I've read that "Cleopatra" was way over budget and the studio was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy when this movie arrived. One thing that was different from any other film I've seen in the theater was the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before the movie began. Another was the "another day at the office" approach to the Germans, without the usual "Nazi Schwein!" message. I read Cornelius Ryan's book after seeing the movie just to check up, and found it to be at least as interesting in it's "this is what Feldwebel Krauss was doing on June 6th, 1944" foxhole view. If only the producers of "Midway" had used Walter Lord's "Incredible Victory" instead of a cooked-up soap opera subplot and the "Sensurround" nonsense, I wouldn't hold that movie in the same contempt I have for "Pearl Harbor." But that's Hollyweird for you.