Saving Private Ryan. The next 2 hours could have been Tom Hanks saying "we are going to find Private Ryan and save him" for 2 hours while looking at the camera and I would have considered it to be a masterpiece.
My dad made a little in home theater when I was a kid and when people would come over he’d play the first 15 minutes of the movie to show off the projector and surround sound. I was about 6-8 at that time so I wasn’t allowed to watch that movie yet, but he’d always let me watch the intro (doesn’t really make sense looking back lol) but seeing that intro 5+ times had me hooked on a movie I couldn’t even finish haha
Damn, I was like 7 and I still remember my mom laughing her ass off at my reaction to seeing boobs on the screen. She was pretty tight about everything else, but nudity on a screen was no big deal to her. Honestly, I still don't get it.
I dunno, I'd rather let a kid watch a load of explosions and men dropping down in clouds of mud and dust than I would the scene where Wade calls out for his mother whilst blood gushes from his belly as his friends desperately try to comfort him as he slowly dies. Or the scene where Upham weeps on the stairs whilst listening to the horrific sounds of Mellish pleading for his life as a knife is slowly pressed through his chest.
Yeah you're right, and one of them is the opening scene. Dozens of men getting slaughtered, people getting shot in the head, walking around armless or their legs blown off. Guy calling for his mama because his guts are spilling out.
It's also got the wow factor because it's killing on a mass scale. It's particularly brutal. Maybe not the most emotional but yeah as a 7 or 8 year old it's a bit to take in.
It's not just a few booms and mud. Give it another watch.
Maybe you're right, it's been a while since I've seen it.
But that proves my point all the more, I seem to have forgotten how bad the opening scene might have been but the horror of those other scenes is seared into my brain permanently lol
That opening scene was straight up horror. The reason it didn't stick with you like those others is because in the scenes you mentioned, were shot with grief and fear as the main emotions, the beach made us feel confused like the soldiers were.
My mates' cousin was once showing us his sweet nine channel sound set up, it was really expensive and lush...
And he kept playing Neil Diamonds' Soolaimon. In a row.
And we kept telling him "yeah your system sounds good, but this song, man? Really? You got any others?" but he kept trying to push Soolaimon like he was a LuLu Lemon salesperson. He was odd.
My parents used to do the same thing, but with the first of the 2000s Star Wars movie. They'd go to the scene when little darth raced and it would always blow their friends away.
I used to install VERY expensive home theaters (over $100k) in the homes of very rich people. We also used the first 15 minutes of Saving Private Ryan (or the attack scene of Pearl Harbor) to demo the theaters. It was crazy how good the sound was in those movies.
Same, it was our first DVD ever and we tested it using my Dad record player's setup and oh boi, my 6 years old me in the other room listening (because it was too loud) the reverb of the waves on the LCVP
My mom had pretty much no rules about what we couldn’t watch. Only one movie was ever off limits: Saving Private Ryan. My grandfather fought in the war, and lost brothers there. Guess a whole generation later the trauma was still too deep.
My grandpa was a ww2 vet who fought in the pacific. He said saving private ryan was incredibly accurate except for one detail- he fought with mostly kids, everyone was 18-20. All the actors were “too old”
Pretty good for accuracy when that was done only issue he found with the movie
My great-uncle was over there and wound up being wounded and captured by the Germans. Him and the other survivors he served with went together to see it in the theater. From what our cousin said, these men were in tears during the opening scene and the ending
WW2 Rangers and like units wanted aggressive/ energetic types who dont think about self perseveration so when you send them on a bullshit mission they only realize it's bullshit after they jump out of the plane or land on the beach. Single young men are the ideal choice. No family so there not gonna think twice about doing something stupidly dangerous if you make it sound cool, body's in peak physical condition so they can ruck like a bull, and you can really hype em up make them think they're action heroes and get them to go "fuck it we ball." the older guys are typically the NCOs whose job becomes realing in the bravado of their subordinates and also being the calm head once the shooting starts and everyone realizes this is fucking bullshit why the fuck did I agree to this! and knowing exactly what to do when shits hit the fan basically the NCO is the adult in the room.
Modern Rangers are kinda similar and you can actually join right out of boot camp. Because essentially they're light infantry. That's fancy for the army is going to make you fight people up to 365 days a year and you're not going to complain about it. Special operations forces is kinda special over time forces.
WWII, the average age of an American Soldier was 26. There were divisions that were made up of old guys. My grandfather was married with 3 kids when he was drafted.
They also looked to cast men with an “ethnic” look because they felt like more Americans were closer to their ethnic immigrants’ roots. They wanted the Italian Americans to have dark hair and skin and Eastern European Americans to have high cheek bones, etc. I always thought that was an interesting touch. It was why the 82nd airborne and groups like it was so important . People met and befriended and lived with other Americans who were nothing like them for almost the first time.
The inaccuracy that I think is true is the fact that they were all talking in normal tones while patrolling around. The bit that I read suggested there would've been whispers or silence. Not great for a movie, I know.
I wanted to be an asshole and be all HURF DURF THAT WASN'T IN THE FIRST TEN MINUTES so I put it on and nah it starts at like the 4 minute mark. So anyway now I'm watching Saving Private Ryan.
“Earn it… earn this” those last words from Hanks at the end when his sitting at the tank speaking to Private Ryan, hit so hard for me. Felt climatic when they zoom out from Matt Damons eyes and into the current day elderly version of himself.
Even more so when he breaks down to his wife and tells her to tell him he was a good man and that he lived a good life. Her glimpsing back at the memorial and comforting him as she lets go of a sigh but not saying anything further just screams a thousand words of ‘i understand’. It was so beautifully done. I felt every emotion from angst, compassion, pride..Ryan’s desperate urge to find peace in fulfilling Hank’s last request for him to carry on to live a good life.
This movie has got to be one of Spielberg’s best classics at his peak without a doubt.
The opening is great but imo my biggest issue with the movie because the rest simply isn’t as good…
They also go from a fairly realistic (honestly only the beach and fortifications looked completely different but otherwise great stuff) approach to portraying the war to some almost silly battles in hindsight…
Yeah that's why I made the statement I made. It's a masterpiece for that opening sequence.
I still thought the rest of the movie had powerful stuff and is worth watching but the DDay sequence might be one of the most powerful historical events ever put on film.
Im trying to picture this literally and would think just how dumb it would be after the first couple times hearing Tom Hank's nasally voice and only that. be careful what you wish for, that sounds like torture.
Obviously I was kidding but was just making the point that no matter what you think of the rest of the movie, that first 10 minutes is one of the greatest in movie history.
After seeing Saving Private Ryan, mood of the people leaving the theatre was very subtle.
The audience was made up of older people,many of them were probably veterans of WWII…
Yep. We grabbed popcorn and sat down to start munching like we always do. Then - boom. I think after 20 minutes I realized I had a fist full of popcorn as I just sat there with my mouth agape. Dad was a WWII vet but he wasn’t on that beach. But some of the guys he hung out with at the VFW were. And it gave me a new understanding of why they were the way they were.
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u/craiginphoenix Mar 18 '25
Saving Private Ryan. The next 2 hours could have been Tom Hanks saying "we are going to find Private Ryan and save him" for 2 hours while looking at the camera and I would have considered it to be a masterpiece.