Posted on 11/11/2009 5:34:19 AM PST by Saije
Some reviewers have called "Saving Private Ryan," Steven Spielberg's World War II film about D-Day and the search for a soldier, one of the greatest war movies.
Military historian Antony Beevor begs to differ.
Not only is it not the greatest war movie, it's not even the best cinematic depiction of D-Day, says Beevor, author of the newly published "D-Day: The Battle for Normandy" (Viking).
He admires the famed Omaha Beach opening -- "Probably the most realistic battle sequence ever filmed," he said -- but described the rest of "Saving Private Ryan" as "ghastly."
"It's sort of a 'Dirty Dozen' cliche of the worst form," he said.***
Beevor says a director would do well to remember that the Allied effort to retake the continent extended well beyond that single day of June 6, 1944.
"D-Day, although an iconic moment, was not actually the end of it. Films like 'The Longest Day' and 'Saving Private Ryan' almost give the impression that D-Day was 'it' and then the next thing people know about was the liberation of Paris," he said. "But in fact it was the fighting in Normandy which was far worse. Casualties on D-Day were far lighter than expected -- [military leaders] had expected 10,000 dead and only 3,000 died.
"The real fighting and the real casualties," he added, "came in the Battle of Normandy."
So what does Beevor prefer in the way of a Hollywood treatment of D-Day? Another project Spielberg had a hand in, "Band of Brothers."
"On the whole I think [it] was pretty close to the truth," Beevor said of the 2001 HBO miniseries, which Spielberg and Tom Hanks executive produced. He called it "incomparably more realistic" than "Saving Private Ryan."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I guess it’s called “The Pacific”. Spielberg and Hanks are producing it; they did “Band of Brothers”.
I have the utmost respect for Antony Beevor. His books on Stalingrad and Berlin ‘45 are two of the most informative historical accounts I have ever read.
I watched them both. Stalingrad was exceptional. It reminded me a bit of Cross of Iron w/James Coburn. Enemy at the Gates was also excellent.
“Hell is for Heroes”. -Steve McQueen
The ME-109s used in the movie had been surplused out by the Spanish Air Force.
Ironically, one of the mods made over the years was to replace the original engine with Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, which were also originally used in the Spitfire.
“Hell is for Heroes”.
Steve McQueen
The first 20 minutes of SPR was excellent.
The rest of it was ridiculous.
“The Victors”
Some think it an anti-war movie, but I didn’t see it quite that way.
My list of course did not cover everything—and yes almost anything Steve McQueen was in was excellent. He is one of my all time favorite actors. Other great movies to add to the list: The Great Escape, The Guns of Navarone, the Dirty Dozen, and the Cross of Iron with James Coburn. Generally speaking anything with Curt Jurgens and Maximilian Schell are also quite good.
I was going through this thread wondering if someone was going to bring it up before I got to the end and added it myself. Besides McQueen it's got James Coburn, Bobby Darin, Fess Parker and, inexplicably, Bob Newhart doing his telephone routine. Directed by the great Don Siegel, who along with Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood credits for teaching him everything he knows about being a director.
I’d forgotten that one.
Thanks for the reminder.
James Whitmore rallying the troops to march tall at the end was fantastic.
I agree.
The rest of the film was somewhat revisionist and overly dramatized.
At the end, with Dana Winters sitting in the cockpit of a dismantled B-29, with hundreds of others.
Awful to see that great stuff “repurposed” like that.
Only to Americans is it “based on actual events”.
Our Brit cousins, who were 99.99% of the actual events, resent the focus on American participation, which was almost nonexistent.
Great movie, nonetheless.
Was this the one set in the Burmese theater?
McQueen carried a stock-less M1 Thompson,IIRC.
Pilot on a B-17 out of England.
Hollywood is incapable of making an inspiring movie about war. They are either about the futility, brutality and tragedy of war or they are like “Ryan” and paint the soldiers as foul-mouthed twits.
Yeah, in that regard, it paralleled Private Ryan, although it still had some meat at times.
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