No matter how many times I watch it, I always get a tear when old Ryan, played so well by Harrison Young, is standing in front of Capt. Miller's grave and thanking him and all of the Rangers who died during the mission to save him.
The French keep that Cemetery absolutely perfect. Something to behold 😎
July of ‘16 i was pushing my bicycle along the length of Omaha Beach, east to west. I struck up a conversation with an elderly French gentleman on the beach. I told him I had come to see the invasion beaches.
The French keep that Cemetery absolutely perfect. Something to behold 😎
July of ‘16 i was pushing my bicycle along the length of Omaha Beach, east to west. I struck up a conversation with an elderly French gentleman on the beach. I told him I had come to see the invasion beaches.
That first scene is friggin brutal. It's hard to imagine that men could muster that much courage. All to defeat totalitarian rule, something half the country would except now in exchange for a free iPhone.
That first scene is friggin brutal. It's hard to imagine that men could muster that much courage. All to defeat totalitarian rule, something half the country would except now in exchange for a free iPhone.
I have two thoughts on the movie; the first, the opening scene, when my pop saw it in theatre when it first came out, he said it gave him the shakes, it seemed so real.
And second, as a kid, pop took me to that cemetery, took me to the beaches, other places as best as he could remember. That was in the early 70s or so when we were stationed in West Germany. It didn’t seem as profound to me at the time but years later I came across an old, curled black and white photo of a simple cross among many others, a guy named Walter... maybe Grassel, I forget, but I know he never forgot. They were buddies, I don’t know what dad said to him, or thought, he kept a fair amount of stuff inside, unless he was hammered sometimes. That trip he and I took, I think that might have been one of those things that cleans one soul, and began to shape another...
So for several reasons, yeah, I guess I get a little misty when I get to that part.
That first scene is friggin brutal. It's hard to imagine that men could muster that much courage...
The US army had a training film to take the fear out of new recruits concerning the MG-42, telling them "its bark was worse than its bite"
it's not like your gov. would blatantly lie to you.
Now about the movie itself, where Tom Hanks mentions his tactic of waiting for the Germans to change out the barrel on their MG mount, that hilarious,.. Hollywood obviously banking on the audiences ignorance of how fast a well drilled/experienced MG-42 team could perform such.
Although not in a heavy-mount with optical sight like in Normandy beach defences, here's a general User view of the modern mg42....
I went to see it for the first time in the theater with my wife. The scene where the Army staff car is coming up the dusty Iowa drive and the mother sees it, comes out on the porch, and has to sit down as her legs won't hold her grief knowing that one of her sons isn't coming home. Of course, we know it's 4. My wife was crying softly through that whole scene. And then, later in the movie, we see the medic get shot from the German they let go. The medic tries to diagnose his wounds by asking his comrades. He knows he's dying and calls out for his mother...my wife, who was a first time new mother herself, was sobbing loudly. A gentle, leathery hand attached to what I assumed was an old vet, himself sitting teary eyed behind us, comforted her by patting her on the shoulder. I got a little sweaty in the eyeballs at that point.
Powerful movie. She has never and will never watch it again.
Spr is well done cinema. And th eresolve those boys exibited beggars belief.
But i cant watch any wwii movie nowadays as i used to. Just a waste of our boys and treasure for nothing except to save bolsheviks from getting their just desserts. Every casualty on the w front was stupid, avoidable, and tragic.
What struck me about seeing it in the theater was after words, everybody walking out. Heads were down and not a word was spoken. It was like walking out of a funeral. The collective reflection and grief hung thick in the air and people just slowly walked to their vehicles and left. No words from anyone.