World War II meets Indiana Jones.

Rating: Null/10 (30 December 1998)

As I left the theatre after watching SPR, my first thought was "World War II meets Indiana Jones". There were just too many Spielberg standard cliches in this movie for me to really appreciate his attempt at a "realistic" war movie. The opening 20 minutes was a good attempt at realism, but somehow spoiled by later unbelievable little twists that I found silly. (And seemed more appropriate in a Indiana Jones movie) Yes, some of the things in the movie did happen in real life, but others simply did not, so I question the whole reality thing. If you really want to know what happened, read the eye-witness accounts currently available out there in book stores. I think you'll find some things in the movie accurate, while others far from it. In addition, the movie misses some of the real drama and herosim that went on down on the beaches that day. What about the bravery of General Norman Cota who rallied the men over the beach defenses? What about the role of the Navy Destroyers, who
closed to within 500 yards of the beach and took out numerous pillboxes with their guns? Those stories should be worth at least a mention, in addition to all the blood and gore thats displayed. (By the way, not all the defenders were German, some were captured Russians, Poles, Czechs and Chinese!!)
Still, with all that said, I understand the attempt here at trying to give you the feel of real combat, with all the horror and blood and gore. But ultimately nothing can substitute for the real thing. (Although this movie probably comes closer than any other movie before.) Yet I felt that the display of gore was given too much focus, and that the story was sacrificed in favour of this. I felt something was missing after seeing this movie. In the end, the film-maker tries to make up for this by ending the film with a message. However, the whole film ride to get to that point seems to have little in common to that message.