The only decent thing in SPR are the first 15 minutes and the final cemetery scene.
The Bridge At Remagen is by far superior, even if it doesn't show mutilated bodies.
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I disagree.
shareI agree, they just don't make em like they used to.
shareto true...
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Yes, Bullets don't have any punch underwater and at the end, why didn't they just blow up the damn bridge? that's what they would have done in real life!
shareThe bridge resisted a lot of damage. Read the book the movie is based, and explains why the bridge was not blown earlier.
1) The Germans were issued inferior or deficient explosives, I believe it said they had industrial explosives and not military quality. If that distinction is possible, then it would explain why when the Germans were able to set the demolition charges off it did not fell.
2) Some of the detonation cables had been cut by artillery. Again giving problems.
3) Local German commanders had no authority to blow bridges up on their own. They could have lost their lives if they had taken the authority. By the same token, letting that bridge fall into the allied hands intact cost the life of the German commander! Talk about a rock and a hard place...
4) The Germans repeatedly attacked the bridge by air and with artillery. And were repelled by the immediate concentration of allied troops.
5) Like the movie shows, the bridge finally sucumbed to these attacks, the demolition attempts, and the "attention" of the allied vehicles, falling down by itself a few days after...
The Germans tried to blow it up. They were ineffective...
I'm pretty sure mmv67 was referring to the small stone bridge in SPR.
shareThe main difference being that SPR is a fake story based on a real event and BAR is a real story. True stories make better movies than fakes.
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But at least Spielberg presents the combat right.
I have to agree with the OP.
SPR is not a bad film by any measure. For the first time viewer, one is wowed by the visceral images that Spielburg bombards us with. He is able to really capture the you-are-there chaos of war. However that's as far as it goes, because SPR's plot, like typical Spielburg, he loves to turn the screws to get as much emotion out of his audience. It wears thin upon multiple viewings and just seems like a cheap ploy after a while.
Bridge at Remagen is unapologetic, but also, it's not melodramatic. It's drama is a lot more subtle than Spielberg's heavy handed mallot knocking us over the head every five minutes.
"HIS HAND IS TREMBLING.. YOU SEE? IT'S TREMBLING. DRAMA! THAT'S DRAMA. YOU SEE??" -- Steven Spielburg
Still, I own SPR, it's a good film with good moments. Just not as good as Bridge at Remagen. (Hell, it's not as good as Guns of Navarone which is a great WWII film even though it's not a "war" film.)
Just my two cents :)
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I think Saving Private Ryan (which is based on truth) ended up a pretty accurate portrayal of the D-Day landing, gore and all. This wasn't gratuitous violence, all those deaths were real, and men died in precisely those ways, by drowning because the equipment was too heavy to swim in, and a lot of troops were off-loaded in water above their heads. And more men were simply mown down after they landed because the Germans held the high ground.
I agree with your grandfather, though, the old movies are more comfortable to watch. Your basic wartime propaganda film. And sell those war bonds at the end. But every now and then we must see a realistic film, so we never forget the absolute horror we're asking our troops to walk in to. And in that, all wars are alike, days on end of being dirty and covered in blood, and your friends being killed and you with the enemy's blood on your hands as you're forced to kill a soldier who has gotten too close, a soldier with a face, and a fear in his eyes that mirrors your own.
I'm getting dangerously close to ranting on my soapbox, so before I launch into veteran's issues and pacifism as a very good thing, I better direct my feet to the sunny side of the street.
Your basic wartime propaganda film. And sell those war bonds at the end.
Really good points Mike!
Yadda yadda yadda <- this is my signature
Wow... try to say that on the SPR board.
I agree with you... I enjoyed this movie a lot more than SPR.
"Whenever Mrs. Kissell breaks wind, we beat the dog."
I think a lot of the things said on here about SPR are accurate, except the depiction of Tom Hanks character and the hand shaking. I thought that was okay.
What bothers me most about SPR is that after getting the D-day landing out of the way, the movie regresses to the tired old schtick that it would have appeared that SPR was going to dispense with. Totally ludicrous wisecracking insubordination by privates toward a company commander, scripture quoting snipers, arguing about shooting prisoners.
Abd also the decision to stay and fight it out with Private Ryan because he doesn't want to go back with them so that they could do something "decent". What???? It would have been entirely valid if at the moment the squad found Ryan that they got word that an entire battalion of the enemy had them surrounded and that nobody was going anywhere. It would have been comfortingly ironic rather than the noble contrivance of deciding (quickly) that they ought to stay. By most accounts, the men who had taken the beaches and made the first push inland didn't really do any sooul searching afterwards about whether they had done enough or that they were yet to prove themselves as brave or noble warriors. They were, as a rule, quite happy that they had done their duty and weren't looking for any more opportunities to make themselves a hero. So the line about "saving private ryan being the only decent thing we've done" is complete BS.
Naturally I won't be posting this on the SPR board..... again.
I'm sorry, but I wish I could read minds.
What does SPR supposed to stand for?
SPR = "Saving Private Ryan"
The problem with SPR is that the movie blows it's load right at the beginning. D-Day/Normandy is a fantastic scene but should have been the climax of the movie.
The town/bridge battle in SPR is short and not very good and that is a huge problem with SPR.
The Bridge to Remagen town/bridge battle is very good when adjusted for improvements in cinematography and techinolgy and is what SPR should have used as the climax in order to top the Normandy scene.
Idk about that but I liked it a lot.
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