allanradman

The story of the Canadian invasion of Normandy on a beach called Juno. The Canadians were under the command of the British. They were tasked, like everyone else, with certain objectives and given a timetable. And like everyone else, there was a great deal of chaos the night of June 5th and the morning of the 6th. For example, at 5:35 AM June 6th (sunrise will occur at 5:58 AM) 29 amphibious tanks are launched from the US 741st Infantry division, 6 km from Omaha beach. 27 will sink. There are a crew of 5 per tank. The Canadians will experience similar losses at Juno. Paratroopers will land far from the rally point the night prior to the invasion. They will be dispersed and need to find their own way and meet objectives such as taking out German 88s before the bulk of the invasion forces land.

At 6:15 AM, landing craft from Commonwealth forces head towards the beaches.

At 7:20 AM, the naval bombardements on Gold, Juno, and Sword end.

At 7:25 AM, obstacle clearing and demining tanks and vehicles land on Gold, Juno, and Sword.

At 7:45 AM The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division lands on Juno. They will take many casualties securing the beach.

Note: The timetables I provided are the correct ones. The ones in the film may not be as the sunlight on the actors does not jive with the time. If you can get past the hokey special effects this is a very watchable and accurate docudrama based on real events.

A very dark film about a German deserter two weeks before Germany's unconditional surrender. Droves of German regulars are fleeing toward the Western Allied lines to save themselves and put an end to the slaughter. Our main character is one of them being chased by former comrades who want to gun down the coward. Though the war has long been been decided, Hitler declared a fight to the last man, woman or child. If the war is lost then Germany itself should die with it. The black uniforms of the Hitlerites gave little men swelled heads and egos that matched. Men became beasts once they put on that uniform. At the Nuremberg Trials there were stark differences noted between big German generals who once gave orders to annihilate countries and the meek little man at the trials, later at the gallows. This film shows what happens when good becomes evil, and evil good. Put on that uniform of murder and terror, assume the new personality that goes with it, and become a servant to none but the devil. BTW, wait through all the ending credits a little extra.

A cleaver crime thriller with a number of Inter woven coincidences that will leave you wanting to reach in the screen and strangle the main characters by the time you reach the ending. For most of the characters there is no ending. You never find out. All of the one in a billion coincidences come to an intersection where the story focuses on the final chapter. Every one of the crew of main characters have a variety of personality dysfunctions. Only the beasts are normal which is where, I suppose, the title came from. With a little more thought and effort this film could have been much better albeit longer. It's worth watching once and that's it.