Dunkirk

[CBStew]

A well made movie.  It tells the story of the evacuation of over 300,000 mostly British troops from France back to England.  It was an amazing feat and had it not been successful you might be speaking German today.   You, not me, because I wouldn't be here at all.  This is not a date movie.  Clichés?  Yes.  It is hard to make a war movie without them.

[Tonker]

My grandfather (Sid), having joined his local infantry regiment at the age of 18, lied about his age to go to France with the BEF in 1939.  Having come from a family of railwaymen, he was transferred to the Royal Corps of Engineers and after having organised a fleet of trains back from Belgium to Normandy during the evacuation (switching station signs as he went), he got as far as Dunkirk, only to find it already cut off by the Germans.

He continued West and South until fetching up in St. Nazaire on the Atlantic coast (where Hitler subsequently established his submarine pens), where he then helped to organise another Dunkirk-style evacuation.  The RMS Lancastria was moored in the estuary outside St. Nazaire, and Sid spent many hours putting people onto small boats to be ferried out to the big liner.  Eventually, his commanding officer told him to get out to the Lancastria himself, but when he got there, he was told it was full and he had to watch it sail away towards the Atlantic.

Before the Lancastria got to the open sea, a German bomber dropped a bomb down its smokestack into the engine room, blowing the bottom of the boat out, setting fire to its oil on the surface of the water.  It's generally reckoned that around 4,000 people perished that day, more than on the Titanic and the Lusitania combined.

Sid got out on another boat, only to go back (via North Africa) to Arromanches (Gold beach) to set up the Mulberry Harbours there during the Normandy landings.  Before he died, I went back to both Arromanches and St. Nazaire with Sid and my father (a career soldier), and it remains one of the greatest things I ever did.

Anyway, I just thought I'd mention it.  As you were.

[CBStew]

My grandfather (Sid), having joined his local infantry regiment at the age of 18, lied about his age to go to France with the BEF in 1939.  Having come from a family of railwaymen, he was transferred to the Royal Corps of Engineers and after having organised a fleet of trains back from Belgium to Normandy during the evacuation (switching station signs as he went), he got as far as Dunkirk, only to find it already cut off by the Germans.

He continued West and South until fetching up in St. Nazaire on the Atlantic coast (where Hitler subsequently established his submarine pens), where he then helped to organise another Dunkirk-style evacuation.  The RMS Lancastria was moored in the estuary outside St. Nazaire, and Sid spent many hours putting people onto small boats to be ferried out to the big liner.  Eventually, his commanding officer told him to get out to the Lancastria himself, but when he got there, he was told it was full and he had to watch it sail away towards the Atlantic.

Before the Lancastria got to the open sea, a German bomber dropped a bomb down its smokestack into the engine room, blowing the bottom of the boat out, setting fire to its oil on the surface of the water.  It's generally reckoned that around 4,000 people perished that day, more than on the Titanic and the Lusitania combined.

Sid got out on another boat, only to go back (via North Africa) to Arromanches (Gold beach) to set up the Mulberry Harbours there during the Normandy landings.  Before he died, I went back to both Arromanches and St. Nazaire with Sid and my father (a career soldier), and it remains one of the greatest things I ever did.

Anyway, I just thought I'd mention it.  As you were.

From what you describe I think that this movie is based on your uncle Sid.  Since you haven't seen the movie yet I can't call "Spoiler Alert!" on you.

[Quality Start Machine]

My grandfather (Sid), having joined his local infantry regiment at the age of 18, lied about his age to go to France with the BEF in 1939.  Having come from a family of railwaymen, he was transferred to the Royal Corps of Engineers and after having organised a fleet of trains back from Belgium to Normandy during the evacuation (switching station signs as he went), he got as far as Dunkirk, only to find it already cut off by the Germans.

He continued West and South until fetching up in St. Nazaire on the Atlantic coast (where Hitler subsequently established his submarine pens), where he then helped to organise another Dunkirk-style evacuation.  The RMS Lancastria was moored in the estuary outside St. Nazaire, and Sid spent many hours putting people onto small boats to be ferried out to the big liner.  Eventually, his commanding officer told him to get out to the Lancastria himself, but when he got there, he was told it was full and he had to watch it sail away towards the Atlantic.

Before the Lancastria got to the open sea, a German bomber dropped a bomb down its smokestack into the engine room, blowing the bottom of the boat out, setting fire to its oil on the surface of the water.  It's generally reckoned that around 4,000 people perished that day, more than on the Titanic and the Lusitania combined.

Sid got out on another boat, only to go back (via North Africa) to Arromanches (Gold beach) to set up the Mulberry Harbours there during the Normandy landings.  Before he died, I went back to both Arromanches and St. Nazaire with Sid and my father (a career soldier), and it remains one of the greatest things I ever did.

Anyway, I just thought I'd mention it.  As you were.

From what you describe I think that this movie is based on your uncle Sid.  Since you haven't seen the movie yet I can't call "Spoiler Alert!" on you.

"Tonk's Uncle Sid" is a fucking kickass title for a movie.

[Tonker]

My grandfather (Sid), having joined his local infantry regiment at the age of 18, lied about his age to go to France with the BEF in 1939.  Having come from a family of railwaymen, he was transferred to the Royal Corps of Engineers and after having organised a fleet of trains back from Belgium to Normandy during the evacuation (switching station signs as he went), he got as far as Dunkirk, only to find it already cut off by the Germans.

He continued West and South until fetching up in St. Nazaire on the Atlantic coast (where Hitler subsequently established his submarine pens), where he then helped to organise another Dunkirk-style evacuation.  The RMS Lancastria was moored in the estuary outside St. Nazaire, and Sid spent many hours putting people onto small boats to be ferried out to the big liner.  Eventually, his commanding officer told him to get out to the Lancastria himself, but when he got there, he was told it was full and he had to watch it sail away towards the Atlantic.

Before the Lancastria got to the open sea, a German bomber dropped a bomb down its smokestack into the engine room, blowing the bottom of the boat out, setting fire to its oil on the surface of the water.  It's generally reckoned that around 4,000 people perished that day, more than on the Titanic and the Lusitania combined.

Sid got out on another boat, only to go back (via North Africa) to Arromanches (Gold beach) to set up the Mulberry Harbours there during the Normandy landings.  Before he died, I went back to both Arromanches and St. Nazaire with Sid and my father (a career soldier), and it remains one of the greatest things I ever did.

Anyway, I just thought I'd mention it.  As you were.

From what you describe I think that this movie is based on your uncle Sid.  Since you haven't seen the movie yet I can't call "Spoiler Alert!" on you.

"Tonk's Uncle Sid" is a fucking kickass title for a movie.

It would be, if he hadn't been my grandfather.

[Saul Goodman]

My grandfather (Sid), having joined his local infantry regiment at the age of 18, lied about his age to go to France with the BEF in 1939.  Having come from a family of railwaymen, he was transferred to the Royal Corps of Engineers and after having organised a fleet of trains back from Belgium to Normandy during the evacuation (switching station signs as he went), he got as far as Dunkirk, only to find it already cut off by the Germans.

He continued West and South until fetching up in St. Nazaire on the Atlantic coast (where Hitler subsequently established his submarine pens), where he then helped to organise another Dunkirk-style evacuation.  The RMS Lancastria was moored in the estuary outside St. Nazaire, and Sid spent many hours putting people onto small boats to be ferried out to the big liner.  Eventually, his commanding officer told him to get out to the Lancastria himself, but when he got there, he was told it was full and he had to watch it sail away towards the Atlantic.

Before the Lancastria got to the open sea, a German bomber dropped a bomb down its smokestack into the engine room, blowing the bottom of the boat out, setting fire to its oil on the surface of the water.  It's generally reckoned that around 4,000 people perished that day, more than on the Titanic and the Lusitania combined.

Sid got out on another boat, only to go back (via North Africa) to Arromanches (Gold beach) to set up the Mulberry Harbours there during the Normandy landings.  Before he died, I went back to both Arromanches and St. Nazaire with Sid and my father (a career soldier), and it remains one of the greatest things I ever did.

Anyway, I just thought I'd mention it.  As you were.

From what you describe I think that this movie is based on your uncle Sid.  Since you haven't seen the movie yet I can't call "Spoiler Alert!" on you.

"Tonk's Uncle Sid" is a fucking kickass title for a movie.

It would be, if he hadn't been my grandfather.

Fork's right, I loved this story about Tonk's neighbor Sal.

[Quality Start Machine]

My grandfather (Sid), having joined his local infantry regiment at the age of 18, lied about his age to go to France with the BEF in 1939.  Having come from a family of railwaymen, he was transferred to the Royal Corps of Engineers and after having organised a fleet of trains back from Belgium to Normandy during the evacuation (switching station signs as he went), he got as far as Dunkirk, only to find it already cut off by the Germans.

He continued West and South until fetching up in St. Nazaire on the Atlantic coast (where Hitler subsequently established his submarine pens), where he then helped to organise another Dunkirk-style evacuation.  The RMS Lancastria was moored in the estuary outside St. Nazaire, and Sid spent many hours putting people onto small boats to be ferried out to the big liner.  Eventually, his commanding officer told him to get out to the Lancastria himself, but when he got there, he was told it was full and he had to watch it sail away towards the Atlantic.

Before the Lancastria got to the open sea, a German bomber dropped a bomb down its smokestack into the engine room, blowing the bottom of the boat out, setting fire to its oil on the surface of the water.  It's generally reckoned that around 4,000 people perished that day, more than on the Titanic and the Lusitania combined.

Sid got out on another boat, only to go back (via North Africa) to Arromanches (Gold beach) to set up the Mulberry Harbours there during the Normandy landings.  Before he died, I went back to both Arromanches and St. Nazaire with Sid and my father (a career soldier), and it remains one of the greatest things I ever did.

Anyway, I just thought I'd mention it.  As you were.

From what you describe I think that this movie is based on your uncle Sid.  Since you haven't seen the movie yet I can't call "Spoiler Alert!" on you.

"Tonk's Uncle Sid" is a fucking kickass title for a movie.

It would be, if he hadn't been my grandfather.

Fork's right, I loved this story about Tonk's neighbor Sal.

Sal's the other neighbor.

[CBStew]

My grandfather (Sid), having joined his local infantry regiment at the age of 18, lied about his age to go to France with the BEF in 1939.  Having come from a family of railwaymen, he was transferred to the Royal Corps of Engineers and after having organised a fleet of trains back from Belgium to Normandy during the evacuation (switching station signs as he went), he got as far as Dunkirk, only to find it already cut off by the Germans.

He continued West and South until fetching up in St. Nazaire on the Atlantic coast (where Hitler subsequently established his submarine pens), where he then helped to organise another Dunkirk-style evacuation.  The RMS Lancastria was moored in the estuary outside St. Nazaire, and Sid spent many hours putting people onto small boats to be ferried out to the big liner.  Eventually, his commanding officer told him to get out to the Lancastria himself, but when he got there, he was told it was full and he had to watch it sail away towards the Atlantic.

Before the Lancastria got to the open sea, a German bomber dropped a bomb down its smokestack into the engine room, blowing the bottom of the boat out, setting fire to its oil on the surface of the water.  It's generally reckoned that around 4,000 people perished that day, more than on the Titanic and the Lusitania combined.

Sid got out on another boat, only to go back (via North Africa) to Arromanches (Gold beach) to set up the Mulberry Harbours there during the Normandy landings.  Before he died, I went back to both Arromanches and St. Nazaire with Sid and my father (a career soldier), and it remains one of the greatest things I ever did.

Anyway, I just thought I'd mention it.  As you were.

From what you describe I think that this movie is based on your uncle Sid.  Since you haven't seen the movie yet I can't call "Spoiler Alert!" on you.

"Tonk's Uncle Sid" is a fucking kickass title for a movie.

It would be, if he hadn't been my grandfather.

Fork's right, I loved this story about Tonk's neighbor Sal.

Sal's the other neighbor.

...and happens to be his grandfather's cousin.

[Quality Start Machine]

My grandfather (Sid), having joined his local infantry regiment at the age of 18, lied about his age to go to France with the BEF in 1939.  Having come from a family of railwaymen, he was transferred to the Royal Corps of Engineers and after having organised a fleet of trains back from Belgium to Normandy during the evacuation (switching station signs as he went), he got as far as Dunkirk, only to find it already cut off by the Germans.

He continued West and South until fetching up in St. Nazaire on the Atlantic coast (where Hitler subsequently established his submarine pens), where he then helped to organise another Dunkirk-style evacuation.  The RMS Lancastria was moored in the estuary outside St. Nazaire, and Sid spent many hours putting people onto small boats to be ferried out to the big liner.  Eventually, his commanding officer told him to get out to the Lancastria himself, but when he got there, he was told it was full and he had to watch it sail away towards the Atlantic.

Before the Lancastria got to the open sea, a German bomber dropped a bomb down its smokestack into the engine room, blowing the bottom of the boat out, setting fire to its oil on the surface of the water.  It's generally reckoned that around 4,000 people perished that day, more than on the Titanic and the Lusitania combined.

Sid got out on another boat, only to go back (via North Africa) to Arromanches (Gold beach) to set up the Mulberry Harbours there during the Normandy landings.  Before he died, I went back to both Arromanches and St. Nazaire with Sid and my father (a career soldier), and it remains one of the greatest things I ever did.

Anyway, I just thought I'd mention it.  As you were.

From what you describe I think that this movie is based on your uncle Sid.  Since you haven't seen the movie yet I can't call "Spoiler Alert!" on you.

"Tonk's Uncle Sid" is a fucking kickass title for a movie.

It would be, if he hadn't been my grandfather.

Fork's right, I loved this story about Tonk's neighbor Sal.

Sal's the other neighbor.

...and happens to be his grandfather's cousin.

A song cue if ever I heard one.

[Canadouche]

You made me laugh.

But yeah, this movie is awesome. Pretty much everything Nolan does is amazing. I saw it on Tuesday in an IMAX (and it was filmed with IMAX in mind, so if you have one near you, go see it there), and then watched it again on Friday with a colleague of mine, who is a total war buff. The movie is under 2 hours and has great pacing - it gets so tense that I was shocked to learn it was only rated PG.

[Tonker]

So I finally saw this in IMAX, and honestly, I have to admit to some confusion as to what the fuss is all about.  I thought it was poor at best, and parts of it were absolutely bloody awful.  The whole thing stands or falls on whether you give a shit about the characters and with the exception of the two young lads on the civilian boat, and maybe Tom Hardy's Spitfire pilot, I simply didn't care about any of them.  You're not given any back story and there's essentially no dialogue which means that the characters never develop at all, and so what you're left with is just moving, speaking mannequins.  The parts that are obviously supposed to be deep and meaningful [SPOILERS] - Cilian Murphy's shell shock; the head injury to and death of the kid on the boat; Ken Branagh's decision to stay behind - end up as little more than sketches or anecdotes because the outcome just doesn't matter to you.

The cinematography is weird - the weather and state of the sea jump around so much (even in scenes nominally set in the same time and place) that you have to wonder if they cared at all about that kind of continuity, or if it just got too difficult and they gave up.  The timeline isn't nearly as fucking clever as it thinks it is and when you break it down it's an extremely simple story which is being given a veneer of complexity by all the jumping around.  The scale is all wrong - for an evacuation of three hundred thousand men, it's just not convincing at all.  All the supposedly "packed" ships are visibly just one person deep on deck, and if there are five hundred people waiting on the beach and another five hundred on the jetty, that's all there is.  The urban stuff was absolutely full of anachronisms and the whole thing failed to immerse me in any way.

As for the soundtrack?  Christ on a bike.  I love Elgar's Enigma variations as much as the next man - hearing "Nimrod" played by a miltary band is guaranteed to turn me into a snotty, snivelling mess - but Zimmer has got it badly, badly wrong here.  His score doesn't so much support the film as SHOUT OVER IT.  Horrible.

Christopher Nolan?  Christopher Noshitsgiven, more like.

[SKO]

So I finally saw this in IMAX, and honestly, I have to admit to some confusion as to what the fuss is all about.  I thought it was poor at best, and parts of it were absolutely bloody awful.  The whole thing stands or falls on whether you give a shit about the characters and with the exception of the two young lads on the civilian boat, and maybe Tom Hardy's Spitfire pilot, I simply didn't care about any of them.  You're not given any back story and there's essentially no dialogue which means that the characters never develop at all, and so what you're left with is just moving, speaking mannequins.  The parts that are obviously supposed to be deep and meaningful [SPOILERS] - Cilian Murphy's shell shock; the head injury to and death of the kid on the boat; Ken Branagh's decision to stay behind - end up as little more than sketches or anecdotes because the outcome just doesn't matter to you.

The cinematography is weird - the weather and state of the sea jump around so much (even in scenes nominally set in the same time and place) that you have to wonder if they cared at all about that kind of continuity, or if it just got too difficult and they gave up.  The timeline isn't nearly as fucking clever as it thinks it is and when you break it down it's an extremely simple story which is being given a veneer of complexity by all the jumping around.  The scale is all wrong - for an evacuation of three hundred thousand men, it's just not convincing at all.  All the supposedly "packed" ships are visibly just one person deep on deck, and if there are five hundred people waiting on the beach and another five hundred on the jetty, that's all there is.  The urban stuff was absolutely full of anachronisms and the whole thing failed to immerse me in any way.

As for the soundtrack?  Christ on a bike.  I love Elgar's Enigma variations as much as the next man - hearing "Nimrod" played by a miltary band is guaranteed to turn me into a snotty, snivelling mess - but Zimmer has got it badly, badly wrong here.  His score doesn't so much support the film as SHOUT OVER IT.  Horrible.

Christopher Nolan?  Christopher Noshitsgiven, more like.

Hans Zimmer is so hit or miss with me. Look everyone knows I fuck a box set of Nolan's Batman movies before I go to bed every night but I'd still take Danny Elfman's Batman score over Zimmer every time. I like his main theme for Man of Steel but the rest was, as you said, shouting over the movie, and it got even worse in Batman v Superman. Every time I considered maybe actually giving a shit about one of the convoluted scenes in that movie Zimmer was there to scream BWAAAANG BWONG BWONG BWONG BWAAAAANG so loud you'd check back out.

Also his famous Pirates of the Caribbean thing is basically exactly the same as the one he used for Gladiator.

[Chuck to Chuck]

So I finally saw this in IMAX, and honestly, I have to admit to some confusion as to what the fuss is all about.  I thought it was poor at best, and parts of it were absolutely bloody awful.  The whole thing stands or falls on whether you give a shit about the characters and with the exception of the two young lads on the civilian boat, and maybe Tom Hardy's Spitfire pilot, I simply didn't care about any of them.  You're not given any back story and there's essentially no dialogue which means that the characters never develop at all, and so what you're left with is just moving, speaking mannequins.  The parts that are obviously supposed to be deep and meaningful [SPOILERS] - Cilian Murphy's shell shock; the head injury to and death of the kid on the boat; Ken Branagh's decision to stay behind - end up as little more than sketches or anecdotes because the outcome just doesn't matter to you.

The cinematography is weird - the weather and state of the sea jump around so much (even in scenes nominally set in the same time and place) that you have to wonder if they cared at all about that kind of continuity, or if it just got too difficult and they gave up.  The timeline isn't nearly as fucking clever as it thinks it is and when you break it down it's an extremely simple story which is being given a veneer of complexity by all the jumping around.  The scale is all wrong - for an evacuation of three hundred thousand men, it's just not convincing at all.  All the supposedly "packed" ships are visibly just one person deep on deck, and if there are five hundred people waiting on the beach and another five hundred on the jetty, that's all there is.  The urban stuff was absolutely full of anachronisms and the whole thing failed to immerse me in any way.

As for the soundtrack?  Christ on a bike.  I love Elgar's Enigma variations as much as the next man - hearing "Nimrod" played by a miltary band is guaranteed to turn me into a snotty, snivelling mess - but Zimmer has got it badly, badly wrong here.  His score doesn't so much support the film as SHOUT OVER IT.  Horrible.

Christopher Nolan?  Christopher Noshitsgiven, more like.

Hans Zimmer is so hit or miss with me. Look everyone knows I fuck a box set of Nolan's Batman movies before I go to bed every night but I'd still take Danny Elfman's Batman score over Zimmer every time. I like his main theme for Man of Steel but the rest was, as you said, shouting over the movie, and it got even worse in Batman v Superman. Every time I considered maybe actually giving a shit about one of the convoluted scenes in that movie Zimmer was there to scream BWAAAANG BWONG BWONG BWONG BWAAAAANG so loud you'd check back out.

Also his famous Pirates of the Caribbean thing is basically exactly the same as the one he used for Gladiator.

And very similar to the score he used for Crimson Tide.

Eldest Murton and I debate John Williams scores all the time. He's so good we've actually had to break it down like this:

1) Best score for an entire film.
2) Best theme.
3) Best set piece within a film.

FYI, I go with:

1) Empire Strikes Back
2) Leia's Theme
3) The Asteroid Field

Special Merit awards to the scores from Jaws and Close Encounters as, without them, the films don't work as well.

[Saul Goodman]

So I finally saw this in IMAX, and honestly, I have to admit to some confusion as to what the fuss is all about.  I thought it was poor at best, and parts of it were absolutely bloody awful.  The whole thing stands or falls on whether you give a shit about the characters and with the exception of the two young lads on the civilian boat, and maybe Tom Hardy's Spitfire pilot, I simply didn't care about any of them.  You're not given any back story and there's essentially no dialogue which means that the characters never develop at all, and so what you're left with is just moving, speaking mannequins.  The parts that are obviously supposed to be deep and meaningful [SPOILERS] - Cilian Murphy's shell shock; the head injury to and death of the kid on the boat; Ken Branagh's decision to stay behind - end up as little more than sketches or anecdotes because the outcome just doesn't matter to you.

The cinematography is weird - the weather and state of the sea jump around so much (even in scenes nominally set in the same time and place) that you have to wonder if they cared at all about that kind of continuity, or if it just got too difficult and they gave up.  The timeline isn't nearly as fucking clever as it thinks it is and when you break it down it's an extremely simple story which is being given a veneer of complexity by all the jumping around.  The scale is all wrong - for an evacuation of three hundred thousand men, it's just not convincing at all.  All the supposedly "packed" ships are visibly just one person deep on deck, and if there are five hundred people waiting on the beach and another five hundred on the jetty, that's all there is.  The urban stuff was absolutely full of anachronisms and the whole thing failed to immerse me in any way.

As for the soundtrack?  Christ on a bike.  I love Elgar's Enigma variations as much as the next man - hearing "Nimrod" played by a miltary band is guaranteed to turn me into a snotty, snivelling mess - but Zimmer has got it badly, badly wrong here.  His score doesn't so much support the film as SHOUT OVER IT.  Horrible.

Christopher Nolan?  Christopher Noshitsgiven, more like.

Whoa... I couldn't figure out what I thought of this film, but you've nailed it. I would've preferred an entire movie about the Spitfire pilots, honestly.

[CBStew]

So I finally saw this in IMAX, and honestly, I have to admit to some confusion as to what the fuss is all about.  I thought it was poor at best, and parts of it were absolutely bloody awful.  The whole thing stands or falls on whether you give a shit about the characters and with the exception of the two young lads on the civilian boat, and maybe Tom Hardy's Spitfire pilot, I simply didn't care about any of them.  You're not given any back story and there's essentially no dialogue which means that the characters never develop at all, and so what you're left with is just moving, speaking mannequins.  The parts that are obviously supposed to be deep and meaningful [SPOILERS] - Cilian Murphy's shell shock; the head injury to and death of the kid on the boat; Ken Branagh's decision to stay behind - end up as little more than sketches or anecdotes because the outcome just doesn't matter to you.

The cinematography is weird - the weather and state of the sea jump around so much (even in scenes nominally set in the same time and place) that you have to wonder if they cared at all about that kind of continuity, or if it just got too difficult and they gave up.  The timeline isn't nearly as fucking clever as it thinks it is and when you break it down it's an extremely simple story which is being given a veneer of complexity by all the jumping around.  The scale is all wrong - for an evacuation of three hundred thousand men, it's just not convincing at all.  All the supposedly "packed" ships are visibly just one person deep on deck, and if there are five hundred people waiting on the beach and another five hundred on the jetty, that's all there is.  The urban stuff was absolutely full of anachronisms and the whole thing failed to immerse me in any way.

As for the soundtrack?  Christ on a bike.  I love Elgar's Enigma variations as much as the next man - hearing "Nimrod" played by a miltary band is guaranteed to turn me into a snotty, snivelling mess - but Zimmer has got it badly, badly wrong here.  His score doesn't so much support the film as SHOUT OVER IT.  Horrible.

Christopher Nolan?  Christopher Noshitsgiven, more like.

Whoa... I couldn't figure out what I thought of this film, but you've nailed it. I would've preferred an entire movie about the Spitfire pilots, honestly.

If you came looking for a plot then you came to the wrong movie.  This is a depiction of an event in history.   The English, and some French, got their asses kicked in Europe and were potentially in for worse unless they could escape.  You can't tell hundreds of thousands of stories in 2 1/2 hours, so the filmmakers had to design episodes to give us civilians a taste of what they thought it was like.  It is an action movie.  I thought that it gave a sense of the desperation and urgency.  War movies in my youth were unreal and mostly propaganda for the home folk.  There was the hero, probably named Steve, a guy from Brooklyn played either by William Bendix or that guy with the moustache,  a country boy, he usually got killed, and the gruff sergeant with the heart of gold.  Saving Private Ryan was a great movie in my opinion, and it too had more than its share of clichés.  This is a very good action movie.  Don't go expecting Henry the sixth, Part One.