Posted on 05/17/2018 8:36:19 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax
Talkin' 'bout their generation...
Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan got a lot of good press when it came out, for its tribute to those who fought and died to save our western civilization from the German Nazis. It also garnered praise for its powerful and graphic depiction of what it was probably like (Hollywood influences notwithstanding) to have made that deadly but vital beach landing on June 6, 1944.
This is the perfect time of year, approaching America's annual Memorial Day celebration and the anniversary of the Normandy invasion, for Paramount to reissue a 20th Anniversary edition of Spielberg's film with an absolutely spectacular conversion to 4K disc with HDR – a UHD treatment that's a very pleasant surprise, indeed.
It's a pretty good movie, too, though it would have been better if they'd forgotten the "saving mission" aspect of it and just continued to document Tom Hanks' group as they fought inland after establishing their beach hold. That opening (actually the second sequence after a bit of a narrative hook) is probably the best look at the horrors – and heroes – of war that I've seen, an unforgettable bit of movie making that puts those men's sacrifices into perspective for those who've never had to endure what my father's generation did in order to make the world safe for us.
On the other hand, documenting the fighting from the beach and inland was done already in Darryl F. Zanuck's "The Longest Day," the 1962 masterpiece that looks at the big (as in "really huge!") picture surrounding Operation Overlord, the invasion of the European mainland. That black-and-white movie starts the night before Spielberg's film and portrays the beach landing in context – as one vital part of a multifaceted operation.
As a baby boomer whose father's Halifax bomber crew...
(Excerpt) Read more at thecoachsteam.com ...
Still makes no sense to cast “transvestite Tom” Hanks as an army Ranger.
I’ll stick with Kelly’s Heroes.
Europe has now gone Islamic.
Fighting WWII for Muhammed. Allahu Ackbar!
I’m waiting for 64k.
I prefer “The Longest Day”.
I had the opportunity to talk to a veteran who landed at Normandy. He remarked about the soldiers taking cover behind sand berms in the movie, saying, “We were stacking bodies.” He also said, as an officer, lieutenant, he was sent to the Battle of the Bulge following, while his men were sent to recover.
I only wish Spielberg had cast actors that reflected how YOUNG the soldiers were, not actors in their 30’s.
A Midnight Clear was a good flick that used young actors. As for Pvt. Ryan it’s a good flick but once is enough. Opening scenes in HD? I don’t think so.
that’s a good point. He wanted bankable stars in the leading roles, of course, but that would have been far more realistic if they’d been 19.
hmmm ... battle of the bulge was more than 6 months after d-day
Hanks did just fine in the role. One of the greatest war films ever. Spielberg was robbed.
My vision, and probably your average person's vision, is probably not good enough to tell the difference between high-def or even standard-def resolutions wrt 4K.
We watch component level video on our flat panel TV and it is very good and very difficult to notice a difference.
The added bandwidth costs more in both Internet traffic and equipment.
Saving Private Ryan is copy of Kelly’s Heroes but not as good
Or watch the earlier “The Longest Day” in which major stars from the US and Europe took huge pay cuts to make the historic movie.
There were many men in World War II in their thirties up to their seventies. My late father, as you say, was only 18 when he joined the Marine Corps, but many were not.
Yes! Wars are fought by kids, not middle aged men. Apparently Hollywood is unaware of the real world or can't find kids that can act.
The 1990 film "The Memphis Belle" was an exception. The first scene is a bunch of kids playing football. My thought during that scene was that these kids will grow up and eventually fly B-17's in war. Instead, all of a sudden one can hear the engines of B-17's starting and the kids rush to their aircraft ready to serve their country.
Great movie. I saw it with a 30 mission B-17 crew member and his only critical comment was that every crisis depicted was realistic, but so many couldn't have occurred on a single mission. It also unrealistically showed some women in the plane the night before the last mission.
That’s where “Pappy” Boyington got his nickname too.
The age factor has always been an issue in Hollywood war films. Simply stated, it’s easier to go with more established actors than take a chance on younger performers in their late teens/early 20s, even if they’re the right age for the part.
Another example of this: the classic war and legal drama, the Caine Mutiny. The parts of Maryk (Van Johnson); Keefer (Fred MacMurray), Greenwald (Jose Ferrer) and Keith (Robert Francis) were junior officers—typically men in their early 20s. Of the three, only Francis was in that age range (he was 24 at the time the film was released). Even Capt Queeg was described as a “1936 Annapolis graduate” in the book, placing the character somewhere in his early 30s. On the screen, he was portrayed by Humphrey Bogart, who was 54 at time.
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