Le grand assaut

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.

David Brian, John Agar, and Frank Lovejoy head a solid cast in Breakthrough a product of Warner Brothers B picture unit that skilfully employs real combat footage nicely integrated into the film

It's a simple plot as the film opens in Great Britain where the troops are gathering for the upcoming D-Day invasion. David Brian is a company commander and John Agar is new 2nd Lieutenant from Fort Benning who has in fact taken over the platoon Brian was formerly in charge of. A training foul up that could have been fatal gets Agar good and chewed out. However Sergeant Frank Lovejoy thinks Agar has the right stuff.

A bit of the plot from Twelve O'Clock High is also used in this film as well in regard to the conclusion.

A lot of familiar names and a lot of WW2 stock characters are used for the members of Agar's platoon.

The three leads are cast well and World War 2 film fans should be pleased.

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.

Solid war picture with capable cast - Bryan the grim company commander, Agar the aggressive junior officer, Lovejoy the good-natured noncom who also serves as the film's narrator. "Breakthrough" offers the usual cliches and too much stock footage, but its combat sequences are well done and the story never drags.