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 ...
Band of Brothers is also a much longer film in many segments. Hard to put the entire Battle of Normandy into a single 2 or 3 hour movie. I think SPR was very good for what it was trying to do. I also love Band of Brothers. But this guy is really comparing apples to oranges.
Beevor’s an excellent historian, and he’s speaking from that perspective.
His book “Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege” is a great read, you truly get the feel for the conditions.
He also wrote about the only readable (comprehensible) account of the Spanish Civil War, which IMO is quite a feat.
Both excellent choices.
I've watched some pretty extensive interviews with Francis Ford Coppola about how the movie came into being. Efforts to tell Patton's story on film started in the late 50's early 60's but there was little progress until the late 60's when the country had taken a more decidedly anti-war/anti-military stance. According to Coppola, the marketing was kept somewhat ambiguous so that younger movie goers would come to view Patton as a rebel who bucked the system, while more conservative folks would view him in the more traditional war hero role. Obviously it worked as the movie sold well with all demographics. I enjoy Patton, but for my money, A Bridge Too Far is a better movie.
Band of Brothers was incredible. I think it’s one of the greatest pieces of film, ever.
Having said that, my FAVORITE war movies aren’t necessarily the best ones.
“Battle of the Bulge” for Robert Shaw’s performance.
“Stalag 17”, “The Great Escape”, “Battleground”, but most of all, my all-time favorite war movie, “Sargeant York”.
But, as a whole it was a pretty good movie. Not the best war film, but that list of 5-star historically accurate no fault war movies is a very very very short list.
Yeah, I know, they don’t do stuff like that anymore.
You guys are good - I am laughing at the number of quotes from Kelly’s Heros. My son and I watched it and the Dirty Dozen about a month ago. He is eight and I explained to him that they were some of the best movies of WWII. He ate them up.
Oddball: “I don’t know whats makes them go, I just drive them, wof wof”.
The Bridges at Toko Ri, while fictional, is my favorite. William Holden, Grace Kelly, Fredrich March and Mickey Rooney. An outstanding cast and a great story, set in the 1950s Japan I remember.
“He admires the famed Omaha Beach opening — “Probably the most realistic battle sequence ever filmed,”
I completely and totally disagree....
The most realistic battle sequence ever filmed is from the 1969 Soviet movie “Osvobozhdenie”, or “Liberation”.
It’s an AMAZING sequence involving hundreds of actual German and Soviet tanks, hundreds of aircraft, and tens of thousands of troops, over a 20+ square mile area shot in a single 23 minute long sequence over the actual battlefield at Khursk, depicting the Battle of Khursk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghXWJPU4xdE&feature=related
I always watch Patton on Veteran’s Day. Not only because it’s Veteran’s Day. November 11, 1885 was the birthday of General George Smith Patton Jr.
“No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.”
All my opinion, of course.
All three stand pretty much head and shoulders above some of the other wartime dreck Hollyland has turned out of late. "The Thin Red Line" was completely unwatchable, ditto "Jarhead". "Black Hawk Down" and "We were soldiers" were OK, not great but OK.
There was a Gulf War-based miniseries on HBO not too long ago...made such a lasting impression on me that I can't remember its name. All I remember was that it desperately wanted to be Band of Brothers, and failed miserably.
Post of the day...(and it is still early.)
That’s it. Good song.
I put "Kelly's Heroes" in the same line as "Dirty Dozen", "Tora Tora Tora", and "Midway". Also, "Wake Island", "The Fighting Seabees", and some of the other WWII-era recruiting films. Fun to watch. Not the best acting, directing, effects, story, plot, realism, or anything else.....but really fun to watch.
It’s a movie, of course it fictionalizes, condenses, and uses the great plot elements of human storytelling.
Of course it’s a ‘Dirty Dozens’ story. The plot device of a Band Of Brothers goes back to the story of Ulysses — an ancient plot device and a good one.
Include the three Musketeers, and many many others using the
same theme. It never grows old.
Ryan is a great film.
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