I saw Saving Privage Ryan again last night... (1 Viewer)

[Warrior]

......on HBO for about what seems like the 500th time. The thing that still amazes me about the movie is everytime I watch it, I pick up something new I had missed before.

Simply put, this movie set the standard by which all future war movies will be judged. The fact that this movie did not win best picture is an insult to every American who has worn a uniform, end of story, the blowhards who run the motion picture academy should be ashamed of themselves. This was their chance to honor all servicemen/women, past, present and future and they blew it..............

 

[jazzeum]

Further to that point, HBO ran a marathon of Band of Brothers on Sunday and ran the documentary part of it last night. Still impressive. That thought occurred to me that there must be hundreds of units that have their own stories to tell.

 

[arnhem44mad]

Some of you already know that I live in Scotland and it is quite hard to get American T.V. On the telly !. On www.amazon.co.uk I bought the complete series of Band of Brothers for Christmas! !

 

[jazzeum]

If it's the first time you're seeing it you won't be disappointed and if it's not, you still won't be disappointed.

 

[arnhem44mad]

I've seen some of the episodes.
My favourite has to be the Operation Market Garden one because the Americans are telling the British Tankers that there is a German tiger but they can't see it so they take their chance. Then about 1 min later all you see is this large cannon aiming right for the British Cromwell and then..........BOOOOOOOOOOOOM the tank is finished

 

[jazzeum]

I don't want to spoil it for you but the Bastogne episodes are terribly moving. I don't know if I could have made it through that. I doubt it.

 

[arnhem44mad]

I certainly agree with you on that ! They were my second favourite . I just love how they all stuck together,but it was sad when one American private went to help another wounded one and got blown up

 

[arnhem44mad]

There is also another episode (9 I think) where the Americans are in Belgium or Germany and you see a camp where there are tons of Jews emaciated, and dying .

I saw that one when I was seven and I think thats what made me get into toy soldiers. I am 13 now and can still remember every detail, (of course the fact that I saw that episode 3 months ago could have helped my memory a little ).

The look of all the Jews when the Americans arrived was moving, however it was very sad when the Americans were told to lock them backup again because otherwise the prisoners would have eaten themselves to death !

 

[gk5717]

I agree George, SPR is my favorite movie of all time.
I cannot count the number of times I seen all or parts of that movie
That,s why I was somewhat disappointed with Flags of our Fathers as I was hopeing it would be a SPR clone.
Gary

 

[Warrior]

Gary,
Maybe letters from Iwo will turn out differently. We'll find out soon enough..............

 

[desk11desk12]

Great movie but I liked Band of Brothers better.

Carlos

 

[Eazy]

I liked Band of Brothers better too. The characters because they were based on real life people seemed more interesting than the fictional squad in Ryan.

The squad in Ryan were quite stereotypical when you think about it.
A hard as nails sergeant, a wisecracking italian american, a jewish guy,a good leader with a mysterious past, a bookish nerdy guy, a quiet guy who is a deadly sniper, a big man with a soft heart.

It had great action sequences but if a person with no knowledge of WW2 watched it they would probably think only the Americans and the Gemans were involved. You get no sense of the bigger picture that you do get with films like The Longest Day and A Bridge too Far.

 

[Rob]

A fantastic film, a quantum leap in quality and realism from the war movies of the sixties and seventies(although the ones Easy mentioned are very good to) For me the only blip was the by now standard and totally pointless anti British/Monty snipe,totally uneeded.Why does the American film industry/TV have such a problem with us Brits,we were on the same side you know!

Band of Brothers was also superb.The storming of the German gun emplacement in the second episode was very well done and the whole of the Bastogne episode was excellant.More of this quality please.

Rob

 

[tora7770]

Private Ryan is a good Hollywood film, The opening beach bit was great, the rest a bit too ovious and too much of a movie....


If you have a chance see Enemy at the gate, Cross of Iron, Das Boot or the longest day to give yourself a real picture of war.
Regards
Andrew

 

[Louis Badolato]

......on HBO for about what seems like the 500th time. The thing that still amazes me about the movie is everytime I watch it, I pick up something new I had missed before.

Simply put, this movie set the standard by which all future war movies will be judged. The fact that this movie did not win best picture is an insult to every American who has worn a uniform, end of story, the blowhards who run the motion picture academy should be ashamed of themselves. This was their chance to honor all servicemen/women, past, present and future and they blew it..............

I coudn't agree with you more, George. It was a disgrace that they gave best picture to that fluff piece Shakespeare in Love.

 

[Warrior]

Sorry Tora, can't see how The Longest Day or Enemy at the Gates are in the same league as SPR. The US assault on Omaha Beach in TLD was comical beyond belief. The French Commandos assault on Ouestreham was extremely well done, however, the casino which was the focal point of the attack was leveled in real life prior to the attack.

I'm with you that Das Boot was terrific; the same film company that produced that movie also did the 1992 version of "Stalingrad", a fantastic movie about a group of German assault troops who get caught up in the battle. Prior to the release of SPR, that was my all time favorite war movie.............

 

[OzDigger]

I noticed in earlier posts that most here preferred Band of Brothers over SPR. I would have to disagree. Imo SPR had the edge over BOB in regards to production values, and the acting in SPR was also more convincing.

I enjoyed Stalingrad and prefer it to Das Boot which was a great movie but over long imo. I will watch almost any movie based on WWII but SPR is hard to top.

My second favourite WWII movie would be 'The Eagle has Landed' which is about an assassination attempt on Churchill. It is an excellent movie with some terrific performances, but the movie is often overshadowed by bigger budget flicks such as 'A Bridge to far'.

 

[Eazy]

Cool film The Eagle has Landed. It'd be good to get some modern war adventure movies like those from the 60's and 70's.

Michael Caine as a German Paratrooper! What more can you ask?

 

[Eazy]

What more can you ask?

JR from Dallas as a crazy US Army officer!

 

[sceic2]

What more can you ask?

JR from Dallas as a crazy US Army officer!

He did that as a US Air Force officer, him and his lamp.