Posted on 07/29/2018 2:25:22 AM PDT by Rummyfan
This past week marks the twentieth anniversary of the release of Steven Spielberg's blockbuster hit Saving Private Ryan. Let's take a look back at what Mark had to say about it in 1998:
When Saving Private Ryan was released in America, I made a mild observation to the effect that its premise was a lot of hooey, and received in response several indignant letters pointing out that it was 'based on a true story', that of the Sullivan brothers. Er, not quite. The Sullivans' story is stirringly told in The Fighting Sullivans (1942, directed by 42nd Street's Lloyd Bacon): after Pearl Harbor, all five brothers enlist - and all five die aboard the battleship Juneau at Guadalcanal. As a result, to avoid the recurrence of such a freakish tragedy, the United States changed its policy on family members serving together. Steven Spielberg's film is not 'based' on the Sullivans, except insofar as General George C. Marshall, the US Army's chief of staff, mentions their fate to explain his decision.
Rather, the film is a kind of extension of the thinking behind the policy change: when three out of four Ryan brothers are killed in action, General Marshall orders a rescue mission to retrieve the sole surviving sibling, whose general whereabouts are somewhere behind enemy lines in Normandy - and all this a couple of days after D-Day. No such incident took place: no Allied commander would have thought it worth the risk in lives to assuage one distraught mother's potential further bereavement.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
First off...the USS Juneau was a cruiser (cl52).
I had an uncle on board
What I liked about the movie was that it was the only movie I ever saw that really tried to show in realistic detail what our forces went through on D day. There was no John Wayne standing up and charging through a thousand bullets that never hit their mark. While some people could question the story. The story does not matter. Its the war backdrop that shows what average American men did to end WWII, in a country far away. on a beach that nobody ever heard of.
In today’s world where history is rarely taught. And superhero movies are all we get, young adults have no idea what previous generations did to stop wars. So, I am a bit worried that our next generation will let themselves be talked into a war because they don’t know what wars are like.
I tend to agree with you....the first twenty minutes of Saving Private Ryan (I’ve watched at least twenty times) probably reaches absolute maximum intensity and as ‘real’ as you can get it.
As they trudge along with the next two hours, it doesn’t let up and you feel emotionally attached to the Captain and his team.
It’s a very small group of movies that I put into this category: Thin Red Line, Flags of our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, and Bridge Over River Kwai.
>>It’s a very small group of movies that I put into this category: Thin Red Line, Flags of our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, and Bridge Over River Kwai.
I’d add Band Of Brothers as well - one of my favorites (though more of a mini-series than a movie).
It was a movie!!!!!
correct...back in the day the USN named battleships after states and cruisers after cities.
I would add ‘The Longest Day’ as well.
Did you hear about the remake?
This time Matt Damon’s character is a transgender soldier.
“Saving Ryan’s Privates”
The final scenes are most important to me.
“Earn this”
And “Am I a good man?”
Point out the price paid for our freedom.
An old German film “The Bridge” fit this category very well.
Unfortunately, many civilians make the mistake of referring to any warship as a battleship. It’s similar to the old dodge about reporters referring to any firearm as an assault weapon. It’s a shame that Steyn made such a silly mistake.
I enjoyed “Battle of the Bulge”. Pretty accurate. Colonel Kessler(Robert Shaw) was excellent. Got into the German mindset when they were losing as well as military thought. Kessler was crazy but stern as well as mindful as the movie evolved.
Actually, we have The Longest Day that depicts what happened on Omaha beach pretty well. The General dodging bullets was not John Wayne but rather Robert Mitchum.
From the outset, a war movie made by a liberal Jew had to be anti war. It was
I agree! The scene at the end in the cemetery is very moving.
You owe me a monitor! And, keyboard! LOL!
“Saving Private Ryan” is loosely - very loosely - based on the story of the Niland Brothers, here:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/saving-private-ryan-true-story-niland-brothers
“Saving Private Ryan” is one of my favorite WWII movies.
“The Fighting Sullivans” is on the list, too.
In my opinion one of the best WWII movies (well, it was a mini-series), was “The Pacific.” And I thought it was better than BOB.
Don’t know what happened , I didnt use any html but “das boot” is the movie I mentioned
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