Got something to say or just want fewer pesky ads? Join us... 😊
Saving Private Ryan
- Thread starter Basil Fawlty
- Start date
Uncle Spielberg
Well-known member
The one where he lost all his fortune and became bankrupt employing said same Jews is that 
Uncle Spielberg
Well-known member
8.4 out of 10
64th greatest film of all time.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Directed by
Steven Spielberg
Genre: Action / Drama / War (more)
Tagline: In the Last Great Invasion of the Last Great War, The Greatest Danger for Eight Men was Saving... One. (more)
Plot Outline: Based on a World War II drama. US soldiers try to save their comrade, paratrooper Private Ryan, who's stationed behind enemy lines. (more) (view trailer)
User Comments: Actually it's pretty GOOD history (more)
User Rating: 8.4/10 (130,121 votes) top 250: #64
Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Hanks .... Captain John H. Miller
Tom Sizemore .... Sergeant Mike Horvath
Edward Burns .... Pvt. Richard Reiben
Barry Pepper .... Pvt. Daniel Jackson
Adam Goldberg .... Pvt. Stanley Mellish
Vin Diesel .... Private Adrian Caparzo
Giovanni Ribisi .... T-4 Medic Irwin Wade
Jeremy Davies .... Cpl. Timothy P. Upham
Matt Damon .... Private James Francis Ryan
Ted Danson .... Captain Fred Hamill
Paul Giamatti .... Sergeant Hill
Dennis Farina .... Lieutenant Colonel Anderson
Joerg Stadler .... Steamboat Willie
Max Martini .... Corporal Henderson (as Maximilian Martini)
Dylan Bruno .... Toynbe
Awards: Won 5 Oscars. Another 51 wins & 52 nominations (more)
SAVING PRIVATE...
User Comments:
158 out of 193 people found the following comment useful:-
Actually it's pretty GOOD history, 10 June 2001
Author: dedjim from Anchorage, AK
I know it's fashionable to trash successful movies but at least be honest about the trashing... Pvt. Ryan was fiction but it was pretty good HISTORICAL fiction. The details were well thought out and based on reality.
There was nothing stupid about the portrayal of the German army... Rommel DID blunder in his placement of force, The high command DID think Calais was going to be the invasion spot, not Normandy. Hitler didn't wake up until noon on that day and his aides were afraid to wake him. The Rangers did come in right behind the first wave and did take a beach exit by sheer will to get the hell off the beach. The bluffs were the scene of heavy close fighting. The german defenders were mostly Eastern European conscripts from defeated areas. (note that the 2 men that tried to surrender were NOT speaking German). There WAS a young man rescued from interior Normandy after his brothers were all killed. He WAS an airborne trooper (the difference was that he was found by a chaplain and was removed from the front.)
The battles inside Normandy were small actions town to town, street to street, house to house. Small actions like taking the radar station happened. Small actions like a handful of men defending a river bridge against odds happened. Small squads of men, formed out of the misdrops banded together ad hoc to fight. There were all enlisted groups and all officer groups. A General did die in the glider assault. FUBAR aptly described much of what happened that day.
And there were only Americans in the movie because the Brits and Canadians were many klicks away in a different area... this was Omaha beach. The story was an American one. And Monty DID bog down the advance and everyone knew it. And as for "American Stereotypes"... well those pretty much define America: my college roomie was a wise-ass New York Jew. My best friend was a second generation east coast Sicilian. My college girlfriend was a third generation German. My first wife was French and English. I'm Irish, my boss is Norwegian and I work with a Navaho... you get the point?
So much for it being bad history. It was in fact an excellent way to let a jaded and somewhat ignorant-of-their-past generation *feel* something of what their grandparents (LIVING grandparents) went through. It is perhaps less important that the details be exact as the feel be right. Even now the details are not fully known or knowable about that campaign... it was too big, too complex and too chaotic to be knowable. There is not even an accurate casualty count of D-Day itself.
Now as to the depth of characters. What I saw there was the extraordinary circumstances into which ordinary people were thrown and what happened to them. I saw the things that would mark a generation (I have heard in my elderly male patients sentiments similar to what Cpt. Miller was expressing when he announced his ordinariness) I saw the dehumanization that occurs with war and its mitigation moment to moment, man to man... Cpt. Miller didn't know anything about Ryan and he didn't care... until Ryan revealed his humanity to him with his story of his brothers. Pvt. Reiban was ready to walk out of the situation until he discoverd his captains ordinariness and his humanity. Then he began to look to him almost as a father. Pvt. Mellish rightfully delights in his revenge for all the times he's had to take it because he was Jewish by telling German captives he's "Juden!" Nerdish Cpl. Upham can stand alongside his bigger, stronger, braver Ranger compatriots and describe the poetry and melancholy of Edith Piaf's song... then face his cowardice, turn around and stand up in the face of danger and finally demonstrate the dehumanization of the enterprise he was enmeshed in by executing Steamboat Willie... even though Willie had no more choice about being there than Upham did and in other circumstances would have made a friend.
I could go on and on with this but enough already. OK, perhaps it is not The Best Movie Ever Made but it is still a good movie. And if one will take the blinders of fashionable negativism off they will see it. Finally, this is not a patriotic story... if anything it is an acknowledgement and thank you to all those old men still out there that did so much for us. To them I say a deep and sincere thank you.
64th greatest film of all time.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Directed by
Steven Spielberg
Genre: Action / Drama / War (more)
Tagline: In the Last Great Invasion of the Last Great War, The Greatest Danger for Eight Men was Saving... One. (more)
Plot Outline: Based on a World War II drama. US soldiers try to save their comrade, paratrooper Private Ryan, who's stationed behind enemy lines. (more) (view trailer)
User Comments: Actually it's pretty GOOD history (more)
User Rating: 8.4/10 (130,121 votes) top 250: #64
Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Hanks .... Captain John H. Miller
Tom Sizemore .... Sergeant Mike Horvath
Edward Burns .... Pvt. Richard Reiben
Barry Pepper .... Pvt. Daniel Jackson
Adam Goldberg .... Pvt. Stanley Mellish
Vin Diesel .... Private Adrian Caparzo
Giovanni Ribisi .... T-4 Medic Irwin Wade
Jeremy Davies .... Cpl. Timothy P. Upham
Matt Damon .... Private James Francis Ryan
Ted Danson .... Captain Fred Hamill
Paul Giamatti .... Sergeant Hill
Dennis Farina .... Lieutenant Colonel Anderson
Joerg Stadler .... Steamboat Willie
Max Martini .... Corporal Henderson (as Maximilian Martini)
Dylan Bruno .... Toynbe
Awards: Won 5 Oscars. Another 51 wins & 52 nominations (more)
SAVING PRIVATE...
User Comments:
158 out of 193 people found the following comment useful:-
Actually it's pretty GOOD history, 10 June 2001
Author: dedjim from Anchorage, AK
I know it's fashionable to trash successful movies but at least be honest about the trashing... Pvt. Ryan was fiction but it was pretty good HISTORICAL fiction. The details were well thought out and based on reality.
There was nothing stupid about the portrayal of the German army... Rommel DID blunder in his placement of force, The high command DID think Calais was going to be the invasion spot, not Normandy. Hitler didn't wake up until noon on that day and his aides were afraid to wake him. The Rangers did come in right behind the first wave and did take a beach exit by sheer will to get the hell off the beach. The bluffs were the scene of heavy close fighting. The german defenders were mostly Eastern European conscripts from defeated areas. (note that the 2 men that tried to surrender were NOT speaking German). There WAS a young man rescued from interior Normandy after his brothers were all killed. He WAS an airborne trooper (the difference was that he was found by a chaplain and was removed from the front.)
The battles inside Normandy were small actions town to town, street to street, house to house. Small actions like taking the radar station happened. Small actions like a handful of men defending a river bridge against odds happened. Small squads of men, formed out of the misdrops banded together ad hoc to fight. There were all enlisted groups and all officer groups. A General did die in the glider assault. FUBAR aptly described much of what happened that day.
And there were only Americans in the movie because the Brits and Canadians were many klicks away in a different area... this was Omaha beach. The story was an American one. And Monty DID bog down the advance and everyone knew it. And as for "American Stereotypes"... well those pretty much define America: my college roomie was a wise-ass New York Jew. My best friend was a second generation east coast Sicilian. My college girlfriend was a third generation German. My first wife was French and English. I'm Irish, my boss is Norwegian and I work with a Navaho... you get the point?
So much for it being bad history. It was in fact an excellent way to let a jaded and somewhat ignorant-of-their-past generation *feel* something of what their grandparents (LIVING grandparents) went through. It is perhaps less important that the details be exact as the feel be right. Even now the details are not fully known or knowable about that campaign... it was too big, too complex and too chaotic to be knowable. There is not even an accurate casualty count of D-Day itself.
Now as to the depth of characters. What I saw there was the extraordinary circumstances into which ordinary people were thrown and what happened to them. I saw the things that would mark a generation (I have heard in my elderly male patients sentiments similar to what Cpt. Miller was expressing when he announced his ordinariness) I saw the dehumanization that occurs with war and its mitigation moment to moment, man to man... Cpt. Miller didn't know anything about Ryan and he didn't care... until Ryan revealed his humanity to him with his story of his brothers. Pvt. Reiban was ready to walk out of the situation until he discoverd his captains ordinariness and his humanity. Then he began to look to him almost as a father. Pvt. Mellish rightfully delights in his revenge for all the times he's had to take it because he was Jewish by telling German captives he's "Juden!" Nerdish Cpl. Upham can stand alongside his bigger, stronger, braver Ranger compatriots and describe the poetry and melancholy of Edith Piaf's song... then face his cowardice, turn around and stand up in the face of danger and finally demonstrate the dehumanization of the enterprise he was enmeshed in by executing Steamboat Willie... even though Willie had no more choice about being there than Upham did and in other circumstances would have made a friend.
I could go on and on with this but enough already. OK, perhaps it is not The Best Movie Ever Made but it is still a good movie. And if one will take the blinders of fashionable negativism off they will see it. Finally, this is not a patriotic story... if anything it is an acknowledgement and thank you to all those old men still out there that did so much for us. To them I say a deep and sincere thank you.
London Calling
New member
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Voroshilov
I think you mean the Russians took more casualties than the rest of the allies put together
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nope. The Yanks took more casualties in the Normandy landings or D-DAY in 1944
YOU WILL FIND THAT DESPITE HOLLYWOOD'S INTEPRETATION OF WW2,
THAT THE SOVIET UNION SUFFERED MORE CASULATIES THAN ALL OTHER NATIONS IN WW2, WHETHER CIVILIANS OR ARMED FORCES.
THE YANKS ALSO IGNORED BRITISH ADVICE OVER THE BEST WAY TO ATTACK A BEACH, THEIR METHOD PROVED TOTALLY INEFFECTIVE , RESULTING IN MANY CASULATIES.
AS HINTED ABOVE BRITISH COMMANDO'S AND PARATROOPERS WERE VERY EFFECTIVE IN WORKING BEHIND THE GERMAN LINES, BEFORE AND DURING THE LANDINGS. AS A RESULT THOUSANDS IF NOR HUNDRED OF THOUSANDS OF ALLIED LIVES WERE SAVED.
A FILM ABOUT THESE HEROES WOULD BE OPPORTUNE!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Voroshilov
I think you mean the Russians took more casualties than the rest of the allies put together
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nope. The Yanks took more casualties in the Normandy landings or D-DAY in 1944
YOU WILL FIND THAT DESPITE HOLLYWOOD'S INTEPRETATION OF WW2,
THAT THE SOVIET UNION SUFFERED MORE CASULATIES THAN ALL OTHER NATIONS IN WW2, WHETHER CIVILIANS OR ARMED FORCES.
THE YANKS ALSO IGNORED BRITISH ADVICE OVER THE BEST WAY TO ATTACK A BEACH, THEIR METHOD PROVED TOTALLY INEFFECTIVE , RESULTING IN MANY CASULATIES.
AS HINTED ABOVE BRITISH COMMANDO'S AND PARATROOPERS WERE VERY EFFECTIVE IN WORKING BEHIND THE GERMAN LINES, BEFORE AND DURING THE LANDINGS. AS A RESULT THOUSANDS IF NOR HUNDRED OF THOUSANDS OF ALLIED LIVES WERE SAVED.
A FILM ABOUT THESE HEROES WOULD BE OPPORTUNE!!
mejonaNO12 aka riskit
Well-known member
stalin won us the war. as my essay PROVED for history.
and churchill was a waste of space.
i got an A for that so i must be right
and churchill was a waste of space.
i got an A for that so i must be right
London Irish
Well-known member
Voroshilov said:
All true, and I would add that when Sam from Cheers pops up as a high-ranking officer, you can only really giggle.
Uncle Spielberg
Well-known member
I also think it is Tom Hanks best work by far.
Uncle Spielberg
Well-known member
imdb top 20 war films
1. 8.8 Schindler's List (1993) 128,262
2. 8.6 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 40,534
3. 8.6 Napoléon (1927) 1,339
4. 8.5 Idi i smotri (1985) 2,084
5. 8.5 Paths of Glory (1957) 19,736
6. 8.5 Untergang, Der (2004) 25,825
7. 8.4 Apocalypse Now (1979) 85,197
8. 8.4 Hotel Rwanda (2004) 28,603
9. 8.4 The Pianist (2002) 47,920
10. 8.4 The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) 29,085
11. 8.4 Boot, Das (1981) 37,346
12. 8.4 Battaglia di Algeri, La (1966) 3,916
13. 8.3 The Great Escape (1963) 27,332
14. 8.3 Saving Private Ryan (1998) 130,121
15. 8.3 Vita è bella, La (1997) 49,830
16. 8.2 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) 1,697
17. 8.2 Talvisota (1989) 1,662
18. 8.2 The General (1927) 8,908
19. 8.2 Braveheart (1995) 118,899
20. 8.2 Full Metal Jacket (1987)
1. 8.8 Schindler's List (1993) 128,262
2. 8.6 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 40,534
3. 8.6 Napoléon (1927) 1,339
4. 8.5 Idi i smotri (1985) 2,084
5. 8.5 Paths of Glory (1957) 19,736
6. 8.5 Untergang, Der (2004) 25,825
7. 8.4 Apocalypse Now (1979) 85,197
8. 8.4 Hotel Rwanda (2004) 28,603
9. 8.4 The Pianist (2002) 47,920
10. 8.4 The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) 29,085
11. 8.4 Boot, Das (1981) 37,346
12. 8.4 Battaglia di Algeri, La (1966) 3,916
13. 8.3 The Great Escape (1963) 27,332
14. 8.3 Saving Private Ryan (1998) 130,121
15. 8.3 Vita è bella, La (1997) 49,830
16. 8.2 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) 1,697
17. 8.2 Talvisota (1989) 1,662
18. 8.2 The General (1927) 8,908
19. 8.2 Braveheart (1995) 118,899
20. 8.2 Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Uncle Spielberg said:
Well that is rubbish, BIG was his best film by a country mile.
Dandyman
In London village.
London Irish said:
I was rather hoping Woody, Diane, Fraser et al would appear as a crack special forces unit.
Cheeky Monkey
Well-known member
- Jul 17, 2003
- 23,633
Les Biehn said:
And what a shit film that was
London Calling said:
Lets get back on track here.The film was based on the beach landings.I'm not talking about the whole war here so i think your will find i'm 100% right.Just for proof i'll even help you out
http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/faq.htm
Trufflehound
Re-enfranchised
Voroshilov said:
Agreed.
SPR does have it's moments, but it's let down by Spielberg's complete inability to steer clear of slushy sentimentality.
Uncle Spielberg said:The one where he lost all his fortune and became bankrupt employing said same Jews is that
Thats the one.
They made us watch that one when we were doing business studies at college. Apparently taught people of how not to run a company.Totally lost on me i must admit.
Uncle Spielberg
Well-known member
Why is sentalmentlity such a bloody crine anyway ?. I would say hundreds of soliders being killed and blown apart was quite sad, what did you want " walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves " playing whilst the Beach Landings were taking place.
All you hard men who have probably never cried in your lives as its a sign of weakness need to get in touch with your emotions.
All you hard men who have probably never cried in your lives as its a sign of weakness need to get in touch with your emotions.
Uncle Spielberg
Well-known member
Your hard, ever cried hardman or is that being too sentimental