Subject:
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Re: Not Saving Private Ryan.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 1 Jun 2004 22:41:07 GMT
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Viewed:
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735 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Dave Schuler wrote:
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Scott Arthur wrote:
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, John Neal wrote:
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Don Heyse wrote:
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Scott Arthur wrote:
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The Guardian has today published a number a letters written on and around
D-Day by those involved.
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I haven’t seen Private Ryan so I can’t debate you on this one. Is it
OK form in here to just say thanks for the interesting link?
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I’m not exactly sure why SA titled his post the way he did, but I can say
that the beginning of that movie is the most powerful and moving bit of
moviemaking I have ever seen. I found myself moved to tears; humbled; and
felt such a sense of awe and gratitude for what was sacrificed for me.
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I think you mean the 2nd scene; the film starts in a cemetery... still a
very moving scene.
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Moving, but also problematic. The camera zooms in on the Elder Ryan’s
tear-filled eyes as he meditates over the graves of his comrades. The film
then immediately jumps, flashback-style, to Miller in the landing craft and
proceeds from there. To me, this is a jarring inconsistency; Ryan hadn’t met
Miller at that point, and there was no evidence of a discussion between them
to bring Ryan up to speed. Sure, we can assume that Ryan had 50+ years to
fill in the blanks, but that’s still a sloppy pseudo-flashback. If it wasn’t
meant as a flashback, then there should have been a clearer distinction
between the scenes.
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It was meant to hide his real identity, and thus disguise the fate of Captain
Miller. Not all flashbacks are necessarily that of the character in question,
though it may be regarded as a sneaky bit of story-telling subtrafuge and
implied viewpoint double-dealing.
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While I’m at it, I hate hate hate when a handheld camera is used to simulate
the POV of an on-the-ground soldier. It looks nothing like a real
first-person view, and the technique utterly throws me out of the story
(especially when they’re used in sporadic and inconsistent fashion, as in
this case.)
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Once they break through the Atlantic Wall the film nosedives.
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Nosedives? I don’t know. But it definitely becomes a largely non-descript
war movie, IMO. Two other points of note IMO:
1. When they’re near the bombed-out French house and one of their number is
wounded, the sniper keeps shooting the downed man to draw the others out into
the open to be shot. Though I expect that this really occurs in combat, the
same idea was shown on film in Kubrick’s
Full Metal Jacket (and probably
elsewhere).
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You don’t keep shooting the same man - how are you going to draw the others out
if you kill him? And you certainly don’t keep shooting the same man if you
intend to keep the same position as a sniper (which you shouldn’t be doing,
anyway).
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2. When Giovanni Ribisi is shot in the gut, his buddies OD him on morphine
to put him out of his misery. This same idea was also shown in the Hughes’
Dead Presidents.
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I never got the impression that they were overdosing him to kill him in Saving
Private Ryan. I thought it was just their expressing the futility of the
situation. Two ampules would not be a lethal overdose.
-->Bruce<--
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Not Saving Private Ryan.
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| (...) I thought the pasta-loving Vin was only shot once? (...) Talking of snipers, I love the scenes in SPR where our heroes tramp across open fields and cross the crests of hills as they are too brave to use cover! Scott A (20 years ago, 2-Jun-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Not Saving Private Ryan.
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| (...) Moving, but also problematic. The camera zooms in on the Elder Ryan's tear-filled eyes as he meditates over the graves of his comrades. The film then immediately jumps, flashback-style, to Miller in the landing craft and proceeds from there. (...) (20 years ago, 1-Jun-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
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