1. Saving Private Ryan D-Day
The Scene: A graphic retelling of the allies siege of the beaches of Normandy this is potentially the most engrossing and true to life WW2 action sequence ever put out in the cinemas, weaving a bloody path from the boats to victory this is the unfilmable filmed, and completely unmissable.
Why It Overshadows The Movie: The movie that follows this scene is, well, a little bit naff in comparison. We sidle along from set-piece to set-piece losing an American soldier each time in a very ritualistic fashion. On top of this no-one ever seems to have much to talk about other than this opening sequence, the rest of the film stretches the realism we began the movie with as a small band of soldiers walk through enemy territory to rescue one man; we just saw hundreds of men die without much consideration and we are supposed to believe this one person is more special? Finally whilst the opening sequence gets away with telling the story from a US perspective as thats where the soldiers journeys begin and it best shows off the scale of their challenge what follows is shamelessly biased. Each American death is treated mournfully, people cry out for their mothers and we are pushed to deeply care for them; while each dead Nazi is treated as such, just a dead Nazi and this probably misses some of the point. Whilst the Nazis were the enemies in World War 2 not everyone who fought there were doing so by choice, just like not all of the US soldiers were, they were made to follow orders. The cheap sub-plot of a German soldier who the US showed compassion to coming back to unashamedly kill the person who set him free is a clear example of this failing and why the movie never matches the brilliance of its opening act. That was realism. The rest is very Hollywood.