Saving Private Ryan

The many historical inaccuracies aside, I thought the movie was a sappy Spielburg film but was still a really good action movie. I just don't like how it massively contributed to this whole Stephen Ambrose fuelled 'greatest generation' hero worship crap.
 
The guts are pretty cool when they are dribbling out of the guys stomach at the beginning of the movie.
 
Spielberg makes movies and he is only interested in the Box Office Receipts, as far as history goes that has no part to play in these films. But if what he makes annoys people then he has to live with it. Now in the film there was a remark about the Brits sitting at Caen drinking tea while the Americans did all the work and dieing. I would like to point out that 27,000 British and Canadian soldiers died around Caen, there were 9 German Divisions in Normandy and six of these were fighting around Caen and not at Omaha Beach. the other thing that never comes up is why did America refuse all the support weapons that Britain offered. After the trial landing at Bolounge, Britain learnt that special tanks would be required to take the beaches. There was the flame thrower tank, there was a road layer, a bridging tank, another another one that would fire a heavy mortar the size of dustbin to demolish strong points, all these were refused. Also why why did the Americans unload their DD Sherman tanks miles out to sea in an enormous swell so that none of them made it to shore.Why was it took British Destroyers to sail with in two hundred yards of the Beach and blast the strong points allowing the Americans to get ashore as Americans did not want to risk there ships.
 
I think the best part of Saving Private Ryan is the landing on D-day because it looks soo real and horrifing...i think thats the closest any movie has come to depicting what D-day was like for every soldier that landed...i think this part makes people believe that the landing was not just some stroll on the beach with pockets of resistance...I remember meeting three veterans who landed on D-day about a year ago..They came to my college for a seminar and talked about d-day...they showed the clip from SPR...and commented that it was closely accurate to how hellish it was when they landed on the beach and that no other movie has come as close to depicting it.
 
Actually what i really want to see is a modern made war movie on a british point of view. Something about the landings at Caen, The 6th Airbourne behind enemy lines or the fighting in north africa would be good. Seeing the Commonwealth soldiers in action would be interesting as well, if possible. I guess the public are sick of war movies for now and we wont be seeing any for some time, which is a bummer.

Saving private Ryan Omaha beach landing is the best part of the movie. it so scary.
 
The thing that caught my eye in this film was when Tom Hanks was standing there in the street firing is automatic .45 pistol at a German tank. The tank blows up and Tom Hanks is standing there with his mouth wide open when a Mustang screams over head.
 
LeEnfield said:
Spielberg makes movies and he is only interested in the Box Office Receipts, as far as history goes that has no part to play in these films. But if what he makes annoys people then he has to live with it. Now in the film there was a remark about the Brits sitting at Caen drinking tea while the Americans did all the work and dieing. I would like to point out that 27,000 British and Canadian soldiers died around Caen, there were 9 German Divisions in Normandy and six of these were fighting around Caen and not at Omaha Beach. the other thing that never comes up is why did America refuse all the support weapons that Britain offered. After the trial landing at Bolounge, Britain learnt that special tanks would be required to take the beaches. There was the flame thrower tank, there was a road layer, a bridging tank, another another one that would fire a heavy mortar the size of dustbin to demolish strong points, all these were refused. Also why why did the Americans unload their DD Sherman tanks miles out to sea in an enormous swell so that none of them made it to shore.Why was it took British Destroyers to sail with in two hundred yards of the Beach and blast the strong points allowing the Americans to get ashore as Americans did not want to risk there ships.
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My dear friend. This movie is depicting the time. That comment about Brits and Caen was made over 60 years ago.

Another thing is that the DD's where let off ship mile away because sandbars and enemy fire halted LCT's from coming close. We aAmerican's saw that the beaches could be taken without special machines or vehicles.

And the remark on how only British Destroyers sailed into blast stong holds needs to be check. If you read the book D-Day you'll find different.

Also very little British ships where in the American sectors.
 
Cadet Seaman said:
Also very little British ships where in the American sectors.
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Of the vessels used in the assault phase:
Warships: 672 (457 British or Canadian)
Major Landing ships/landing craft: 1599 (1040 British/Canadian) American beaches used 147 Commonwealth and 497 American while Commonwealth beaches used 893 commonwealth and 62 American
 
Stosstruppen said:
I just don't like how it massively contributed to this whole Stephen Ambrose fuelled 'greatest generation' hero worship crap.
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Well, being the son of that generation and knowing my father's and uncles' stories from that war all I can say is you're lucky your typing that complaint in English. It was the greatest generation and they deserve any and all praise we can give them. They deserve even more.

BTW, it was Tom Brokaw who coined the term "The Greatest Generation", not Stephen Ambrose.
 
Kilgore said:
Actually what i really want to see is a modern made war movie on a british point of view. Something about the landings at Caen, The 6th Airbourne behind enemy lines or the fighting in north africa would be good. Seeing the Commonwealth soldiers in action would be interesting as well, if possible. I guess the public are sick of war movies for now and we wont be seeing any for some time, which is a bummer.

Saving private Ryan Omaha beach landing is the best part of the movie. it so scary.
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crete, i want a movie about crete and/or charles upham VC and bar
 
I know that a few things are wrong in SPR...

I remember the MG 42 position at the radar station is not historically right made, also it´s not possible to shoot with the MG 42´s there because it has been built wrong.

Also a german MG 42 position was never alone how it´s shown there. On the flanks were always a few support troops who secured the area behind and next to the MG 42 position, so that the MG 42 crew only had to look in front!

I´ll try to get the source, but the topic where i quote it is deleted in another forum :(


And to BoB, it´s not really true, remember some scenes in which you have the feeling the germans see them but dont shoot at them because they are ordered to in this film or the SS Division [around 80 soldiers] eating on a free field is not able to hit a single american soldier with a Garand...

Or the scene with the Pak 40... only LoL 8)
 
merlin said:
Whilst i dont disagree that the battle scenes in "Saving Private Ryan" seem to be the most realistic in any movie i have seen i think people can pick up the wrong impression of the overall events of the day from this movie alone. Actually this is something i have noticed with the war movies of the last few years. "Saving Private Ryan" presents the bloody battle faced by the US forces storming Omaha beach. However from what i have read the opposition met by the forces on other beaches was significantly less than that experienced at Omaha. Also as has already been pointed out there is no mention of the british and canadian forces taking part on the day in "Saving Private Ryan". Whilst this movie and others of recent years give very harrowing and realistic impressions of combat experience i think they do so at the expense of giving an overview of historical events. For example, the battle sequences in "Saving Private Ryan" are more accurate than "The Longest Day" but "The longest day" gives a better overview of all the events and characters of the day. Similarly whilst the aerial combat scenes in "Pearl Harbour" are a very realistic depiction of generic world war 2 aerial combat and bombing i think no-one would disagree that "Tora Tora Tora!" gives a more historically accurate overview of events in this case.
Don't get me wrong i am not denouncing these modern movies totally but there are some people who will see just these movies and won't read a few books or watch other movies/documentaries to get a fuller picture of what happened.
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Reason being that the movie is about a Ranger unit trying to find a Paratrooper in the American sectors. And if I'm not mistaken the area of the whole invasion was qabout 60 miles (I'm using the link below).

http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=47755

(On a side note, I found this very interesting site: http://www.wtj.com/articles/normandy/)
 
just a few facts i would like to mention

1-John Keegan, eminent British historian who wrote Six Armies in Normandy, stated the following concerning the Canadian 3rd Division on D-Day: “At the end of the day, its forward elements stood deeper into France than those of any other division. The opposition the Canadians faced was stronger than that of any other beach. That was an accomplishment in which the whole nation could take considerable pride.”
2-Canada had the hardest beach to attack, they penetrated the farthist into France, and captured Bernières, Courseulles and St. Aubin and then advanced inland, securing a critical bridgehead for the allied invasion.
3-There were no major german gun batteries on omaha beach(im not saying that the germans didnt have any artillery there im just saying that there was nothing bigger than a mortar or a pak40). The British and Canadian beaches were covered in major german gun batteries consisting of mortars,pak's,88's,etc.
4-There were more german divisonsin the canadian and british zones than in the america zones
5-The Canadian and British forces caputred the most ground than the americans.

Now im not trying to trash the american's here im just stating that because of hollywood and SOME american's narrow minded thinking, they think they were the only ones to fight the war. All war vets from every country including the so called bad guys should be honored equally.

SPR was a good movie but was a tipical american movie.

this was all a little off topic but w/e.
 
Omaha Beach

Troops in an LCVP landing craft approach Omaha beach June 6, 1944.Main article: Omaha Beach
Omaha Beach was the bloodiest landing beach on D-Day. The U.S. 1st Infantry Division and U.S. 29th Infantry Division faced the German 352nd Division, some of the best trained on the beaches. Omaha was the most heavily fortified beach, and pre-landing bombardment of the bunkers was ineffective. Almost all of the swimming DD tanks swamped en route to the beach. The official record stated that "within 10 minutes of the ramps being lowered, [the leading] company had become inert, leaderless and almost incapable of action. Every officer and sergeant had been killed or wounded [...] It had become a struggle for survival and rescue". There were about 2,500 killed, most in the first few hours. Commanders considered abandoning the beachhead, but some survivors regrouped and pressed inland.

Walk in the park huh?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Normandy#The_landings

Juno Beach

Juno was the second most heavily defended of the five landing sites chosen, after the more famous Omaha Beach. General Richter was in charge of the 716th Division guarding the beach, with 11 heavy batteries of 155 mm guns and 9 medium batteries of 75 mm guns at his disposal. Additionally, pillboxes and other fortifications were present all along the beach, most heavily concentrated in the Courseulles-sur-mer region. The seawall was twice the height of Omaha Beach's, and the ocean was heavily mined. However, the 716th Division was composed primarily of boys under 18, men over 35, and veterans of the Russian front who had suffered debilitating injuries, reducing the beach's difficulty to some degree

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_Beach
 
Omaha was the bloodest beach on d-day,but that dosent mean it was the hardest.The Canadians had less people going up the beach at Juno then the american's did at Omaha so the americans recived more casualties.But im sure the Canadians hard just as hard or harder of a fight, not to mention what came after the beach.
 
CanadianCombat said:
Omaha was the bloodest beach on d-day,but that dosent mean it was the hardest.The Canadians had less people going up the beach at Juno then the american's did at Omaha so the americans recived more casualties.But im sure the Canadians hard just as hard or harder of a fight, not to mention what came after the beach.
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What part of this is hard to understand?

"Omaha was the most heavily fortified beach, and pre-landing bombardment of the bunkers was ineffective."
 
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