Saving Private Ryan

[ace22]

a psa for any interested forum members.
saving private ryan has just started on the tnt network as of 8pm.
most likely many of you have seen it multiple times as i also have but i still watch it every time it's on as it's probably my favorite ww2 movie ever.
that is all.

 

[6518John]

I have it on my iPad. That boat ride makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck every time I watch it. What men! What a country they came back and built! (And many of us are product of that greatest generation—that’s why I detest USA bashing). God Bless and Keep the USA!

 

[Rustyt1953]

I'm watching it as I type.

Excellent movie.

 

[BigBill]

Band of brothers was good too.

 

[oink]

My late father was a combat veteran of Normandy to the Rhine (79th Infantry). He said Private Ryan was the only movie he'd ever seen that had any footage that accurately depicted combat as he remembered it. Unfortunately I don't know exactly what part he was referring to and I can't ask now. Off hand I don't recall if he saw Band of Brothers or if he did, if he shared an opinion on it.

My brother (Riverine Ranger) mentioned once, that while he didn't have much good to say about Apocalypse Now, it did have about 15 seconds of good realistic footage. I don't know which part that was. Him I can still ask.

I have copies of Private Ryan and the Band of Brothers set.

 

[Abbynormal]

I took my 80 sumthin' Uncle (71st IFD, Combat Medic badge and 2 Bronze stars) to see it when
it first came out. I was worried what his reaction would be.

Uncle Bob started talking about what was was right and what was wrong with the movie.
I tried trying to schoosh him, but I realized everyone around us was quiet trying to hear his
descriptions of the scenes!

He never stopped talking about how we ALWAYS took out the bell towers to eliminate Nazi
observation posts in towns they liberated!

 

[Sistema1927]

Good movie but Rangers would have never silhouetted themselves on a ridge line.

 

[Shark Bait]

Definitely one of my favorite WWII movies.

 

[wood714]

I have it on my iPad. That boat ride makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck every time I watch it. What men! What a country they came back and built! (And many of us are product of that greatest generation—that’s why I detest USA bashing). God Bless and Keep the USA!

The beach landing was filmed most well.

"What men!" is right, I've heard a lot of young men lied about their age to go off and fight in that war.

Can you imagine if kids today had the same morals, and love for our country.

I'm sure some do, but things are just messed up with a large percentage of today's want it now generation.

 

[oink]

He never stopped talking about how we ALWAYS took out the bell towers to eliminate Nazi
observation posts in towns they liberated!

Dad was a Lt in an infantry regiment (313) canon company, usually serving as a forward observer. One of Dad's stories was when they were preparing to take a town he, as usual, picked a high feature to zero in the canons on. The high feature was a church steeple (bell tower?). He started calling in shells to walk in on the steeple when a grizzled infantry Sgt. noticed what he was doing and said to him "Damn it Lieutenant, ain't there enough hell in this war without you doing that? He picked another feature to zero the canons in on.

Hope I didn't violate the rules too bad but that's the only way to tell that story.

 

[shouldazagged]

I was glad my dad didn't live to see the movie. He hit Omaha Beach with one of the first units ashore in the first wave, as a short-sighted 33-year- old war correspondent, unarmed. He would never talk about it, except once, when he said to my sister, "The thing you can't forget is the smell." He didn't mean the smell of bodies that had time to begin decomposing.

 

[GB]

After the first 20 or so minutes. I wanted off that Damned beach!!!!

 

[islandguy]

I was glad my dad didn't live to see the movie. He hit Omaha Beach with one of the first units ashore in the first wave, as a short-sighted 33-year- old war correspondent, unarmed. He would never talk about it, except once, when he said to my sister, "The thing you can't forget is the smell." He didn't mean the smell of bodies that had time to begin decomposing.

Two of my uncles (Dad's younger brothers) went ashore on D-Day on Juno Beach. They often talked about the battles they endured after the first day, but never the actual landing. The neighbourhood man who was my shooting/hunting mentor in my early years was a Canadian combat engineer (scout) who landed on the 2nd day. I will never forget him telling me (at 11 years of age) that the first thing he saw when the landing craft door dropped was a Sherman tank with the tank commander's torso in two pieces, his waist and legs still hanging out of the hatch and his mid-section and above laying on the front deck of the tank (connected by his entrails). He said he puked his guts out on the spot and from then on, it was just a job to be done and business as usual. He went on to fight through the Normandy and Netherlands campaigns, winning the French Croix de Guerre in the process. For him, the worst ordeal of the war was having to endure being kissed on both cheeks by De Gaulle when presented with his medal.

 

[rwsmith]

Dazed and confused.....

My late father was a combat veteran of Normandy to the Rhine (79th Infantry). He said Private Ryan was the only movie he'd ever seen that had any footage that accurately depicted combat as he remembered it. Unfortunately I don't know exactly what part he was referring to and I can't ask now. Off hand I don't recall if he saw Band of Brothers or if he did, if he shared an opinion on it.

My brother (Riverine Ranger) mentioned once, that while he didn't have much good to say about Apocalypse Now, it did have about 15 seconds of good realistic footage. I don't know which part that was. Him I can still ask.

I have copies of Private Ryan and the Band of Brothers set.

...disoriented, deaf, watching people get killed like flies and praying that you don't even though it's almost a sure thing. The enemy is well trained, determined and disciplined and are sure that they are fighting for God and Country like you said you were. I've never been in the service or combat, but that's what I gather it is like.

 

[Farmer17]

It drives me crazy during the landing craft scenes when the gate opens and the troops are instantly hit by machine gun fire. It seems like the ships gun turrents could have taken out the big concrete enemy bunkers and they should have had some kind of armored landing craft with quad .50s or something to thin out the enemy machine guns.

 

[FlyFish]

I have a good friend whose dad was in the first wave at Omaha Beach (he survived both the landing and the war, collecting numerous awards along the way). I've been to Normandy and stood exactly where he came ashore, directly in front of the draw at Vierville-sur-mer. I've looked up at the remaining ruined gun emplacements and pillboxes and climbed the bluff to look down from them. I will never understand how they did it, but I am eternally grateful that they did. Greatest generation, indeed.

 

[growr]

My uncle was in the second wave on Omaha beach and survived....I took him to see Private Ryan in the big screen theater with very high quality surround sound not knowing HOW he would react.

Afterwards, I asked his thoughts on the movie...Uncle Allen was very silent for about 2 minutes and then said, " The only thing missing was the smell,take me home Randy" I am guessing it was plenty real for him

A year or so after that, he started talking about his WW2 experiences and the many horrors he witnessed. I don't think he had told anyone of this.

Not sure why he chose me, but he did.

Yes, they were the Greatest Generation. Sadly in my lifetime I will learn of the passing of the last WW2 veteran.

Randy

 

[VaTom]

I have a good friend whose dad was in the first wave at Omaha Beach (he survived both the landing and the war, collecting numerous awards along the way). I've been to Normandy and stood exactly where he came ashore, directly in front of the draw at Vierville-sur-mer. I've looked up at the remaining ruined gun emplacements and pillboxes and climbed the bluff to look down from them. I will never understand how they did it, but I am eternally grateful that they did. Greatest generation, indeed.

Visited Normandy and the US sector invasion beaches several years ago. I really didn't comprehend how high the bluffs were behind the beaches nor how wide the beach was at low tide until actually seeing it. Amazing courage! Some pictures of where the 29th Division came ashore at Omaha. I visited early one morning at low tide. Emotionally moving experience. Some of the "shingle" (see picture) still remains at the rear of the beach prior to the bluffs. View from US Cemetery down on beach,. This is where the 1st Infantry Division came ashore. The 1st and 29th came ashore side by side. There is also a swampy area the 1st Infantry Division has to cross prior to climbing the bluffs on the other end of Omaha.

 

[dockmurgw]

Being in my late 50's, I consider myself fortunate that I was able to grow up under and be influenced by the greatest generation through a great part of my life, and I take comfort in knowing I passed this influence onto my kids (1 a Marine, 1 a State Trooper). But with the passing of time, so many today have no connection to that generation, and we see the results all around us every day. I'm still looking for that genies bottle that I can rub and bring them all back.

 

[Rustyt1953]

I've told this before:

Samuel Burgess was my mom's favorite uncle.

He was a rifleman for the 5th Battalion/East Lancashire Fusileers. They landed at Sword Beach on D-Day. As part of Operation Charnwood, they were, with the Canadiens, ordered to take Caen.

Three weeks after landing, he took a snipers bullet to the back. He died in the arms of one of his school chums who made it home to tell the tale to my grandmother (his sister)

He is buried in Épron, France outside of Caen.

He was 22.