8 Craziest, Bloodiest & Most Insane Battles in Film History
4. Storming Omaha Beach - Saving Private Ryan
I have mixed feelings about the work of Steven Spielberg (I'm not a sentimental kind of guy) but you can't deny his technical abilities or that he delivered one of the craziest, goriest and most insane moments in cinema with his 1998 film Saving Private Ryan. Spielberg wanted to bring a sense of realism to onscreen battle he thought war films lacked up until that point. Spielberg achieved his goal and anyone whose seen Saving Private Ryan can't forget the opening scene: the storming of Omaha Beach.
Spielberg goes full tilt in a manic sequence that spans 27 minutes, employed 1,500 extras and cost $12 million. Many flourishes make this battle one of the craziest ever: German soldiers are lit on fire and left to burn to death, whole squads are downed by a machineguns before they can get off their u-boats but, perhaps the most insane touch comes when Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) watches as a soldier scour the sands like he's looking for a lost wallet only to see the soldier retrieve his own severed arm and run up the beach with it. Spielberg earn his spot in the Crazy Hall of Fame with that one.