Just caught this on DVD.
Considering the sparsity of movies recreating Canada's contribution to World War II, this production is a fair retelling of D-Day's Juno beach landings.
The piece was shot in 14 days on a Canadian television budget, so viewers should be warned not to expect "Saving Private Ryan" or "Band of Brothers".
Based on real events and real people, the first part of the feature "Storming Juno" tells the story of three Canadian soldiers - A Tank commander, an infantry rifleman, and a paratrooper. We follow them through the early hours of the 6th of June as two of them fight their way off the beach at Normandy and the third fights to silence an artillery battery 15 kilometres inland.
The second part of the feature, "Remembering Juno" is a documentary featuring interviews with veterans of the landings who describe their experiences. This section is excellent and moving. It's worth the rental just for this documentary.
The acting is uneven. The camera work is very good. The rest is functional.
Again do not expect big budget Hollywood quality special effects. If all you want to see is stuff blow up, rent "Pearl Harbor".
If I give it a 6 out of ten it is purely that the field is wide open. The only other battlefield account that I know about Canada in WWII is the miniseries "Dieppe". Again the battle scenes there are rather lack luster.
Of course there is also the Hollywood pseudo-history (and Dirty Dozen clone) "The Devil's Brigade", but that isn't saying much.
Considering the sparsity of movies recreating Canada's contribution to World War II, this production is a fair retelling of D-Day's Juno beach landings.
The piece was shot in 14 days on a Canadian television budget, so viewers should be warned not to expect "Saving Private Ryan" or "Band of Brothers".
Based on real events and real people, the first part of the feature "Storming Juno" tells the story of three Canadian soldiers - A Tank commander, an infantry rifleman, and a paratrooper. We follow them through the early hours of the 6th of June as two of them fight their way off the beach at Normandy and the third fights to silence an artillery battery 15 kilometres inland.
The second part of the feature, "Remembering Juno" is a documentary featuring interviews with veterans of the landings who describe their experiences. This section is excellent and moving. It's worth the rental just for this documentary.
The acting is uneven. The camera work is very good. The rest is functional.
Again do not expect big budget Hollywood quality special effects. If all you want to see is stuff blow up, rent "Pearl Harbor".
If I give it a 6 out of ten it is purely that the field is wide open. The only other battlefield account that I know about Canada in WWII is the miniseries "Dieppe". Again the battle scenes there are rather lack luster.
Of course there is also the Hollywood pseudo-history (and Dirty Dozen clone) "The Devil's Brigade", but that isn't saying much.