No Day at the Beach story
In World War II, Arnold Skamp, a GI rebuked by his fellow soldiers, becomes a war hero by saving them all with apparent miraculous abilities during the charge on Port Nuovo. Directed by: Lesli Linka Glatter. Story by: Steven Spielberg, Mick Garris.
12 total · 8 major · 4 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| childish bullying | major | Arnie was bullied by his comrades in arms. For example, they made him pick up playing cards from the floor and they threw food at him. |
| comrades in arms | major | The story follows a small group of American ground infantry men in the lead up to and conducting of the Normandy landings. |
| courage in the face of death | major | The day before the dangerous assault, Arnie said he wished he could be more like the other, supposedly brave, men in his group. He posthumously appeared and bravely assaulted an enemy pill box all by himself. |
| ghost | major | In one interpretation of the story, Arnie briefly returned from the dead, while his corpse was lying on on a landing boat, to save the lives of his fellow ground infantry men at the D-Day landing. |
| heroism | major | The story built up to Arnold "Arnie" Skamp, a meek and somewhat timid ground infantry man, saving his fellow unit members from certain death by single handedly taking out a German pill box during the D-Day landing. He was subsequently declared a hero by his comrades. It only later became apparent that Arnie had been killed by enemy fire before landing on the beach. The viewer is left to ponder how Arnold could have made his mad dash toward enemy lines. |
| military related work | major | The story follows a group of American ground infantry men during the Normandy landings. |
| what it is like in a combat zone | major | The story follows a group of American ground infantry men during the Normandy landings. |
| World War II | major | The story follows a group of American ground infantry men during the Normandy landings. |
| coping with the death of someone | minor | Some of the soldiers became upset when their leader was shot dead. |
| creative writing | minor | One of the GIs was dabbling with writing a script for a Hollywood movie based on his experiences in the war. |