(Credits: Far Out / Public Domain)
Sat 21 March 2026 22:30, UK
As one of the greatest stars of the early years of Hollywood, Henry Fonda set the template for the leading man that is still being followed to this day, and if that wasn’t enough of a legacy, then he has his dozens of children and grandchildren populating the industry, ensuring the Fonda name never dies.
Like many movie stars of his time, he signed up to fight in World War II, claiming he didn’t want to spend the war play-fighting in a studio. He served as a quartermaster on a Navy destroyer for three years and even won the Bronze Star Medal for ‘Heroic or Meritorious Achievement or Service’.
He returned to Hollywood after his stint in the services, which led to a rather strange phenomenon of real veterans playing fake soldiers in the movies, like in 1965, when Fonda starred in Battle of the Bulge, playing a soldier embroiled in the titular battle, which tore through large parts of Europe for over a month towards the end of the conflict.
The movie was made by Warner Bros, but Columbia Pictures was also making a movie about the same battle, which would have seen John Wayne playing General Patton and, fascinatingly, Laurence Olivier as Hitler, but sadly, this version never came to pass.
Fonda’s take on the famous skirmish did get made, although he probably wishes it hadn’t. In an interview with journalist Ron Base, the Oscar-winning legend revealed that he had one major issue with the finished product. “They had me winning the whole goddamned war single-handedly,” he complained, highlighting one of the many issues people took with the movie’s accuracy.
The filmmakers had set themselves an impossible task of condensing one of the most pivotal parts of the biggest wars of the 20th century into three hours, where the shoot took place mostly in a mountainous region of Spain, which looked nothing like the muddy, wooded areas of Germany and Belgium that would have seen the real action.
Moreover, key strategic decisions like Dwight Eisenhower’s decision to split his forces in two were omitted, as were the contributions of British troops, which is nothing new for American-backed war movies, and while this wasn’t the first film Fonda regretted starring in, at least it was somewhat successful.
Battle of the Bulge appealed to a growing sense of nostalgia surrounding World War II, helped by the fact that it was released to coincide with the anniversary of the actual battle, and though reviews from critics at the time were mixed, it had quite a big impact on one of the most important movies of all time, serving as inspiration for the Battle of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, a key scene in the Star Wars trilogy.
Battle of the Bulge might not be the most accurate war film ever made, but if you like Peter Fonda being heroic, then it’s definitely the movie for you.
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