I freaking hate Upham!
This moron caused the deaths of his comrades by being a big, cowardly pussy. All he has to do to is supply ammunition and he can't even do that!
shareThen the movie worked for you.
Entropy ain't what it used to be.
MovieChat Forums > Saving Private Ryan (1998) Discussion > I freaking hate Upham!
Sadly, Upham is us.
shareWell then as another poster said, he got to you just as he was supposed to!
The actor is Jeremy Davis and he is really good. I like him even better as Dickie Bennett in the TV series 'Justified'.
..*.. TxMike ..*..
I agree, ernie!
Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.
You missed the bigger picture, that the man who was blindfolded and let go was the same man who killed 4-5 of his comrades. Now Upham had to take on the burden for almost being personally responsible for their deaths. He valued life and freedom over and thought everyone else thought as he. It was only when backed up and the germans surrendering did he kill the man. In essence he lost himself in the war, just as those who died.
shareTell me about when you were in combat and how courageously you acted when shells were exploding around you and bullets were flying over your head. Remember Upham wasn't a combat soldier, he was a clerk.
shareWell said. Having never been there myself I'm very careful not to judge the actions of other people under that stress and terror
shareThe character had no excuse for his cowardly behavior, which was shameful, but on the other hand, Upham had a legitimate gripe. Actually, the other soldiers had an even more legitimate gripe:
A small team of Rangers is going on an exceedingly dangerous mission, but the Captain chooses to pick a guy out of the typing pool because he can speak German. Other than the mitigating circumstance of this being a very desperate time in U.S. military history, that would be the poorest decision ever in the history of picking personnel for a mission. Even a civilian would have been a better choice than taking a soldier who has no combat training, other than basic training, into such a volatile situation. At least then no one would have been expecting anything from him. The Captain's decision to take Upham along, more than Upham himself, is what put his comrades at risk. But, it's just a movie and this choice was made for dramatic purposes.
The Captain should have put a "Help Wanted" ad on Monster.com to get a qualified candidate for the mission instead of following his orders and getting one like he did.
The man was only there because he was a translator, it had been forever since he fired a weapon, he wasn't a combatant. Cut the guy some slack, I'd be scare sh!tless also.
shareHe was trained, in uniform, and in theater, so he was a combatant. That stated, he was in a situation he wasn't ready for.
Why didn't the guys up top bring all of their ammo up there in the first place? They didn't have a fall-back point for the weapon, so there wasn't any reason not to have the ammo up there with the weapon.