Breakthrough (1950)

Today is the 75th anniversary of the Allied forces landing in Normandy on D-Day, so I decided to watch 6 movies about that historic day that were each made in different decades which give a slightly different perspective on the events of that fateful day.

Here is the review of the final film that I watched.

Enjoy!

“Nobody’s indispensable, not in this Army and finding that out is a real rough deal.” – Capt. Tom Hale

Number of Times Seen – 1 (5 Jun 2019)

Brief Synopsis – An American combat unit lands in Normandy and must progress through the country with a new commanding officer.

My Take on it – This ia nother film that I had never heard of before watching it and came across it while trying to find a film about D-Day to watch for this historic anniversary of the Allied Invasion of Normandy 75 years ago today.

This is quite an interesting film because it is able to give us a perspective on the events of that day from a fresh point in time when most of the people working on this film could get first hand knowledge of the events depicted.

The fact that this was made a mere 6 years after the events themselves helps add to the realism of it all especially since they were able to get a wealth of technical advice from men who fought through those harrowing days firsthand that can help in the way that the characters and story are depicted.

They do a nice job developing the characters and allow us to get to know each of them.

They are able to tackle the subject of commanding soldiers in a very intelligent way which allows us to see the positive aspects of befriending your subordinates and commanders yet also the dangers and pitfalls of doing that too.

This is also shown by the way that we get to see the various levels of command and how they deal with one another.

The choice of using relatively unknown actors in this film was a great idea since it allows for us to get a better perspective of the way that the “every-man” was part of the fighting and this helps with the realism of it all.

Bottom Line – This is quite an interesting film that gives a great perspective on the events of D-Day and the days following. The fact that this film was made just 6 years after the events of D-Day gives them a viewpoint of the events that hasn’t been matched since due to the wealth of technical advice that they were able to rely upon in depicting these characters and this story. The characters are developed quite well and they deal with the issue of how commander and soldiers relate to one another in these kind of situations and that could cause some issues if they don’t know how to make a clear cut between the different levels of command. The choice to use mostly unknown actors works really well in keeping this story down to Earth while also giving us the “every-man” perspective on the fighting during World War II. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – This film’s opening prologue states: “With the American Troops in England. The Spring of 1944.” (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (8/10)