[Gay State Conservative]

My Dad was there. He says that that is exactly the way Omaha Beach was.The noise, the confusion,the smoke and dust.

I remember a number of pieces appearing on the tube when Private Ryan was released in which guys who were there said that Speilberg got it exactly right during that first half hour.

[Phsstpok]

The first war film my Dad thought got the feeling right was a very minor one from 1969, The Bridge at Remagen. It wasn't much of a movie (not bad, just not that memorable) but he said it really nailed the atmosphere, particularly the constant dust clouds and the noise of engines and the like. And, of course, the fact that 90% of the time was tedium and schlepping from one place to another.

Ryan caught all of that and combined it with the terror and confusion of combat and how you just had to "soldier on." Not heroics, per se, just doing the job. And he'd been a drill instructor at Camp Croft since the lead up to Operation Torch, then on to England for the build up and more training. He had all of the actions down as second nature through all of the drills. It wasn't the same, but you fell back on training, he said, as the only thing you could do.