Breakthrough

It's spring 1944. The movie follows a squad of American soldiers going through training. They are part of the first wave on D-Day, and they fight onward to the end.

While I don't mind the characters, they aren't anything special. It is the classic one-of-every-kind sort of group. There are a few minor funny moments, but some downright awkward ones too. The action scenes with the actors are limited. They fill the rest out with real footage from different sides of the war and different battle locations. Some are recognizable and classic. Some are new and impressive. That's all I really want from this movie. There are probably ten minutes of real war footage that I like.

5 years after the war ended, it is under appreciated for it's strengths. Despite it formulaic plot, it does two things exceptionally well that very few other war flix do. First, it puts face on the OCS shavetail. The 90 day wonder was a necessary evil in protracted war but the results are often disastrous. Breakthrough does a nice job of following Agar from overstuffed newbie to battle tested leader. It's a best case scenario but it is also completely plausible because of the primacy of the selfless NCO. Second, it makes the necessity to protect personal sanity by reducing replacements to things. Good leader want to get close...great leaders understand they can't get to close...they may have to send them to their death.

1944. 2nd Lt Joe Mallory, fresh out of Officer Candidate School, takes command of a veteran platoon of the US 1st Infantry Division. The company commander, Captain Tom Hale, is the former commander of the platoon and a tough taskmaster. Luckily Mallory has a very capable and experienced platoon sergeant, Pete Bell. The allies will soon invade Nazi-occupied France and Mallory's leadership abilities will be tested to the limit.

Good, realistic WW2 drama. A good study in infantry platoon tactics and army life in general, especially the human side of war. No false heroics, no implausible action - gritty and believable.

While it is accurate and has some good action scenes, not incredibly profound. Doesn't really add anything to the annuls of war movies. Quite entertaining though.

Like most of Agar's early movies, the surrounding cast were of sufficient quality to hide, and even carry, Mr. Shirley Temple.

The WW2 period featured is one that is usually skipped over, despite the importance and difficulty of that time. The Allies were under pressure from a well organised defence, taking full advantage of the local terrain, this is all well communicated by this movie.

Lovejoy, as the cagey experienced Sgt., is a marvel to watch, as his character does for his Lt., so he does for Agar, a wonderful fusion of living the role.

A worthy entry for any war movie buff

It's refreshing to find an old B&W World War II flick that's more adventure than melodrama, despite the corny trope of the nicest guy on board showing-off a picture of his wife and kids, and winding up predictably dead...

There's also the comic relief; a kindhearted simpleton; a muscle-bound dolt; a nervous, really young small town kid; a wise, head-strong Sergeant; an educated Lieutenant who lacks actual fighting experience; and his jaded, too-experienced Captain, trying to get him ready to, in this particular story, lead men onto the beaches of Normandy...

All these examples aside, and despite pockets of timeworn dialogue, BREAKTHROUGH is original and entertaining enough to stand on its own merit, building up the plot within the action while in constant motion...

John Agar plays Lt. Joe Mallory, bullied by first-billed David Brian as Capt. Hale outside a practice run, and we soon enter the barracks where the privates reluctantly await their upcoming campaign: there's enough quirks and physical attributes to distinguish each person so that everything means more, later on, when the bullets fly...

In particular, Dick Wesson's Pvt. Hansen, doing imitations of Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart, which are cleverly written and genuinely funny: not just because the very nervous and young Richard Monahan, as Lt. Mallory... wearing foggy glasses and speaking in a high-pitched voice... needs something to keep him optimistic for what's ahead...

Frank Lovejoy is important enough as Sergeant Pete Bell, whose rock-hard countenance not only grounds the picture but his gravely voice convincingly narrates: from a crowded freight ship to Normandy Beach, thrusting the sand-crawling troops through heavy German gunfire, up and down pathways and hillsides where most of the suspense occurs, and the body count begins...

Unlike the more realistic SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, the soldiers don't drop like flies along the way. But there's a feeling that anything can happen, at any time, and that no particular man is safe...

Even when the survivors find harbor in a French village that seems too good to be true, winding up in a climax that would repeat itself thirty-six years later in Stanley Kubrick's FULL METAL JACKET...

So someone must've been familiar with BREAKTHROUGH: a nice little WWII-programmer that blends stock footage without seeming phony, and there's always a place to go without malaise, allowing the audience to keep track of each and every move.