[bolobaby]

When I went to go see Saving Private Ryan (second time in the theatre), there was an elderly gentleman who came in and sat done just prior to the movie starting. He was clearly a WWII vet.

As soon as the door opened and the firing started, he put his head down, closed his eyes, and covered his ears. He didn't move for a long, long time.

Finally, he opened his eyes. The shooting had stopped and the squad tasked to find Ryan were slogging through the French countryside. Without hesitating, he stood up and walked out of the theatre.

Man, I felt bad for him.

[AnAmericanMother]

Poor guy, he probably realized he'd made a bad mistake as soon as the LST stopped moving. Even on DVD that first scene is pretty overwhelming. I can't imagine what it was like in a theater with surround sound.

I think my dad and his bud made the right choice. Once you've seen the elephant, what need to be reminded of it in living color?

I've never had to kill anybody, but I came close once - I know it would have bothered me for a long time even though the guy was a goblin trying to mug me and roundly deserved two 1911A1 slugs to the chest. I am devoutly grateful that he "got religion" as soon as he saw what I was holding. A police officer friend of mine had to kill an armed robber in a shootout and it was very upsetting. He shook just talking about it for some time afterwards.

[wimpycat]

When I was in highschool, I dated a guy whose dad was a retired Marine, did 3 tours of duty in Vietnam, one of them as a door gunner. He told me they went to see "Platoon", and his dad fell asleep. A wonderful critique of Oliver Stone's filmmaking, maybe. But when he came up from Florida for a visit and took us water-skiing in New River, near the Main Gate, I noticed he kept track of every helicopter that was flying in the area out of the corner of his eye.