How do you do,
[This was put off awhile via distraction, so it may seem too late to discuss Saving Private Ryan, but it was already selected for June and it has to be posted. I apologize for the delay.]
[This was put off awhile via distraction, so it may seem too late to discuss Saving Private Ryan, but it was already selected for June and it has to be posted. I apologize for the delay.]
On June 06, 1944, the Allied forces launch the historic invasion of Normandy, initiating the liberation of France. If this was a review and commentary for The Longest Day, I'd add a dedication to the 4414 British and American soldiers, plus companies of supporting Allied soldiers, who fell on the beaches of Normandy and the 1000 soldiers of the German Army lost in their fight for their homeland in another country, plus the millions of others who would fight on for the duration of June. Though this is a different movie, I will say this entry is for the men on both sides in this battle, even if the movie might not be.
I'll be brief in this one since you can guess what Saving Private Ryan centers on. It uses the D-Day landings as the kick off to the plot line that has no bearing what so ever on the landings. Instead, it's a film about a rescue mission to bring the surviving brother home. Tom Hanks leads off as Captain Miller, a remarkable transformation from his role as Forrest Gump. Miller is shown to be simply someone who has no caring about the war or the mission, only his returning home. "I don't know much about Ryan, I don't care. The man means nothing to me," he says at one point, "But if...going to Remelle, and finding him so he can go home, earns me the right to get back with my wife, well then, then that's my mission."[1] His men are of the same mind. We got a devoutly religious sniper who believes his talents are meant to kill Hitler, not rescue a fellow GI. Several of the other men consider Ryan nothing but "an asshole", as well. Even when they find Ryan, it's not with celebration. More of the feeling that they got what they came for and they would like to get back to business.
The movie is very violent. The first twenty minutes of the movie depict the beach landings at Omaha in such a manner that it was reported a large number of US veterans dealing with PTSD (I don't know about the foreign counterparts, may be the same) went into intensive therapy [2]. If you have a problem with it, you can skip it on the video, which was something no one could do back in 1998. Besides the scenes of men cut up, burned, or even have their stomachs opened up, the violence continues with depictions of actions that are considered war crimes, something one Youtube reviewer used to argue that the movie condones them, if not outright genocide[3]. This last is supported by the fact the German Army is depicted largely as a faceless entity, apart from a few soldiers. From that same video, there was a deleted scene of Steamboat Willie aiding the Americans by lying to his comrades of their presence (which is basically grounds for betrayal of his own country). Even the scenes with the tiger tank turns a mere machine into an unstoppable monster that is only slain via Deus ex machina. We are also shown a hand to hand fight between one German soldier and two Americans, ending with him stabbing the second of the two with his knife, while two Americans shoot surrendering Germans (who were actually Czechs) and making silly remarks about what they said. They didn't give this movie an R rating for nothing, people. Like you would expect, besides the violence, the movie is heavy in profanity (practically borderline blasphemy) and cussing coming out of the soldiers.
The last is part of what I consider one of the most realistic portrayals of the US servicemen of any time period. It's almost like the way Paul Russel had it in his book, Boys' Crusade, showing the soldiers were not demi-gods as Tom Brokaw made them out to be, but simply young men with selfish desires and goals, no different from any other generation of young men, yet were all put into this war that changed their lives. The realism of that is one of the few pluses with the movie. Another is despite the carnage, it does have an upbeat side to it. The movie also imitates Titanic with the prologue and epilogue taking place in the site of the event while an older man from today remembers his role in the story. Where Rose's story takes it time to open up, Ryan's is quicker, as though to show how things are done in war (despite the fact that the younger Ryan doesn't even show up until near the end of the movie). There is something good with the lack of showing of Private Ryan until near the end as it invokes tension, where back and forth narratives between the group and Ryan would basically break the suspense. I also find the climatic battle built up well, where we are told what's coming and we get the waiting, just like how the soldiers get to wait while the enemy approaches, getting louder and louder until the tigers are visible. Now, the payoff comes in seeing the nail biting suspense on if they would hold off the Germans or lose the bridge, which gets broken by the Deus ex machina I mentioned.
Saving Private Ryan has positives and negatives that have been handled already. The history may not be good, apart from the violence, but it takes more than violence to show accuracy. You can have a historically accurate movie that is not graphically violent. In legacy wise, Saving Private Ryan is noted for the opening scene, mostly, and its debatable story line, yet it has produced a list of clones for the rest of the decade: Enemy at the Gates, The Thin Red Line, and Wind Talkers for World War II, Saving Jessica Lynch for the Iraq War, just to name a few. In each, the opening scene is about the hero side army charging the enemy that is entrenched, and getting butchered in the process, someone winds up behind the enemy lines, and there's often a rescue mission to bring a soldier home.
[1] Saving Private Ryan. Steven Spielberg, DreamWorks Pictures. 1998.
[2] Vaughan, Donald, The Everything World War II Book. Adams Media Corporation. Avon, Massachusetts. 2002.
[3] Collective Learning. "KILLING PRIVATE KRAUT - How Saving Private Ryan promotes war crimes analysis", Youtube. Youtube October 26, 2006. web, June 18, 2018.
I'll be brief in this one since you can guess what Saving Private Ryan centers on. It uses the D-Day landings as the kick off to the plot line that has no bearing what so ever on the landings. Instead, it's a film about a rescue mission to bring the surviving brother home. Tom Hanks leads off as Captain Miller, a remarkable transformation from his role as Forrest Gump. Miller is shown to be simply someone who has no caring about the war or the mission, only his returning home. "I don't know much about Ryan, I don't care. The man means nothing to me," he says at one point, "But if...going to Remelle, and finding him so he can go home, earns me the right to get back with my wife, well then, then that's my mission."[1] His men are of the same mind. We got a devoutly religious sniper who believes his talents are meant to kill Hitler, not rescue a fellow GI. Several of the other men consider Ryan nothing but "an asshole", as well. Even when they find Ryan, it's not with celebration. More of the feeling that they got what they came for and they would like to get back to business.
The movie is very violent. The first twenty minutes of the movie depict the beach landings at Omaha in such a manner that it was reported a large number of US veterans dealing with PTSD (I don't know about the foreign counterparts, may be the same) went into intensive therapy [2]. If you have a problem with it, you can skip it on the video, which was something no one could do back in 1998. Besides the scenes of men cut up, burned, or even have their stomachs opened up, the violence continues with depictions of actions that are considered war crimes, something one Youtube reviewer used to argue that the movie condones them, if not outright genocide[3]. This last is supported by the fact the German Army is depicted largely as a faceless entity, apart from a few soldiers. From that same video, there was a deleted scene of Steamboat Willie aiding the Americans by lying to his comrades of their presence (which is basically grounds for betrayal of his own country). Even the scenes with the tiger tank turns a mere machine into an unstoppable monster that is only slain via Deus ex machina. We are also shown a hand to hand fight between one German soldier and two Americans, ending with him stabbing the second of the two with his knife, while two Americans shoot surrendering Germans (who were actually Czechs) and making silly remarks about what they said. They didn't give this movie an R rating for nothing, people. Like you would expect, besides the violence, the movie is heavy in profanity (practically borderline blasphemy) and cussing coming out of the soldiers.
The last is part of what I consider one of the most realistic portrayals of the US servicemen of any time period. It's almost like the way Paul Russel had it in his book, Boys' Crusade, showing the soldiers were not demi-gods as Tom Brokaw made them out to be, but simply young men with selfish desires and goals, no different from any other generation of young men, yet were all put into this war that changed their lives. The realism of that is one of the few pluses with the movie. Another is despite the carnage, it does have an upbeat side to it. The movie also imitates Titanic with the prologue and epilogue taking place in the site of the event while an older man from today remembers his role in the story. Where Rose's story takes it time to open up, Ryan's is quicker, as though to show how things are done in war (despite the fact that the younger Ryan doesn't even show up until near the end of the movie). There is something good with the lack of showing of Private Ryan until near the end as it invokes tension, where back and forth narratives between the group and Ryan would basically break the suspense. I also find the climatic battle built up well, where we are told what's coming and we get the waiting, just like how the soldiers get to wait while the enemy approaches, getting louder and louder until the tigers are visible. Now, the payoff comes in seeing the nail biting suspense on if they would hold off the Germans or lose the bridge, which gets broken by the Deus ex machina I mentioned.
Saving Private Ryan has positives and negatives that have been handled already. The history may not be good, apart from the violence, but it takes more than violence to show accuracy. You can have a historically accurate movie that is not graphically violent. In legacy wise, Saving Private Ryan is noted for the opening scene, mostly, and its debatable story line, yet it has produced a list of clones for the rest of the decade: Enemy at the Gates, The Thin Red Line, and Wind Talkers for World War II, Saving Jessica Lynch for the Iraq War, just to name a few. In each, the opening scene is about the hero side army charging the enemy that is entrenched, and getting butchered in the process, someone winds up behind the enemy lines, and there's often a rescue mission to bring a soldier home.
[1] Saving Private Ryan. Steven Spielberg, DreamWorks Pictures. 1998.
[2] Vaughan, Donald, The Everything World War II Book. Adams Media Corporation. Avon, Massachusetts. 2002.
[3] Collective Learning. "KILLING PRIVATE KRAUT - How Saving Private Ryan promotes war crimes analysis", Youtube. Youtube October 26, 2006. web, June 18, 2018.
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