Saving private ryan-possibily the best ww2 film ever made?

That is true "BCap", but The Big Red One went for a PG rating so that it could be viewed by a wider audience and transfered to the "tube" at a later date. And this was before the widespread use of cable and dish access remember.

 

welll i dont think so, id like more Enemy At The Gates, that movie shows the cruelty of the eastern front and how the russians almost were crushed by the nazis, or letters from iwo jima that movie was awesome but Saving Private Ryan the movie its cool

[video=youtube;tGVZar5hmMs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGVZar5hmMs[/video]

 

I too like Letters from Iwo Jima and Enemy at the Gates...I have both of those movies and enjoy them immensely. The Longest Day, as much as I ADORE that movie, was all about the cast...even though Eddie Albert was in the USMC in WW2. I think he was at one of the beaches on D-Day..am I correct?

 

A 19 year old 2nd Lt. with every medal for Valor there was = Kinda hard to beat. When my son was 16 he was bemoaning how difficult his life was; because he had to go out and get a job. I made him research Audie Murphy.

 

He was actually in the Navy. Served in the pacific and was awarded (deservedly) the Bronze Star/w V device for Tarawa.

 

My kid needs a kickstart too. Audie Murphy bio. Done.

 

Thank you for clarifying this for me. I thought he was USMC...

 

Good work!!! It's really shameful and pathetic that almost nobody knows about him anymore...Pretty much only people interested in U.S. military history that do research on their own know about him...Our education system has had an epic fail in not teaching our kids about his life.... :/

 

Why should we, as parents, hold the education system accountable for passing on our virtues to our children? That is a responsibility we should bear. Do we want or children to be reflection of us or their educators?
We owe it to our children to temper the influences we have little control over. We do this by interacting with our children and engaging them as peers when appropriate.

My son not only knows who Audie Murphy is; but, also :

Who Chesty Pullar and John Basilone are
How to field strip an M-1 Garand, M-16, M-9 and M1911
Riflemans Creed
11 General Orders
How to cook an egg
Make Coffee
Service his vehicle
Shake hands
Answer the phone
Use an Encyclopedia
Use a Phone book
Write a letter

If your child does not know who Audie Murphy is then it's your fault, not the education system. I learned about Audie Murphy from my Dad.

 

True about most of what you said above but, where I start ripping at SPR being ""THE"" movie of all war movies, and knowing that there are MUCH MUCH better ones out there in existance--factual or not--I cant see what the to-do is on SPR? Why doesnt someone mention other movies, even if older ones) like: Cross of Iron, Halls of Montezuma, Red Ball Express, Merrills Marauders, All Quiet On the Western Front, Never So Few, Where Eagle Dare,and yeah--KELLY'S HEROES and films like that Certainly these too-for movies that are fictional based on the real event of WWII, certainly these too-among many many more, deserve the SAME kind of fanfare as SPR has.

As for actually hating SPR, no I dont, ones I DO hate and I think most will agree with are: Pearl Harbor and Battle For the Last Panzer-and there are others-just too tired to think of them.

Anyway, SPR, does NOT deserve to be THE one and all holy grail of war movies-like some younger people think it is.

 

Something Lady P. mentioned is something that should be compared with SPR-that is: The Longest Day. Yeah, I know TLD was based more on historical fact and presented that way, than SPR was meant to be but, when using this kind of logic on two movies, then why the heck can it NOT be used on other movies being compared against each other like-those here who love and those who absolutely hate: Battle of the Bulge. The same thing can be said about Bulge as is being said about SPR. A great an interesting story set around some actual events. True that U 571 cant compare to the likes of: The Enemy Below and of course Das Boot, but im one who has been around many many WWII Vets-German and American, and I know what they like and think of concerning certain movies. Heck, I asked many of the then) living U 181 vets at THEIR reunion in Bad Camberg, Germany, what they thought about certain movies and their portrayals of Germans in WWII. Speaking of movies about or greatly featuring Uboats, hands down they picked The Enemy Below over Das Boot and any other sub flick that came to mind. Did they care if all things were accurate in "Below" hell no. One of the major things they liked about "Below" is how the Germans were portrayed in a relatively short time after the war, especially that of the C.O of the Uboat (Curt(d) Jurgens and that of his EX: Theodor Bikel. Those two fictional characters greatly reminded them of some of their C.O's starting with the likes of Wolfgang Luth & Kurt Freiwald. However, tow in particular really loved the movie for the ideas it implanted into their minds and was in a way-whether menat by hollywood or not? that the Germans were finally and deservedly, starting to get some justice when it came to movies on the big screen. As much as the Russians HATED Enemy At the Gates, the Germans HATED SPR and picked movies like: The Longest Day over SPR--hands down.

Movies like: inglorious bstards-and such, is nothing but a huge slap to their faces. If you dont believe me? ask any WWII German Vet who is willing to talk about such things? and I cna practically guarentee, that they will vote like I said above.

As for MY likes, ill take TLD over SPR=hands down anytime anyday and NOT just cuz Duke was in it.

 

I haven't watched it in a while but what about A Walk in the Sun? It might make an interesting comparison to Saving Private Ryan. Obviously different technologies and the former is far less graphic but ...

 

Cross of Iron, Stalingrad, the Longest Day, Das Boot come to mind way before saving Ryan in my opinion.

 

Saving Pvt. Ryan is a good made movie but not the best in my opinion. For me there are two parts in that i divide an war movie. 1. Movies that only are Action movies with a lot of special effects and less truth and sense 2. well made movies after an true happened event to show you how mad and senseless war is.
So the German old movie "Die Brücke" shows how senseless it was at the end of war and how the characters of the guys has developed very different.
The next is "Im Westen nichts neues" (All quiet on the western Front) the B/W version of it is great.

Some of the other category are " We were soldiers" or "Hölle am Gelben Fluß (orig. Apocalisse sul fiume giallo or Hell at the yellow river)

 

I saw die Brücke two years ago at a German film festival. I loved it. I couldn't help checking out all the militaria and realized it was almost all real stuff (the film is from the 50s) !

Another good German film is Kautner's Teufel's General from 1955

 

"Teufels General" is indeed a good movie and "Paths of Glory" is good too! Another movie where the book was great and the special effects too, but the regisseur wasn´t able to bring out the real thing is "Haie und kleine Fische". Have you seen this one?

 

I havent seen the original or the remake of Teufels General but i heard both were well aced and well made. As for Paths of Glory, that movie is excellent and also derserves much more attention that its ever recieved. As for as I know, this is the only movie that Kirk Douglas ever produced-doing one hell of a job in doing so. I didnt care for it the first time around but, evey viewing sine then has made it one of my all-time favorites-just like: The Train w/ Lancaster, Priess and Paul Scofield.

 

Fuller said that he wanted to make it like he wrote it, but he didn't want people to leave the theater in disgust (since he assumed they wouldn't be able to take what he wanted to put on screen). And I think its first television airing was on HBO. Also, the wider audience thing was probably only used because it was made so soon after Star Wars - they brought in Hamill partially because of his success with younger audiences.

 

Thanks for bringing up "Paths of Glory" Ulrich. I agree with you and Carl, it is an excellent movie. I've watched it many times and it is still one of the all-time best.

 

It is always a "good to see movie " and extremely well made! Kirk Douglas was really the best one to ply the role of Col. Dax.