Hokey history

Rating: 5/10 (12 June 2001)

Aside from the first 15 minutes, where the near disaster on Omaha beach is effectively portrayed, the rest of the film is a standard John Wayne, 'Sands of Iwo Jima" type propaganda film made up of the most mundane and unbelievable tripe. If the truth be told, the American forces at Omaha would have been pushed back into the sea except for the British and Canadian forces immediately on their left flank who achieved ALL their objectives that day and pinned down the bulk of the Germans forces within their HQ area centred in Caen and thus prevented them from swinging south and completely obliterating the Omaha beachhead. Aside from that historical fact (not referred to in the film), the movie had other major shortcomings, ie; - no combat commander in his right mind would risk the lives of a full patrol to rescue a single, "Private Ryan", no matter what the reason; - no platoon leader (played by Tom Hanks) would go into combat with his officer stripes shining brightly on his helmet. To do so would invite an immediate sniper bullet from Germans who specifically targeted officers for priority elimination. - no platoon leader would insist on attacking an enemy strongpoint unnecessarily - especially since his orders were to only to "get Private Ryan". He could have detoured around the strong point but instead chose to attack it and lose some of his valuable platoon members. Why? - Tom Hanks and his heroic defence of the French town which climaxed the film was frankly unbelievable. The Germans may have been the enemy, but they were not stupid. In real life, Hanks and his little patrol would have surrendered or been brushed aside within seconds by a determined German force backed by tanks. When, oh when, are the Americans going to produce a realistic war movie which truthfully captures the events, flavour and outcome of combat reality without the John Wayne histrionics?