Bastogne/bast-14.htm S.L.A. Marshall ''Bastogne: The First Eight Days''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190902012543/http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/Bastogne/bast-14.htm|date=September 2, 2019}}, Chapter 14 and notes.</ref> Other events in the film, like Private Kipp's continual loss of his [[false teeth]] and Private Roderigues' having never seen snow before, were from Pirosh's experiences.

===Development and casting===
''Battleground'' was originally an [[RKO]] property, titled "Prelude to Love" to hide its subject matter,<ref name="tcmarticle">{{cite web| last= Thompson| first= Lang| url= https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2199/battleground#articles-reviews |title=Battleground| website=TCM }}</ref> but was shelved when production head [[Dore Schary]] resigned, despite $100,000 having been put into the property to that point.  When Schary went to [[MGM]], he purchased the rights to the script from RKO, over the objections of [[Louis B. Mayer]], who believed the public was tired of war films.  At MGM, [[Robert Taylor (American actor)|Robert Taylor]] and [[Keenan Wynn]] were reported to have been penciled in for the film, along with Van Johnson and John Hodiak, and the project was budgeted at $2 million.<ref name="tcmnotes">TCM [https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2199/battleground#notes Notes]</ref> Wellman put the cast through some military training with Robert Taylor, a former navy officer who dropped out believing the role was not right for him. He was replaced by Van Johnson.<ref>pp. 93–94 Davis, Ronald L. ''Robert Pirosh Interview'' in ''Words into Images: Screenwriters on the Studio System'' Univ. Press of Mississippi, 01/05/2007</ref>

Twenty veterans of the 101st were hired to train the actors and appeared in the film as extras. [[Lt Col]] [[Harry Kinnard]], who had been the 101st's deputy divisional commander at Bastogne, was the film's technical advisor. Pirosh also consulted with McAuliffe, who was enthusiastic about Pirosh's intention to show World War II strictly from the grunt's eye view.

The role of Staff Sergeant Kinnie was first offered to [[Spencer Tracy]], but he turned it down. Wellman and Pirosh's second choice was [[James Whitmore]], a Broadway theatre actor and former Marine Corps officer, who also bore resemblance to Tracy. However, the producers insisted a more well-known actor be cast. [[James Mitchell (actor)|James Mitchell]] took on the role, but was fired before shooting, as Wellman thought he lacked the proper physicality and attitude to play a Staff Sergeant.

===Filming===
The film was in production from April 5 to June 3, 1949,<ref>TCM [https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2199/battleground Overview]</ref> with location shooting in northern California, Oregon, and Washington state. [[Fort Lewis (Washington)|Fort Lewis, Washington]] was used for the tank sequence showing the relief of the [[101st Airborne]] by [[George S. Patton|Patton]]'s Third Army. Shooting took 20 days less than was scheduled, due in part to innovative measures taken by Schary such as processing film as it was shot, then dubbing and cutting it so that scenes could be previewed within two days of being shot.<ref name="tcmnotes" /> The film came in almost $100,000 under budget.<ref name="tcmarticle" />

Upon the conclusion of filming, cinematographer [[Paul C. Vogel]] described his work in a professional journal:

<blockquote>Except for the opening scenes (filmed at Sawtelle General Hospital) and the climax (shot at Fort McArthur), ''Battleground'' was filmed indoors on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Stage 15. This is a cavernous affair, measuring 130x320 feet with a ceiling height of 70 feet, nearly three million cubic feet of air....All lighting...was from overhead....However, it frequently left actors' faces black under their regulation G.I. helmets. Supplementary lighting for face modelling was used from the floor up....despite the constant 40 degrees temperature maintained by the stepped-up air conditioning system, we discovered that soon after lighting the set each morning, the lamp heat started the air currents flowing—but not always in the same direction! We turned this meteorological oddity to advantage placing our fog machines—spraying vaporized light machine oil—at strategic positions, allowing the indoor currents to waft our fog into the desired place....En passant, the constant fog—chemical, not mental—in which we worked for more than seven weeks killed the desire to smoke. Cinematographers overly addicted to nicotine might try this effective, but drastic cure."<ref>. Vogel, Paul. "Different...and Difficult." American Cinematographer 30:12 (December 1949), 456-57.</ref></blockquote>