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 ...
WWII soldiers weren't whiny, victims who questioned the mission and only talked about the first girls they had sex with. No German soldier would ever had said, "F***k Hitler". Maybe, "To Hell with Hitler", but never the F-word. And our soldiers didn't shoot any POW to keep from being burdened with him or for revenge.
The whole movie was an insult to our guys.
Ditto!!!
‘Saving Private Ryan’ is a great war film up to the point when Hanks and his squad gets off the beach. After that, the film becomes an over-extended, pale imitation of the vastly superior ABC series ‘Combat!’ from the 1960s.
As WWII films go, I’ll stick with:
‘12 O’clock High’
‘In Which We Serve’
‘Das Boot’
‘Hell Is For Heroes’
‘Patton’
‘Sahara’
‘Objective, Burma!’
‘The Dam Busters’
‘They Were Expendable’
PS: I’ll also toss in HBO’s ‘Band Of Brothers’.
Jack.
Hi, SJSAMPLE:
That would be ‘Never So Few’ with Frank Sinatra.
Jack.
That’s right.
He was the brash senior pilot that took all the risks and got a few crews killed.
Didn’t make the cliffs of Dover at the end?
Wasn’t a young Robert Wagner the co-pilot?
I was thinking of “Never So Few”.
You are correct sir.
I always thought Sinatra had serious chops.
I’m a huge “Tony Rome” fan.
Thanks for the reply about “Hell is for Heroes”.
I remember watching it as a kid, and just caught it about a month ago.
It was filled with great stars and lots of action.
Hi, guys:
You’re thinking of ‘The War Lover’.
McQueen plays the Aircraft Commander of a B-17, with Robert Wagner as his co-pilot.
Their B-17, ‘The Body’ gets shot to hell on a major mission.
McQueen takes the bomber over the Channel where his crew, including Wagner, bail out. McQueen tries to climb over the White Cliffs of Dover and doesn’t make it.
Not a bad flick for the 1960s.
Jack.
Don’t know why you had to make a generational attack, but the typical Vietnam soldier was superior to the typical WWII soldier and the boomers numbered 9.4 million veterans.
Also WWII soldiers were almost all draftees whereas only about 25% of the Vietnam War soldiers were.
Everyone should watch Bravo Two Zero (SAS LRP team in Desert Storm) and the remastered Hell’s Angels (Howard Hughes), both excellent war films.
“Cross Of iron” was a great movie.
IMHO, Hamburger Hill was a better movie than We were Soliders.
Twelve A Clock High is another great movie.
The list is endless.
What “attack”?
When Trumpets Fade was a good movie. worth watching.
The word boomer should be a clue.
I don’t what you’re talking about. My post was directed at Spielberg. You do know the thread is about “Saving Private Ryan”?
LOL, I’ll leave it at that then.
““Battle of the Bulge” for Robert Shaw’s performance.”
When I get stuck in a traffic jam, I often find myself muttering
Robert Shaw’s order for clearing traffic congestion:
“Get that tank off the road!”
(or similar words he growled to get a tank shoved off the road to
clear a path)
Now that could be one heck of a movie!!
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