OFF: summer films[Spolier on Pvt. Ryan--Beware!]

[Ted Jackson jr. s2h2]

> From:          Carl Edlund Anderson <cea20 at CUS.CAM.AC.UK>
> >> Saving
> >> Private Ryan too bloody.
> >
> > Yeah, leave the kids home for this one.  Horrific, realistic wartime
> > violence shockingly portrayed.  Reminds me of the violence in
> > Braveheart, albeit moved up a couple hundred years...A great film,
> > that would be even better if Spielberg would ever bother to develop a
> > character.  He seems steadfastly against giving any of his characters
> > any motivation. Must've skipped that class at film school
>
>      ;)  I've heard good things about this, but I'm a WWII hobbyist
> from way back--particularly on European ground war stuff.  Gimme a
> nice muddy tank over some flashy aeroplane any day :)  I've been
> told they've been pretty accuarate on gear, uniforms, etc., so I'm
> looking forward to it
>
Me too!  It's pretty realistic, as you might have imagined after the
Indy Jones movies.  Spielberg obviously has a thing for the machinery
of the day.  You won't be disappointed.  Tanks, Half-tracks, doodle
bugs, Hanks carries my all-time fave, the Thompson SMG...


>      IMO, the violence in Braveheart was a bit "comic book".  Sure,
> medieval weapons are messy, but sometimes the folks in that film
> were utilizing them is such ridiculous ways ... the realism was
> belied by the "heroic" attitude;  John Woo goes to medieval
> Scotland ;)  No bad thing in a story, but I'd be surprised if the
> violence in Private Ryan was portrayed in quite that way :)

Spoiler Alert!!!  I'm about to give away some good stuff on Saving
Private Ryan!!!


Pvt. Ryan is a hundred times bloodier than Braveheart, that was just
the only recent flick I could think of that even came close.  There's
a huge set piece about the Normandy landing that comprises about a
half hour of the beginning of the flick.  Amazing
filmmaking--claustraphobic, deafeningly loud, jerky camera work.  And
throughout, there's constant blood flying.  A horrible scene with a
guy picking up his blown-off arm and carrying it away.  A scene where
Hanks is trying to pull a guy to safety and a shell goes off.  Hanks
keeps pulling, then looks down to see that the lower half of the
guy's body is blown away.  Several scenes of guys drowning in the
surf, with the water tinged with red.  Add to that numerous limbs
blowing off, heads oozing brains, a guy with his guts spilling out.
Just about any agonizing death and dismemberment you can imagine.
Makes Schindler's list look like a Sat. matinee.

Very little aircraft footage.  Though there's a great scene about a
glider unit that crashed.  This general insists they put his jeep in
the glider, which overloads it and makes it drop like a stone when
the cable's released!

Don't miss this flick!  I'm not even a Spielberg fan, but this one's
about as good a war movie as possible [oxymoron!] Spielberg's
annoying inability to created characters notwithstanding, the sheer
visuale brilliance is enough to sustain it...


> Cheers,
> Carl
>
> --
> Carl Edlund Anderson
> Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, & Celtic
> St. John's College, University of Cambridge
> mailto:cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk
> http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~carl/
>
*******************************

theo


"...Power in the hands of fools..."