Everybody knows about Omaha Beach on D Day, the Sixth of June, 1944, because that was where the landings were truly blunted. But we don't hear much about the landings by the Canadians are Juno Beach, just down the road.This lacks the lavish budget and dramatic screenplay of "Saving Private Ryan" but generally does a convincing job of showing true -- not fictional -- events on and behind the flat sands of Juno, though the film was shot on the shores of Lake Ontario.Instead of staged combat, newsreel footage of the historical events is inserted -- effectively. And the incidents shown have the virtue of being reenactments of real events.It's not a long film and it lacks the perspective of "The Longest Day." And it's usually confusing to hear narration by two participants -- a tank commander and a paratrooper -- using voices so similar that it's hard to distinguish them. "I did this," says one voice, and we see a tank commander shouting orders. And without notice, we hear what appears to be the same voice saying something similar and we're way behind the lines with a tiny group of infantrymen.An earlier attempt was made to show some of the sacrifices of Canadians in "Dieppe" -- the story of a disaster -- but again was hobbled by a low budget, so that much of the story was confined to military leaders arguing over the planning.It's not a bad film. It resembles a TV documentary using reenactors.

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.

I found this movie while at Huno Beach in France, and I am a sucker for movies like this, so I picked it up. I must say, it is very well done. Substancially different from most war movies I have seen, the narration can be a bit confusing at times, and distracting. During the duration of the movie, the director uses narration when the scenes themselves should be enough to explain the details to us viewers, therefor the narration becomes a distraction. Despite that happening in only a few scenes, the only other problem I have with this movie was when it switches point of views, that also became a bit confusing if you were not paying attention at the beginning. Other than that, I would have to say this film is extremely well done, and it tells the story of the Canadians and Juno Beach very well. A good movie for anyone who is into history and wars.

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.