Paula Shackleton Dedicate yourself to viewing a war film or documentary over the course of the Sept 11th Remembrance Holiday W/E. Canada is a modest nation in terms of population, temperament and the size of our film and doc industry. Our story is unique, and it's been too long overshadowed by our American neighbor's mega-industry. Recently, there have been some excellent Canadian films about this nation's contributions in various wars. STORMING JUNO (2010) is one not to miss. An excellent docudrama depicting events on the D-Day invasion when Canadian troops landed at Juno Beach. The director eerily captures the Canadian personae: boys hardly men, of quiet strength, determination, ability and courage; also fear, trepidation and naiveté going to battle, with their remarkable performance against grueling odds. Veteran survivors - now octogenarians are interviewed following the dramatization. Their emotions span pride, shame, sadness, nostalgia and a sort of bewilderment. STORMING JUNO enacts specific events of the men who served in the various divisions: the amphibious tank team, the beach landing team, the paratrooper team, all set on achieving their objectives in a gripping minute by minute story.

davidfurlotte I noticed that both other reviewers took the typical Canadian position to downplay our accomplishments, particularly those of our military, therefore, I choose to give this production 10 out of 10 if for no other reason than to simply say Thank You to the men of our forces, past and present.Although it was a re-enactment of Canada's part in the D-Day landings, it was a factual telling of the experiences of 3 men doing completely different jobs on June 5/6 of 1944. They were scared, they were shaken, but they were steadfast. They had a job to do, and they did it, in fact, they did it as well, if not better than our British and American allies on that fateful day by driving further into France than anybody else.The interviews with the veterans at the end of the movie part of this story was perhaps the most compelling account of what we accomplished. I liked what one veteran said when he reported that now he considers that perhaps he was too stupid to be scared.To say that they did it for Canada, for home and hearth, or for you and me, is simply wrong...they did it for those reasons, but not until much, much later. In fact, they did it for the guy beside them, behind them, in front of them...that is what makes soldiers do what they must. The account of the paymaster having to make report of the dead in his journals shows that, because he wrote down many names on June 6, 1944 that he knew very well, and he cried for their loss. I also cried as I listened and watched this but throughout all of it and at the end, all I could say was Thank You. I say watch it and enjoy a good war story and if you are Canadian, you NEED to watch this and learn.

Marlonius *may contain spoilers* I saw this show at Costco the other day. I'm a sucker for WW2 movies, and when I realized it was a Canadian production, I picked it up.It covers the D-Day landings at Juno from 3 different points of view, a Canadian Paratrooper, Infantryman, and Tank Commander.It's of a limited budget, but with modern CGI effects and clever editing, they actually achieved a lot of bang for their buck. The action doesn't outdo Saving Private Ryan, but it still has some good moments. The CGI is well done, on par with shows like Band of Brothers.The biggest flaw in this show was the narration. It adds very little that couldn't be explained via dialogue, and is often very annoying and distracting.The scene for me that would have been the most dramatic (spoiler) was the tank's arrival on the beach and the tank commander's decision to take out a machine gun instead of the artillery that was about to kill him, but this moment is lost in cheesy narration. It seems that the writer forgot the key rule of filmmaking, "show, don't tell". Much of the suspense throughout is deflated by a narrator speaking up whenever things start getting interesting.Nonetheless, well done in most areas and worth a watch, particularly for the documentary/interviews that follow the "movie" reenactment.

Andre Raymond 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.