MovieChat Forums > Saving Private Ryan (1998) Discussion > If this were made today, how would they ...

If this were made today, how would they avoid accusations of racism?

posted 6 years ago by whynotwriteme (7720)
8 replies | jump to latest

There were no African Americans in the film. Not even in the present-day sequences. During WW2, African Americans did not serve in combat units (except for the Tuskeegee Airmen and one or two other units), or even alongside non African Americans in non-combat units. The African-Americans that did serve were in segregated units and worked mainly in service roles such as cooks and truck drivers.

If Saving Private Ryan were made today, how would the question of a non-inclusive cast be handled? Even in 1998 Spielberg faced accusations of racism for not including African Americans. If he was making this today, would Spielberg just ignore history and cast Idris Elba as Capt. Miller or John Boyega as Private Ryan or would he make it historically accurate and face the inevitable criticism?

[–] Kendricks (2239) 6 years ago

Oh don't even worry about the racism, worry about the fully transitioned Muslim transsexual Women that would lead the charge on Omaha beach to end the tyrannical patriarchy of the orange man.

Because orange man bad!

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

The fact that they are killing heaps of white, blonde, blue eyed nazis would more than make up for that.

They would put a laugh track to the part where the Americans kill the surrendering German soldiers too.

History means nothing to the leftards. Flags of our fathers was criticized for not having any blacks even though there weren't any in combat during that campaign.

[–] Nirvana (271) 5 years ago

In modern day clown world the only way to not be racist is to ignore history and add black people into everything...

[–] NotoriousRio (12927) 5 years ago

Yep thats how Clown World is doing it with recent productions like Mary Queen of Scots, The Spanish Princess and Troy: Fall of a City, to name but a few...honk!

[–] VIDEOSTOREVANDAL (313) 5 years ago

I ALWAYS WISHED SCHINDLERS LIST HAD BEEN MORE AWARE AND CAST MULTI ETHNIC ACTORS...STUPID HISTORY TELLING US HOW THINGS ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

[–] Xenopharb (617) 5 years ago

Have you seen Overlord?

It is hard to take even a zombie Nazi movie seriously when they put black soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division. The sad irony is that Nazi zombies are more plausible than black soldiers in a racially mixed combat unit in WWII.

There were black platoons that fought side by side white platoons late in the war. If Overlord had used those units, it would have made some sense, but in that case, they would have had to change the name of the film.

Similarly, Saving Private Ryan takes place from D-Day onward, so having black soldiers would have been historically incorrect and an anachronism.

Tom Hanks later produced Band of Brothers, and he tried to stay as historically accurate as possible - except the Private Albert Blithe blunder that was not corrected.

[–] TimMC (9143) 5 years ago

They would make something up or bash an old boogie man. Standard stuff really.

[–] Ranb (9598) 4 years ago

There were a small number of black American soldiers at Normandy on D-day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/320th_Barrage_Balloon_Battalion