The "Saving Private Ryan'' movie thread

That's certainly a strong one as well.

The whole movie is emotionally powerful.

The intensity of the scene of the dying medic always freaks me out...where he
starts calling for his mama. Whoa!

 

Yeah, I alway get shivers up my back watching that.Thats one of the reasons I love the film so much, despite all those flawa mentioned here.I have yet to feel for one second in other movies what I feel for over 2 hrs. in SPR.

 

I absolutely hated the way Mellish was killed. Freaked me out when I first saw the film.

When was the last time you saw hand to hand combat like that in a film? Never, I dare say. It's one of the reasons I think the final battle is better than the opening scenes. By the time you get to the battle, you care for the characters and it's hard to watch them get killed.

 

For once a movie actually portrayed the mother/wife getting the telegrams from the war department. That is perhaps the most powerful scene in the entire movie.

I agree with the final battle, it is the most intense battle in the entire movie. You never see a war movie where one man is shot in the throat and he goes down gagging. Then two men engange hand-to-hand combat with one begging for help from the downed soldier. I think the most chilling aspect was when the German was whispering to Mellish, while he was begging for the knife to be removed and then his death.

If I was the German Soldier, I probably would have killed Upham for being a coward when I saw him on those stairs. Of course Upham is a symbol for hope in the movie, hope that one can go home, hope that one will live and of course fear. Only by giving up hope can one truly survive in a war (most anyways), knowing that they most act without pity, remorse or compassion in order to stay alive.

 

You know, the movie had it's problems but I can't get understand screenwriter William Goldman(Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Princess Bride), who totally ripped it apart in an article in Premiere Magazine. I can't even list some of his beefs with the movie because I think they're dumb.

 

Goldman's written some fine films, but I agree with you that some of his gripes about Saving Private Ryan seemed strange.

He's over 70 now and I think a part of it is just plain jealousy. He's always had a bit of a sour streak in him toward Spielberg and to some extent Lucas. He's always looking to take a shot at them. He did in the first printing of his book Adventures in the Screen Trade and that came out in 1982!

 

The big thing Goldman hated about SPR was the last hour, including the reason Capt. Miller decided to stay to help Ryan's unit and his final line to himbefore he died:"Earn this." Goldman put all his venom toward Spielberg for what he thought was a terrible ending. But if he had liked the conclusion and thought it was great he would have given half the credit to the writer.

 

I do believe the soldier who killed Captain Miller was the same who killed Mellish. ANy other German soldier would've killed Upham right away, even if he took his hand off his firearm.

 

Yes, "Steamboat Willie" is the one that killed Mellish and Miller. That's the whole point of the subplot with Upham at the end.

 

Sorry, you guys are wrong. The soldier who kills Mellish isn't the one who was captured and released and goes on to kill Miller. I have the DVD and used to think the same as you guys, but after watching for that specifically I realized they're two different people.

 

No they are one in the same, either that or they are twins. There is no other way that that guy would have known Mellish is a Jew, and then turn around and show compassion to Upham just seconds later.

I cant get too mad at Upham, I hear people saying he is a coward, but what would you have done? You might think youd here trumpets sound as you climb aboard your white steed and charge valiantly into battle, but Id mess my drawers.

The whole thing about no British and Canadians is acceptable, they were great allies with the United States but they wasnt joined at the hip. However I do believe the movie should have some elements of the French Resistence working with the US Army.

The crack against Montgomery isnt as bad as some are complaining. There are several documentries called Allies at War that deal with this very topic. The most notable is the conflict between Churchill, Roosevelt and DeGualle. A knock on a senior member of an allies military is just that, not a knock on the ally itself, its not too different from people who criticize Bush for going to war with Iraq, but then love America and Americans. Forget the PC brainwashing and remember you are in a time before PC when watching this movie.

Ted Danson playing a 50 yearold Captain? I remember the scened but I dont remember Dansons character saying how old he was, so this is irrelevant. (Afterall it was such a small roll)

The Americans naming the weapons of Germany, this was probably done for the General Public. Though I think the General Public is clueless on weapons, Im more familiar with modern day weapons than WWII weapons.

However all the pathetic nitpicking Ive seen in this thread is not the worst Ive seen about this movie. Believe it or not there have been people to criticize Speilberg for not putting any Latinos/Asians/Blacks/other minorities in this movie. People seem to want to screw history for PC, which of course is utterly ridiculous.

 

Any time a wonderful piece art like SPR comes out, there are always people to criticize and tell you how bad it is because it doesn't fall into their artistic box.

 

Very true. Seabiscuit had a very early positive buzz and already the naysayers are trying to tear it up. I think Saving Private Ryan suffered from the same syndrome. Some people are simply not happy unless they are tearing apart other people's accomplishments.

Saving Private Ryan opened the eyes of many many younger people around the world to the fact that long before they were born, their grandfathers placed themselves in harm's way and many lost their lives so that the rest of us could live in freedom. That's a great accomplishment for a film and it dwarfs any nitpicking about the artistic merits. It's a movie that made a difference in the world, and we need more of those.

 

The German that kills Mellish is a member of the SS. "Steamboat Willie" was a member of the Wermacht.

 

Thank you Uruk-Hai. The German soldier credited as Steamboat Willie IS NOT the soldier who killed Mellish in the knifefight. The soldier who killed Mellish was a Waffen SS trooper - look carefully and you plainly see the SS runes on his uniform (they look like lightning bolts). Steamboat Willie was a Heer (German Army) rifleman, wearing Heer uniform, down to the Heer collar litzen.

In fact, for further proof, take a look at the entry for Mellish in the Saving Private Ryan online encyclopedia. At the bottom of the page is a link to comparison photos of Steamboat Willie and the soldier who killed Mellish.

 

thank you for clearing that up. Regardless of who they are, I think most of us agree that they should have been killed in their perspective situations.

 

No. The point was to show that the western Allies were different to the bad guys, the Nazis. They weren't supposed to go around murdering unarmed prisoners of war. That was the realm of the SS and certain elements of the Wehrmacht. To a degree, the point was negated by the scene in the opening beach assault where two GIs kill a couple of surrendering German conscripts.

The scene shows Upham appealing to Miller's good side and triumphing, subsequently retaining his innocence. Later, at the final battle, he loses his innocence and kills Steamboat Willie, doing what he had prevented Miller from doing earlier. His actions at the machine nest were the correct path, because no-one could foresee Miller being killed by the man he had just released, and because even if Miller had allowed the murder of Willie, he may still have died anyway. There is no certainty in war, and that sub-plot demonstrates it perfectly, perhaps with the greatest cliche of all.

 

I strongly disagree.I think mercy should be shown to the innocent, but not necessarily to the unarmed. This is not cold-blooded killing, its the rules of engagement. They shoot, You shoot back. I happen to be one of the people who was overjoyed to hear that Bush was gonna attack Osama back. War is war.It's a sad, bloody thing, but it's still war.Every soldier has a duty to protect his country.Granted, I think the fact that American troops don't go around killing on a whim like other armys do is part of why we are great. But the Nazi Upham just stared at as he walked down the stairs just killed two American soldiers.He should have died.''Steamboat Willie'' was a POW. They couldn't drop him off, so I think they should have killed him.Maybe if they had, The opening and closing scenes would have had Ryan and Miller standing side by side.

 

Well, Upham shouldn't have been pissing in his pants at that point, then shooting a man in cold blood a few minutes later. But in the case of the SS soldier who killed Mellish and Henderson, that was fair play - no-one in that room was a POW, they were all able and ready to kill the other guy. The SS trooper was the better warrior at that particular moment. Upham posed no threat to that soldier, which explains why Upham wasn't killed by him. It also goes a way to showing that not all enemy soldiers aren't cold blooded murderers out for a killing spree.

You may feel that no quarter should be given on the battlefield, but the Hague Convention and the Geneva Conventions disagree. Granted, those treaties are toothless tigers, but the only way to have a hope of surviving capture and getting subsequent fair treatment in war is to uphold the articles of those agreements, and hope the other side does likewise.

If you read Stephen Ambrose's book Citizen Soldiers, especially the chapter that refers to prisoners of war, you should get a better idea of the most dangerous time on a battlefield.