too real/ not entertaining

Rating: 5/10 (29 May 2005)

Anyone else have dreams about Omaha Beach after watching this movie? While I say the movie is too real, I do have one comment on the authenticity. If Tom Hank's character was in the first wave onto Omaha, he, and the rest of the cast probably would've been killed, too. Gosh, how's that for an entertaining thought? I remember feeling like I got hit by an 88 after the first 20 minutes. And then you get to see lingering individual death scenes after almost every sequence (the slow knife death in the house fight was senseless). I am a history major, but I don't like accurate history movies (a lot of history is depressing). I'll read about it. So, I guess I am not the target audience for this movie; I do like some war movies (Big Red One, Blackhawk Down, Platoon). I'll give Steven Spielberg credit for honoring the memory of World War II vets in demonstrating the horror and frustration they went through, but I can only watch that once. When you watch someone die in The Longest Day, you think "oh no, there goes Sal Mineo"; with Ryan, you know that was a real person who just flopped out of his landing craft and drowned. I'm sure that is what war is really like, I just don't want to eat popcorn in front of it.