Saving Private Ryan.

RE: Saving Private Ryan.

Ironic that this topic should come up ! Just saw the movie again last Saturday on HBO, my fourth time.

I remember having my hair on end when the SS guy stabbed the American soldier, i saw it for the first time in a theater and the AC was in full blast making me feel even more cold than usual.

Apart from that I loved the scene at the destroyed Radar station where they show the smoke coming out of the MG-42 and the clinking noise as the metal cools down. Great attention to detail. !!!!

I just love the sound the MG-42 in full automatic. What a fabulous weapon – Its still around as he MG-3 I think !!! I know the Pakistan army uses it.

And thanks for the translation of what the German guy is saying.

RE: Saving Private Ryan.

OK back to the movie, and where the topic was all about,

The German Soldier is saying:

“Lassen wir das beënden, est is so ein fach.”
this was German, it it not my native language so it it maybe speld the
wrong way. But in English he is saing:

“Lets end this, it is so much easyer” I tought he said it 2 times but I’m not sure. He is saing something else but it was to soft and I think he was saying the same as I quote above.

Kev35 I hope this was the awnser you’ve bin waiting for.

For the Tiger Tanks Here is an intersting topic on the forum of
Ja Worsly : http://www.portalpcs.com/intel/index.php on the army past part.

RE: Saving Private Ryan.

>thanks for that. I agree it is a horrific scene and one of
>the most powerful anti-war statements of recent years. It
>brings war to it’s lowest level, no noble statement about
>fighting for a just cause, or for freedom etc. etc. It’s
>simply one young man killing another.

I kind of agree, that scene was a tough one to take first time, but that SS trooper wasn’t exactly young either. As for Armour accuracy, in the TV related follow-on Band of Brothers Speilberg and Hanks have out-done themselves as producers! Well worth watching if you have not, it should be out on DVD next month.

Regards, Glenn.

RE: Saving Private Ryan.

“I cant get emotinal over a film”

There must be some part of some film that makes people emotional.. Christ I cried when Jonny 5 got shot to bits in Short Circuit.. but then it wasn’t him!:) (I was only about 11 at the time though)

I have to admit the ending of Moulin Rougue was quite emotional, for me anyway..

I feel a poll question brewing…

Simmer

RE: Saving Private Ryan.

Kev: mate you are right in the fact that it is the most horrific sceen in the movie, I can’t watch it and every time I do (Last ight was the latest time- I own it on Vid), I have to fast forward that bit, it’s just too horrible to think about, but it did happen and not only there.

There are a couple of Tiger ones still floating around, I had a book just recently from the library that had a list of War veteran tanks listed and where they were, there is one in England and one in the US, both in private collections, then there are a few in France as memorials but these don’t move, I think they are just shells now.

Give me coffee and no-one gets hurt!

RE: Saving Private Ryan.

Firstly I must clear up a point Although I was in the army I never say any Action in any war. I left before Ihad to go into action. Just wasnt for me after a while. I think that my post doesnt justify itself in that it doesnt sound right. Of course the pictures were not just taken because they could they were taken to try and justify the events. An eye for an eye and all that I suppose. Dont know why he had them he just did. Maybe I was a bit to hard on you guys comming out with some of those statements but thats just how I feel.

I am not saying that the film wasnt good in fact it was the best film I had seen in a while. But any film to do with war I will watch at least once but in the uk the channel showed it on something like the Wednesday and them again on the Sunday and I felt it was that good that I had to watch it again incase I had missed any details the first time round.

Kev your comment about other scenes was a good one as I also think the scenes you mention were very well done and that they were among the more graphic of scenes.

Merlin

RE: Saving Private Ryan.

..Merlin, did those pictures just become evidences of war crime, you didn’t mean it the way it sounds do you? I know war is nasty and injust in every little detail, but it’s usually hard to find incriminating evidences….except those pictures?

RE: Saving Private Ryan.

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 07-10-02 AT 09:59 PM (GMT)]The Tigers were made out of T34’s, in a very, very convincing way. I don’t think there are any “rolling” Tigers around in the world today. However, several Panthers are still in working order, aswell as at least one Tiger II. I thought the pzkpfw-38’s were the “real thing”. Have a German helmet here at home, found near Point du Hoc in Normandy, so battle damaged that it is a testimony of how insane a war is.
Attachments:

RE: Saving Private Ryan.

I saw Saving Private Ryan when it was first released in Australia about two years ago or so. I had read reviews and was more than keen to see it, having been pre-warned about the graphic opening sequence. The movie was everything I had read and heard and had a profound effect on me as I sat at the movies watching the futility of war being so realistically displayed.

Some time after, we bought the video. I haven’t watched it. I feel that the opening sequences had such an effect on me that I don’t wish to subject myself to them again, not yet, anyway.

There were many other scenes, such as the one-on-one fight Kev first asked for the translation about, the treachery displayed by the German soldier who was able to flee early in the movie, only to return the favour by killing one of the Americans later on. The pointlessness and selflessness of Miller’s death. And there are others which don’t come to mind straight away.

All this counterbalanced by the magnificent adherence to accuracy with the German armour- were the Pzkpfw-38’s real or dummies? Same for the Tigers (or Panthers, I can’t remember which they use – perhaps both?)

One day I will sit down and watch this movie again. One day…

Regards

The Wombat

RE: Saving Private Ryan.

Hi, Merlin.

“One picture is him and his mate – the next his mate with a bullet through the head….Now is that not horrific.”

The thing I find horrifying about that statement is that anyone would want to carry around a photograph of their friend just after he’d been killed? I really don’t understand that at all. I’ve probably lived a relatively quiet life and those kind of scenes in Saving Private Ryan are the closest I ever want to get to the real thing.

“I cant get emotinal over a film”

I can and I do. I’ll cry watching an emotional film just as I would laugh at a comedy. The same thing goes for books. Maybe I’m overly emotional but that’s just the way I am.

“You only see a brief glance of this but this really sums up war. Lying next to you mate and the next minute hes gone.”

To someone like me who has never seen war first hand (although I have seen my share of violence and injury, both deliberate and accidental) so many scenes in the film typify war. The RTO, the guy carrying his arm, Miller dragging half a corpse off the beach, The guy who is hit in the head and takes his helmet off in disbelief, only to be hit again, the Medic trying to save the Battalion Surgeon, the blood stained surf, (so reminiscent of other amphibious assaults, Sicily, Gallipoli), and all in the first twenty-five minutes.

I agree, Merlin, it was only a film and therefore cannot display the true drama of war, after all we are only voyeurs, safe in a warm cinema or the comfort of our own living room. The only fear we experience is for the characters and thankfully not for ourselves.

And the bit that really gets me? When Ryan collapses in front of Miller’s grave and asks his wife if he had led a good life, if he was a good man.

Sorry for rambling.

Regards,

kev35

RE: Saving Private Ryan.

Sorry guys I dont agree with you that its a horrific scene. I was in the army briefly and saw the photos of the falklands that our corporal brough back (he was with 2 Para)

Now that was horrific. Hand to hand combat and dont let anyone tell you otherwise. One picture is him and his mate – the next his mate with a bullet through the head – the next the prisoner they took for the killing – the next the prisoner with a bullet through his head.

Now is that not horrific. I cant get emotinal over a film even if it was a true story it is still a piece of fiction when it come to the silver screen.

One of the piece that actually did get me a bit was the radio operator on the beach. Miller is shouting orders at him he rolls over to send the message and Miller rolls him back over to tell him more. He has no face just a mushy grey / white hole.

You only see a brief glance of this but this really sums up war. Lying next to you mate and the next minute hes gone.

Merlin

RE: Saving Private Ryan.

Simmer,

thanks for that. I agree it is a horrific scene and one of the most powerful anti-war statements of recent years. It brings war to it’s lowest level, no noble statement about fighting for a just cause, or for freedom etc. etc. It’s simply one young man killing another.

Regards,

kev35

RE: Saving Private Ryan.

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 07-10-02 AT 04:14 PM (GMT)]I agree with you, that scene is not a pleasent one and I came out of that movie mulling over the scene over and over again, with feelings that I never knew I had! In fact it makes me sick to the stomach just thinking about it. What made it worse was knowing what the German soldier was saying… which was:

“Don’t fight it. Shh… You’ll see it’s better this way.”

Simmer

RE: Saving Private Ryan.

gaz.

I think it may have something to do with the fact that the German command system was unable to function at anything like it’s normal level on D-Day or the days following it. It is highly likely that the Germans at the knocked out radar site would have received no orders since D-Day. It is standard practice, I believe, to obey the last order given?

As to the Rangers attacking the position? I suppose it is understandable to an extent. Miller was an exceptional officer and it was likely that he would react in this way. Yes, they could have gone around but someone else would then have had to deal with the position. Would Capt. Miller’s conscience have allowed him to do that? We already know from the scene in the church that he values the lives of his men and how he justifies sending men into actions where almost certainly some will die. The objective of the mission was to find Pte. Ryan and bring him home. But the wider objective was still to prosecute the war, otherwise they would have found Ryan and removed him from the front line and left Ryan’s unit alone. Again, would Miller’s conscience allow him to do that? If he had, it would have been a much shorter film.

Then again, could it all have been artistic license on the part of the film maker? The attack on the radar station provided an excellent opportunity to show the futility of war by ensuring the medic was the one to die, the one person they all relied on when someone was hit. War is never clear cut or simple. It is confusing, exciting, terrifying and God knows how many other adjectives you could ascribe to war. The film was certainly not sugar coated and although the Americans triumphed in the end, it was at considerable cost.

Regards,

kev35

RE: Saving Private Ryan.

Shorty.

Yes, that is the scene I mean. I agree with you about the cowardliness of Upham, but unless we are put in that position none of us know how we will react. It is important to remember in Upham’s defence that he was not a combat soldier but an interpreter and cartographer.

If you can come up with a translation that would be great.

Regards,

kev35

RE: Saving Private Ryan.

Could anybody explain why a few lone German soldiers are guarding a knocked out radar site & then the rangers totally divert from there objective?( I mean there probably was hundreds of germans lurking about the country side )

RE: Saving Private Ryan.

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 07-10-02 AT 07:22 AM (GMT)]giong to look the sene, but it is not my favorite sene, due to the cowertness of the american soldier who fails to help his comrade.
If you mean the sene where the German is putting an knife in the breast of the US soldier?