SAVING SGT. KAMINSKY

Screenplay by Robert Riskin

Muscular WWII prestige piece is packed with gripping battle sequences and meaty characters you pray won’t get wasted by the Krauts. Epic script starts explosively with the Normandy invasion, then settles down to follow a group of GIs led by the cynical Captain Schindler on a suicide mission to rescue Staff Sergeant Kaminsky, who for political reasons must be brought home to his parents in Kansas (his four brothers were killed in action*). When the soldiers locate Sergeant Kaminsky, he is devastated to learn that several of Schindler’s men have lost their lives to rescue him. Last stand at a bagel factory pits our GIs against a horde of Nazi Panzers and everybody gets wiped out except for Kaminsky in the ferocious finale. Plenty of explosive action as tanks and tossed grenades keep the privates fighting, yet script could have used more dissension in combat, not with the enemy, but amongst themselves. Roles to die for are Schindler and the cowardly Kaminsky. The remaining members of the weary platoon are memorable, but not all of them make it out alive.