A very powerful movie

Rating: 10/10 (3 August 1999)

I saw this movie the day it opened not knowing much about it beforehand. I was really blown aray. This was without a doubt, the most realistic portrayal of war I've ever seen in a movie. The D-Day re-enactment alone is one of the most powerful scenes ever put to film. This movie is the flip side of those glamorized Hollywood John Wayne movies from the 40's. And the scary thing is, as real it it looked, it's still probably not as real as it actually was.
I'd never seen an audience so silent leaving a movie theater before. I left that theater with a new appreciation for the people who fought and died in World War II. I recently gathered up the courage to see this movie a second time when it came out on video and it lost none of the emotional imact it had on me the first time. A true mark of a great film. In the summer that gave us "Godzilla," "Armageddon" and "The Avengers," this movie was a breath of fresh air.