I find the other reviews very mild in their appraisal of this documentary. What were they waiting for? A Cecil B. De Mille production? A Spielberg one full of blood to make it as gore as possible?
I think this documentary as always all the BBC produces,gave a just balance between realism and testimonies of people who actually were part of the event.Moreover it can be viewed by a public of all ages and when I write this I think of the younger generations who were born well after the end of the war and who are moaning and always complaining for their so difficult life! My God they are lucky and do not realize it.
When you see in the movie what was left of Caen after the invasion, you understand what it was.
When you listen to those veterans who were adolescent when thrown into this nightmare, you wonder how you can sleep again after what you went through.
That's what makes this film a great documentary. No fiction, no stupid love affair mixed in the middle of the script to satisfy the sexual appetite of some viewers. This is real, even if some scenes are taken from different great movies by Spielberg or others.
I watched it, and I wept many times admiring the courage of those men facing the inevitable when they landed on the beaches. I'm 72 and being born in Cairo, I remember our anguish at the time of the Battle of El Alamein, I was just only one year old but I clearly remember how frightened I was by the light of the aerial defense in the sky from my bedroom. And I consider myself to be a lucky one as we never really suffered from the war in Egypt. Thanks, Monty!
Yes this is a very good documentary to be showed regularly so that no one should forget what can happen when extremists whether from the right or the left wing take power.
