Posted on 11/15/2004 6:33:49 AM PST by FrankRepublican
Ba-da- BING- ba-da-boom!
"I know he did Saving Private Ryan but that was for the $$$."
Perhaps you should find out what you're talking about before you go spouting off. In "Band of Brothers" there's a relatively minor character named "Shifty" the sniper. The real Shifty (Darrell Powers) is my wife's uncle. Ironically, he's nearly blind now. He's met Hanks because of all of Hanks' involvement in the D-Day Museum and other things.
Hanks might be a liberal, but according to Shifty he truly does care about the vet, particularly the WW II vets.
It looks creepy.
"He has been made out to be more of an actor than he really is for years."
I think he's one of the best Amercian actors today.
"I found the characters creepy and disturbing."
Here's one of the reason they seem creepy and disturbing. All of the characters' actions were mapped on a computer by attaching scads of electronic sensors to the skin. But you can't attach sensors to the eyeballs or to the tongue. So all the characters have these lifeless, unrealitic eyeballs and these tongues that look like they belong in the mouth of an ogre.
BTW, my 11-year-old son saw it and liked it.
Yes, I saw it Saturday with my wife and children. I thought it very dark and grim.
The Flamenco Dancing waiters were particulary disturbing and really creeped me out.
Yes, St. Nicholas was a real person, but the Santa Clause coming down the chimney, flying around the world in a magic sleigh pulled by eight tiny reindeer is – and rather recent at that.
> He has been made out to be more of an actor than he really is for years. <
I don't like his politics, but he's one hell of an actor. Rent Castaway or Private Ryan and find out.
The most affecting performance I've ever seen Tom Hanks give was in Forrest Gump, when Forrest finds out that the little boy is his son. He gets the most terrified look on his face as he asks if the boy is 'ok'. He was so worried that the boy might be 'slow' like he was. I cry every time I see that!
Tom Hanks was also good in Road to Perdition; a different character, but compelling, nonetheless. I think he's one of the best actors working today.
"Wasn't he injured in an truck accident on the trip from Bavaria after he'd attained the points to go home?"
Indeed. He got through all the fighting without a scratch only to be severely injured in a truck wreck basically on the way to his plane or ship out. He was in the hospital for months (maybe even a year?). While he was there, all of his war souvenirs and such were stolen.
Shifty (so named because of his shiftiness on the basketball court) never talked to family or anybody else about the war until the writing of Band of Brothers. Now he'll tell his tales at family reunions and wherever asked. At the last one we both attended he had a crowd around listening, including most of the kids. But he's still a country boy from the coalfields of Southwest Virginia. Very nice and humble.
Granny, Next time you view "We Were Soldiers," listen carefully to the beautiful hymn as the early credits roll.
In case you cannot make them out, here they are:
To fallen soldiers let us sing
Where no rockets fly nor bullets wing
Our broken brothers let us bring
To the Mansions of the Lord
No more bleeding, no more fight
No prayers pleading through the night
Just divine embrace, eternal light
In the Mansions of the Lord
Where no mothers cry and no children weep
We will stand and guard though the angels sleep
Through the ages safely keep
The Mansions of the Lord.
Just so you will know, "The Mansions of The Lord" was first used at the end of the splendid Mel Gibson film "We Were Soldiers."
Perhaps this paricular story of the valor and sacrifice of American fighting men touched me so because I was training kids to be combat engineers at Ft. Belvoir, Va between 1962 to 1966. Many of them wound up in Vietnam. Some of them found their way to The Wall (which I STILL cannot bring myself to visit).
Director Randall Wallace and Music Director Nick Glennie-Smith searched for the US Army counterpart to the beautiful and haunting "Navy Hymn" (which, because I was at the Kennedy funeral, STILL rings in my ears) and could not find one. So they WROTE "Mansions" and use it (sung by the West Point Glee Club) as the credits roll. The melody is used during the film as well, but the audience at the screening I attended sat motionless as the credits ran – and words and music enveloped us. It was also used as Ronald Reagan's casket was carried out of National Cathedral to be flown to California for his burial. I'd held it together during all the ceremonies of RR's service but finally lost it as that music swelled.
I would urge the US Army to adopt this hymn as their own.
I shall probably watch my DVD version of "We Were Soldiers" again soon. And I will again be moved to tears...
Thanks for the info.
I caught some of the words when I watched it at home with my kids, but I thought it was Celtic. It is a beautiful piece of music.
I was a little girl when Viet Nam was going on (10). My uncle was in the Navy on two or three different ships; but he came home. In 1986 my Air Force husband and I took our two oldest to D.C. and New York City for an 'historical tour'. I have no connection to that war, other than being an American, and I broke down and cried there. It is a beautiful place and I hope to take my younger kids to see it one of these days. We are going to look for the names of the soldiers that died at LZ X-ray. The movie moved even my jaded, soon to be 13 year old son.
Thanks for your post and thanks for your service. I'll have to get a DVD of the movie. As I was trying to rewind my VHS copy my VCR died, eating the tape....
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