kliffnotes

It is just historically inaccurate. The one GI's girlfriend gives him a camera and tells him to send her a photo, every week. Duh,is it a digital camera or a Polaroid? Of course not so where does he get that film developed...Adolf's One Hour Photo? Also, this chick's hair is very modern looking, definitely not a 40's hairstyle. When the GI with the mo-hawk is with his original unit, he is wearing a plain helmet. Later, it sprouts netting. The one guy's helmet has a paratrooper chin strap and the other guy's does not. In addition, the french resistance girl has zip up boots, not authentic to the period. We make a big deal of D- Day and the war in Europe but keep in mind that 69% of the German Army and 90% of the elite troops were deployed on the Russian Front.

OK, enough of the negative. I do feel that the actors tried really hard to do a good job and Lincoln Hoppe had very good intentions, trying to show soldiers on both sides as people, not just stereotypes. As a whole, this is a watchable and entertaining movie. I enjoyed the special features as well as the film.

There were some elements of this film that I found unrealistic and caused me to stop watching. Here are a few examples. At one point, a group of well armed men sit and watch with horror as an Indian on horseback chases down and scalps one of their own. They were carrying long rifles and the distance was clearly within range of a Hawkins type rifle (let's say 100 yards or so). Even if they had been out of range, they could have mounted horses and moved up. In any case, in that situation, I'm sure any frontiersman would have shot that Indian right off of his pony. Also, in one scene, one of the characters picks up a severed turtle head. It looks realistic enough but from the way he squeezes it and it caves in without any resistance, one can see that the head is hollow and made of rubber. A little more careful handling by the actor would not have given this away although we all know a real turtle head wasn't used in filming.