Tv Guide description from 1960s and 70s
If I recall correctly...it read something like this..." The critics hated it, but audience's loved it..." that's all I really remember. ..anybody else recall it?
shareBATTLEGROUND was a highly acclaimed film in 1949 and was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. It won two (Best Writing and Best Cinematography). Very rare for a film "critics hated" to get that kind of recognition in 1949.
I believe you're thinking of BATTLE CRY (1955), which was based on a popular war novel, but the film was something of a soap opera with small doses of battle scenes and lots of romance and teen heartthrobs like Tab Hunter. It did well at the boxoffice, but may not have been well-received.
An excerpt from the New York Times review:
The fact that more time is spent at cut-ups and kidding around with the girls, some of it hot enough to sizzle, than in pursuit of the business of war is not surprising in this type of picture. That's where the laughs and tingles lie. The war is kept to a minimum. Somebody might get killed.share
This, we might add, is not exactly the way we heard it was with the Marines in the Pacific in World War II. But a predominantly youthful audience at the Paramount yesterday morning ate it up.