is saving private ryan full of cliche characters?

i've seen a few members opinion's on the boards, & i'd like to get everyone's opinion's in one place.

 

All moves are full of cliche characters. There aren't that many different templates for people.

 

Hollywood's audience is for the most part people looking for a simple movie, with cliche characters. SPR has chiche characters, but it's still a good movie.

 

What AT_60 said.

 

Well, let's see...

You've got Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks) as the leader who represents all that is good in America: individuality, strength, leadership, and pragmatism.

You've got Sgt. Horvath (Tom Sizemore), Miller's trusted second in command and serves as the obligatory supporter of Hanks/America's intentions.

You've got Pvt. Reiben (Ed Burns), the rebel, the voice of dissent, the perpetual-thorn-in-the-side-of-the-mission character.

You've got Pvt. Jackson (Barry Pepper) as the unassuming Southern farm boy, who happens to be a skilled marksman as well as a devoted Christian--of course, his religion conflicts with his line of work.

You've got Pvt. Mellish (Adam Goldberg) as the sarcastic Jewish guy from the big city, who knows all too well the hate of anti-Semitism and has sworn himself to fight it.

You've got Pvt. Wade (Giovani Ribisi) as the medic who wanted to save lives but sees death instead; he just wanted to help people, but not this way.

You've got Pvt. Caparzo (Vin Deisel), the tough Italian muscle man who also happens to have a soft spot for children.

You've got Corp. Upham (Jeremy Davies), a trained paper pusher who gets thrust into the war almost by accident.

And, you've got Pvt. Ryan (Matt Damon) who seems confused in a foreign land, completely lost and lonely without his brothers, but continues on courageously to help the cause.

So, to answer your question... no, Saving Private Ryan is not full of cliche characters.

 

very good points. good job.

 

All characters begin as archtypal characters which are developed as the audience gets to know them better.

Without that starting model we wouldn't have anywhere to go, and no amount of plot twists could tell us who the person really is. So the first five minutes of a character tell us who he or she is, and the rest of the movie tells us what he or she does in certain situations.

 

EXCELLENT points by everyone on the thread.
Very well reasoned and articulately stated.
What a refreshing change of pace!

I love that movie, and the cliche's I associate with that movie are the cliched criticisms by critics who somehow think heartfelt emotion in a film is akin to a crime.

 

Yeah, those characters are wonderfully cliched. Audiences don't want literate movies with complex characters; they want to know who to root for, who is the villian, the seductress, the bombshell, etc. Bunch layabout brain-dead morons, the general public is.

 

LOL, Lord Bane, are you a misanthrope?

It's the general public that's bought billions of dollars worth of STAR WARS movie tickets, videos, DVDs, soundtrack albums, toys and collectibles, or none of us would be here!

BTW, this is my 1,138th post!

THanX!

 

Congrats Darthkarma!

I'd like to say that while I made those points about the characters being cliched (the final line on that post was sarcastic if you hadn't caught on), Saving Pvt. Ryan is one of my favorite films and one that, I believe, deserves to be recognized as a great accomplishment in the war film genre.

 

All those dead guys on the beach, all been done before.

 

I too like SPR, but for a WW2 D-Day movie, give me "The Longest Day."

 

How about The Thin Red Line? I haven't seen that yet, but I've been meaning to.

 

Theres a couple of cliched charaacters, the Military strong guy, the pansy guy, and the leader.

 

this movie is great and i just can't say a bad word about it.
the characters aren't cliche, the movie is very realistic this is just as it went in real live.
you could go on and ask yourself if not every movie has cliche characters then.

 

Did anyone check out Band of Brothers, the HBO special that was aired?

If not, it's coming up again in April and for anyone w/cable, believe me, it's WELL WORTH the viewing.

 

yeah i watched it.
please, anyone don't say it's full of cliche characters also .

anyway i am looking forward for "band of brothers" to arrive at DVD.