Will Gets Gored

Shabbat Shalom, Stroock's Books Kibbutzim. 

Click here for what we wrote about D-Day five years ago. It's almost exactly what we began writing this morning when we realized, we've written all this before.  We were also re-writing this. 

One day after the D-Day celebrations we wonder, can it be there are really only two movies about D-Day worth remembering? Of course these are The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan. We can think of a few peripheral movies, like D-Day, the 6th of June, but that's about it, right?  

Revisiting old ground, Saving Private Ryan is considered a classic, but we think it's a dystopian nightmare of moral relativism. When people talk about SPR's greatness, they're really talking about the opening blockbuster Omaha Beach scene. Admittedly this is probably one of the ten greatest achievements in all cinema. Bravo, Mr. Spielberg. But sorry folks, the rest of SPR is a slog.  

The Longest Day is far better. This film captures the scope, the enormity, the greatness of the Normandy invasion. The best combat sequence is the French assault on Ouistreham, with its single camera helo shot. Not that TLD doesn't have its flaws. Most of the British bits are silly, very much a product of their time. Speaking of TLD feels like 1962. And where are the Canadians? 

So, we were talking to one of our people yesterday about World War 1990: Thatcher's War. This is one of those young fellas we address on occasion here at Stroock's Books. Naturally, he doesn't know much about Dan Quayle. We were intrigued to learn that he didn't know about all the Quayle jokes and gaffs that made the veep late night TV fodder from 1988-1992. The Kennedy debate flub, misspelling potato, Murphy Brown, and our favorite, saying he had to brush up on his Latin for a trip to Latin America. Oh, and he also didn't know about Algore claiming to have invented the internet. To quote Mr. Spock, fascinating.