Saving Private Ryan?

[BrucePowers]

ORIGINAL: tocaff


Careful, show some respect for The Duke.  Remember that John Wayne, Randolph Scott, Errol Flynn, Tyronne Power, Clark Gable amongst others really won the war according to Hollywood.  Oh yeah and an actor later on named Audie Murphy, a little guy who didn't look the part of a hero.  [;)]

Remember Audie Murphie was a war hero. He was awarded the Medal of Honor. He only became an actor when he could not stay in the Army due to his war wounds.

[BrucePowers]

ORIGINAL: Ian R

ORIGINAL: stuman

ORIGINAL: Ian R

Anyone else here seen 'Cross of Iron' ? Peckinpah on the eastern front (the Kuban to be precise)... marvelllous stuff.

Yep, I really like it. Sort of gritty. I hardly ever see it on.

James Coburn's portrayal of Sgt Steiner, the grizzled cynical veteran was memorably good. As was James Mason's of the CO.

I liked James Coburn as the company commander in "What Did you do in the War Daddy"
[:D]

[Ian R]

ORIGINAL: BrucePowers



I liked James Coburn as the company commander in "What Did you do in the War Daddy"
[:D]

Was that the one where he and the Italian commander in Sicily did a deal where the troops pretended to be battling over the town for the benefit of the recon planes, but in reality were firing blanks.... and then the troops (both sides) got drunk and a mass brawl ensued, and the recon planes reported hand to hand fighting and they were, unfortunately, reinforced and had to fight for real?

[BrucePowers]

ORIGINAL: Ian R

ORIGINAL: BrucePowers



I liked James Coburn as the company commander in "What Did you do in the War Daddy"
[:D]

Was that the one where he and the Italian commander in Sicily did a deal where the troops pretended to be battling over the town for the benefit of the recon planes, but in reality were firing blanks.... and then the troops (both sides) got drunk and a mass brawl ensued, and the recon planes reported hand to hand fighting and they were, unfortunately, reinforced and had to fight for real?

Got it in one. Then Germans came in and the Italians and Americans worked together to take the village back from them......

[JSBoomer]

Wow! JeffK You should really rewatch the Black Book if you thought the Canadians were the bad guys...

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson

Yeah I like TRL also - but I've realized over the years that I pretty much like everything Hans Zimmer does - me being a music guy at heart. But I accept that 99% of folks hate TRL. I'll allow them to hate it - if they will allow me to like it!
[:D]

Zimmer's score for the "The Thin red Line" is superb!!! [:)]

The hounting "Journey To The Line" Track #3 is best for me (I can loop it forever)! [:)]


Leo "Apollo11"

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

Hans Zimmer "The Thin Red Line" soundtrack at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Thin-Red-Line-Han ... 465&sr=8-3


Leo "Apollo11"

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: JWE

ORIGINAL: Apollo11


BTW, one other WWII movie that is very strange is the Russian movie called "Ivanovo detstvo" or "Ivan's Childhood" (many tmes called "My Name is Ivan") by Andrei Tarkovsky... it has the same dream-like feel the "The Thin red Line" by Mallick...

Have you guys seen it?

I have not, Leo. But now you mention it, I will make the effort.

Thank you.

It will be worth the effort John - that movie astonished the world because it was something completely different from Russia regarding WWII and it was filmed just a few years after Stalin died!

BTW, the movie is black&white and, IIRC, in most of the film characters do not speak at all...



Leo "Apollo11"

[bradfordkay]

ORIGINAL: Ian R

Anyone else here seen 'Cross of Iron' ? Peckinpah on the eastern front (the Kuban to be precise)... marvelllous stuff.

Great film. Some very disturbing scenes in it, however...as befits the subject matter.


BTW: I'm one of those who likes TRL. Sue me... [:D]

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: Apollo11

Hey... the world would be pretty dull place if we all thought the same... many of you guys hate the guts of "The Thin Red Line" while I like it... [:D]

BTW, as I wrote before, the "The Thin Red Line" movie by Mallick is very very close to what I felt when I read the original book "The Thin Red Line" by James Jones and to what i felt when I read the "The Naked and the Dead" by Norman Mailer.


Leo "Apollo11"

Oh I agree! The written word is always chancy because it lacks tone of voice. Mine was purely discussion. When I saw TRL I was ready to leave part way through (stayed though), I hated it that much. I found the thought sequences particularly bad, so when you said you loved them I wanted to put up my observations for discussion.

I haven't read those two books, but your recommendation is putting them on my list.

My father bought all those nice book in Eglish in 1950's and 1960's in paperback... I still have them...

Out of all WWII books that he had I liked most:

"The Naked and the Dead"
by Norman Mailer

"The Thin Red Line"
by James Jones

"The Young Lions"
by Irwin Shaw


Leo "Apollo11"

[BrucePowers]

ORIGINAL: Apollo11

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: Apollo11

Hey... the world would be pretty dull place if we all thought the same... many of you guys hate the guts of "The Thin Red Line" while I like it... [:D]

BTW, as I wrote before, the "The Thin Red Line" movie by Mallick is very very close to what I felt when I read the original book "The Thin Red Line" by James Jones and to what i felt when I read the "The Naked and the Dead" by Norman Mailer.


Leo "Apollo11"

Oh I agree! The written word is always chancy because it lacks tone of voice. Mine was purely discussion. When I saw TRL I was ready to leave part way through (stayed though), I hated it that much. I found the thought sequences particularly bad, so when you said you loved them I wanted to put up my observations for discussion.

I haven't read those two books, but your recommendation is putting them on my list.

My father bought all those nice book in Eglish in 1950's and 1960's in paperback... I still have them...

Out of all WWII books that he had I liked most:

"The Naked and the Dead"
by Norman Mailer

"The Thin Red Line"
by James Jones

"The Young Lions"
by Irwin Shaw


Leo "Apollo11"

The Young Lions was one of the first "war movies" I saw which showed things from such a different perspective. I first saw it when I was about 18.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

For a man trying to recover from his WitP addiction it sure seems to me that Canoerebel spends a great amount of time on the Forum.  For a recovering addict is this a good or bad thing?

Worse than that, I think I saw him playing "Keno" in an airport bar last week.[8|]

[Barb]

Well TRL is a superb war movie compared with the "movie that shall not be named" [:D]

[Anthropoid]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Misconduct, you are quite right of course. But let's cut the guys who made SPR some slack. They got to make the movie they chose to make, good for them. The American guys who went there and did that deserved the tribute.

Do the Canadians, Brits, etc. who went there and did that deserve the same? Damn straight. Which has nothing whatsoever to do with SPR. As a poster said earlier, if someone wants to go and make that movie (Canadian contributions), or that movie (UK contributions), etc. well that's just fine and certainly no one is stopping them. I feel perhaps that post got misinterpreted into some kind of disrespect, which it clearly wasn't (IMO).

I don't think the guys who made SPR wanted to make something else but were forced into making an American war movie because of market forces. Plenty of very fine movies have been made about the WWII experiences of people and nations other than American and I'm sure more will be made. Why the sour grapes about SPR being well-received?

Anybody going around saying the Americans did the whole deed in WWII certainly would be full of horse hockey pucks, and there probably are some out there. Still, ignorance of history on the part of some does not and should not diminish the rightful recognition that SPR made of American WWII vets and what they did.

I certainly agree that many out there get less credit than they deserve. I just don't see that giving recognition to one should be seen as somehow slighting another.

All very true about "Americans getting too much credit" when they barely suffered 600,000 casualties (KIA, MIA, wounded) compared to the millions suffered by other nations/nationalities . . . But . . . what if Japan had NOT DOWed US, and what if political forces in US had kept US out of the war? I know not likely to have happened given how concerted an effort Roosevelt was putting to get events sufficiently manipulated so that the will to fight became an American national consensus, but what if?

What if US entry into the war had been delayed by a year, or two?

There is that quote by Napoleon along the lines of "When it comes time for battle, throw in every thing you got. Often it will be one 'battalion' (?) that makes the difference." Add to that the issue of timing . . . had the U.S. not been in there when it was, things might not have turned out so rosy for anyone, and the suffering of people in Russia, China, East Europe and other occupied areas might well have been far worse.

ADDIT: watched the Lost Battalion recently: just so-so I would say, but nice to get some imagery associated with WWI.

The part I liked in PH was were the CGI scenes of the actual attack. It made the devastation of that surprise attack come to life. That and that nurse chick was hot . . . Agree that that line about "if all Americans are like you . ." was cheeseball, but I think it was maybe supposed to be.

A line from a movie that I periodically think of, as an inspiration to do my best in life: Toward the end of Saving Pvt Ryan when the Capt is dying on the bridge and he croaks out a message to Ryan, like the voices of those who sacrificed metaphorically whispering to us through the ages, "Earn this."

While I agree with the post about how SPR is full of the standard war movie cliches, maybe war itself is cliche? If nothing else SPR made a generation far removed from WWII imagine the sacrifices of their grand parents generation and did so in a way that provokes contemplation and reflection instead of nationalism or idealism.

[witpqs]

I quite agree. BTW I was not saying the US gets too much credit, I was acknowledging that there are some folks out there (hopefully few) who do give the US credit for darn near everything.

As an aside along the same lines, believe it or not, I have heard (face to face) someone claim that the mafia guys from New York (City) who were drafted into the army in WWII actually won the war in Europe! [8|]

It's a big world. There's someone out there to push practically any crackpot notion that be be imagined, and then a few more. Even though they are sometimes annoying or downright vexing, we should recognize them for what they are and not get too torqued up over them. (Not saying you are, just general commentary.)

[anarchyintheuk]

Count me in those who liked TRL. With all the internal monologues, Malick is kind of an acquired taste. As mentioned before, great cinematography and music. Liked it also because they actually showed US Army units doing something in the Pacific. Usually, Hollywood just shows the Marines winning the war against Japan.

In a movie with that many roles there are going to be casting misfires. Travolta in any war movie is a bad idea, especially ones written by L. Ron Hubbard. Nolte and Cusack looked too old for their parts. Penn, Clooney and Harrelson all had an "I'm still getting paid for this, right?" vibe throughout the movie. Reilly and Jane also looked like they were short on their mortgage payments that month.

As far as SPR. Even w/ the infamous tankbusters quote I still liked it (although I hold it almost directly responsible for Vin Diesel and the film atrocities that he has left in his wake).

[stuman]

" Liked it also because they actually showed US Army units doing something in the Pacific. Usually, Hollywood just shows the Marines winning the war against Japan. "

Good point. I think a lot of people believe the Pacific was more-or-less a Marine only effort ( taking nothing away from the Marines of course ). I bet many folks might be surprised to know that the US Army actually performed more amphibious landings in WW2 than did the Marines. Although IIRC a lot were more modest operations as Mac moved back towards PI.

[bradfordkay]

If you want to talk casting, no film tops A Bridge Too Far in my book. There was one superb cast! 

[Canoerebel]

You guys are giving people too much credit.  Anybody under the age of 30 who know ANYTHING about World War II in the Pacific would know the contributions of both the Marines and Army units.  That's because NOBODY under the age of 30, except the very few who have an interest in history, have a CLUE about what happened in the Pacific.  Not only wouldn't they realize the Army carried its weight, they are just as likely to think the Navy did everything.  They probably don't realize there WERE Marines in the Pacific.

[gladiatt]

They probably (for most european) forget there was a war in the pacific...