MILLER. All we can do here is die.
"We stopped the bleeding! We stopped the bleeding!" [a bullet hits the patient in the head]
"Fuck! Just give us a fucking chance you son of a bitch! You son of a fucking cocksucker!"
"I have a letter here, written a long time ago, to a Mrs. Bixby in Boston. So bear with me.'Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Yours very sincerely and respectfully, Abraham Lincoln.'"
"Colin, you know you can tell me anything—"
He watches her for a moment. "Don't make me go back to Afghanistan," he says, tapping his knife against a smear of cooling grease on his plate. "It's a shithole full of goats, dirt, and men with matted beards." He puts the knife down and takes her hand. "I'm here with you. I made it back. That ought to be enough" (Fallon 28-29).
So you sat through twenty five minutes of some of the most intense movie making in American film. Claire thinks I should have warned you better, besides "it's loud," about what was to come. I couldn't see behind me, obviously, so I don't know what your reaction was. I know mine, though. At first I was complacent, wondering if I had, after a dozen viewings, grown too used to this onslaught of bullets, blood, horror and courage. But at some point I felt like I was seeing it for the first time—and I was emotionally stunned, horrified and saddened at once. And I wondered whether I should even be showing it to you. Well, I didn't turn it off, and was happy that somebody laughed when Reiben says to Horvath, "I thought you liked it in the ass."
Some consider Saving Private Ryan to be the greatest war film ever made. It certainly is one of the most realistic. Steven Spielberg grew up on 50s and 60s war films where there was no blood, no mangled bodies, no men crying, no ambiguity as to moral and immoral, right and wrong, good guy and bad guy. Which isn't to say they weren't good movies: they just didn't present war as violence, destruction, and chaos as this movie did. They didn't terrify or sicken or shock the way SPR does.
It's one thing for the Germans to rain bullets and bombs on these young American soldiers—they are the bad guys, correct? But good American boys shooting surrendering men—and laughing about it (and Miller—Tom Hanks, the symbol of all that is good and fine about America—watches without a comment). A soldier—Mellish—survives the hell of the landing only to break down in uncontrollable sobs. John Wayne never cried in a war movie. Spielberg and the writer Robert Rodat did extensive research on the landing in Omaha Beach, 6 June 1944: they relied and talked to historian Stephen Ambrose who wrote about the landing in at least two of his books. Spielberg went to great lengths to make this opening documentary-like, with a roving hand held camera, film stock that had been desaturated so to appear grainy and colorless. He put his actors through a mini-boot camp so they would behave like real soldiers rather than actors playing at soldiering. This has become common place since the film came out: fat John Waynes no longer play Green Berets in Vietnam. And because of these efforts, SPR achieved a level of realism unseen in mainstream American film. Compare the opening to this, an all-star multi-national production of The Longest Day, about D-Day, released in1962.
1. Your reaction to the landing on Omaha Beach in the film? If you can remember, what were you feeling as you watched it? And what moment or image from it comes to you now—and why?
2. What did the opening say to you about war? Contrast it to The Longest Day clip: how does it differ—or not, perhaps—from the earlier depiction of the assault? And what to you is the (or one) point of the way Spielberg depicts the landing?
3. Look at this clip—after twenty minutes of the beach, the movie deftly switches to quiet as we go back to America and see the many secretaries—all women—writing condolence letters to the loved ones of the soldiers and sailors killed on D-Day. And then—right after I stopped the film—we meet officers in charge of the war, in particular George Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, who orders the rescue mission for James Ryan, the last of the Ryan brothers. It's a fascinating scene, at least to me: it juxtaposes sound and image brilliantly and is dependent on what we just saw happen on the beach. So: A) watch the women typing the letters and listen to what the letters are saying: what's the effect or point to you of this? Don't merely repeat what we said in class. And B): what do you think of Marshall's insistence on sending men out to find Ryan? The War Department Colonel (played by Dale Dye, a Vietnam era Marine who trained the cast) insists that sending men out after Ryan will get them killed. But Marshall wants Ryan returned home to his bereaved mother, who just lost three sons. Do you think this is a good idea? Do you approve of this mission? Why or why not?
4. The movie opens with an unidentified veteran of D-Day with his wife and family—children and grandchildren, all healthy and beautiful—visiting the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, right above Omaha Beach. When he slumps to his knees, his family is surprised and horrified.
Do you think he told his family—or even his wife—what happened to him almost 50 years before? Can you imagine him saying to them, to his wife, what Colin says to Evie at the top of the post, replacing "Afghanistan" with "D-Day"? If so—why (and why does Colin not want to talk about Afghanistan)? If not—why not—and what might make him different than Colin, coming home after his third tour in Afghanistan (with possibly more to come)?
Write 250 words. And below are some of the few photographs of the actual landing on Omaha Beach, 6 June 1944, taken by the great war photographer Robert Capa, who was killed in Indochina (Vietnam) in 1954.
See you tomorrow.
"Fuck! Just give us a fucking chance you son of a bitch! You son of a fucking cocksucker!"
"I have a letter here, written a long time ago, to a Mrs. Bixby in Boston. So bear with me.'Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Yours very sincerely and respectfully, Abraham Lincoln.'"
"Colin, you know you can tell me anything—"
He watches her for a moment. "Don't make me go back to Afghanistan," he says, tapping his knife against a smear of cooling grease on his plate. "It's a shithole full of goats, dirt, and men with matted beards." He puts the knife down and takes her hand. "I'm here with you. I made it back. That ought to be enough" (Fallon 28-29).
So you sat through twenty five minutes of some of the most intense movie making in American film. Claire thinks I should have warned you better, besides "it's loud," about what was to come. I couldn't see behind me, obviously, so I don't know what your reaction was. I know mine, though. At first I was complacent, wondering if I had, after a dozen viewings, grown too used to this onslaught of bullets, blood, horror and courage. But at some point I felt like I was seeing it for the first time—and I was emotionally stunned, horrified and saddened at once. And I wondered whether I should even be showing it to you. Well, I didn't turn it off, and was happy that somebody laughed when Reiben says to Horvath, "I thought you liked it in the ass."
Some consider Saving Private Ryan to be the greatest war film ever made. It certainly is one of the most realistic. Steven Spielberg grew up on 50s and 60s war films where there was no blood, no mangled bodies, no men crying, no ambiguity as to moral and immoral, right and wrong, good guy and bad guy. Which isn't to say they weren't good movies: they just didn't present war as violence, destruction, and chaos as this movie did. They didn't terrify or sicken or shock the way SPR does.
It's one thing for the Germans to rain bullets and bombs on these young American soldiers—they are the bad guys, correct? But good American boys shooting surrendering men—and laughing about it (and Miller—Tom Hanks, the symbol of all that is good and fine about America—watches without a comment). A soldier—Mellish—survives the hell of the landing only to break down in uncontrollable sobs. John Wayne never cried in a war movie. Spielberg and the writer Robert Rodat did extensive research on the landing in Omaha Beach, 6 June 1944: they relied and talked to historian Stephen Ambrose who wrote about the landing in at least two of his books. Spielberg went to great lengths to make this opening documentary-like, with a roving hand held camera, film stock that had been desaturated so to appear grainy and colorless. He put his actors through a mini-boot camp so they would behave like real soldiers rather than actors playing at soldiering. This has become common place since the film came out: fat John Waynes no longer play Green Berets in Vietnam. And because of these efforts, SPR achieved a level of realism unseen in mainstream American film. Compare the opening to this, an all-star multi-national production of The Longest Day, about D-Day, released in1962.
1. Your reaction to the landing on Omaha Beach in the film? If you can remember, what were you feeling as you watched it? And what moment or image from it comes to you now—and why?
2. What did the opening say to you about war? Contrast it to The Longest Day clip: how does it differ—or not, perhaps—from the earlier depiction of the assault? And what to you is the (or one) point of the way Spielberg depicts the landing?
3. Look at this clip—after twenty minutes of the beach, the movie deftly switches to quiet as we go back to America and see the many secretaries—all women—writing condolence letters to the loved ones of the soldiers and sailors killed on D-Day. And then—right after I stopped the film—we meet officers in charge of the war, in particular George Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, who orders the rescue mission for James Ryan, the last of the Ryan brothers. It's a fascinating scene, at least to me: it juxtaposes sound and image brilliantly and is dependent on what we just saw happen on the beach. So: A) watch the women typing the letters and listen to what the letters are saying: what's the effect or point to you of this? Don't merely repeat what we said in class. And B): what do you think of Marshall's insistence on sending men out to find Ryan? The War Department Colonel (played by Dale Dye, a Vietnam era Marine who trained the cast) insists that sending men out after Ryan will get them killed. But Marshall wants Ryan returned home to his bereaved mother, who just lost three sons. Do you think this is a good idea? Do you approve of this mission? Why or why not?
4. The movie opens with an unidentified veteran of D-Day with his wife and family—children and grandchildren, all healthy and beautiful—visiting the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, right above Omaha Beach. When he slumps to his knees, his family is surprised and horrified.
Do you think he told his family—or even his wife—what happened to him almost 50 years before? Can you imagine him saying to them, to his wife, what Colin says to Evie at the top of the post, replacing "Afghanistan" with "D-Day"? If so—why (and why does Colin not want to talk about Afghanistan)? If not—why not—and what might make him different than Colin, coming home after his third tour in Afghanistan (with possibly more to come)?
Write 250 words. And below are some of the few photographs of the actual landing on Omaha Beach, 6 June 1944, taken by the great war photographer Robert Capa, who was killed in Indochina (Vietnam) in 1954.
See you tomorrow.
1. I thought the depiction of the beach landing was grotesque, given the scenes of men being gunned down before leaving the ships, shot in the water, and blown into pieces. I remember feeling confused and detached from the events of the film when the doors to the sips opened and the human beings inside were gunned down like fish in a barrel. I remember thinking that was a shitty boat design because it trapped the men in and gave the machine gunners a row of soldiers to shoot. Also, I remember feeling disgusted when the American soldiers executed surrendering soldiers in cold blood twice. It makes me think of the Latin saying: Homo homini lupis est(man is a wolf to man). I think it encapsulates soldiers’ loss of humanity in war.
ReplyDelete2. The opening of SPR said to me that war is cold and unfeeling. To survive in war, one must view the world in a kind of cold logic, devoid of human emotion because, as said in the class description packet, humanity is a weakness in war. I say this because the soldiers had to storm the beach alone, powerlessly accepting the machine gun slaughter, while in a later scene, the ocean is full of warships and the sky filled with blimps. All I thought was “where the hell were all of you when these people were getting slaughtered?” The Longest Day showed the sorming in a much more docile way. The soldiers mostly got out of the boats, and instead of the dramatic shooting scenes in SPR, The Longest Day showed actors flapping their arms in the water and running calmly up the beach. The point of Speilberg’s depiction was to show the uncensored carnage of war. There is no contesting the point that war is gruesome after watching Speilberg’s depiction of the D-Day invasion.
3a The effect of the women writing the letters makes the words hollow and meaningless, contrary to Lincon’s personal letter to the soon to be grieving mother. The fact that the women, not the soldiers, are the ones writing the letters shows the shameless romanticization of war. The soldiers killed on the beaches were shot like dogs, there was nothing glorious about it.
3b I think the insistence may come from a sincere attempt to salvage some mercy from the carnage of war, but more likely, it is a Hollywood plot point. As O'Brien said in How to Tell a True War Story, “if you feel some rectitude has been saved from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie.” I think the general’s decision put the life of one over the life of many, which seems noble, but is actually reckless and irresponsible for a general. Humanity is a weakness in war.
4. No, I think, as argued in Ward and Burns’ The War, that war is so far above and beyond what humans are capable of processing emotionally. Seeing the men you trained and grew with gunned down like an animal, without a chance of defense, is the kind of trauma I imagine breaks someone. I think it would be too painful to mentally return to the wave of traumatic emotions for the man in the movie to talk through his experiences. Just seeing the name of a soldier on a tombstone was enough to bring him to his knees.
It was absolutely horrific. At some points I had to look away, and I am not typically queasy about violence, so this reached a whole new level for me. As a first instinct, I wanted to reassure myself that none of what we watched was real and then had to force myself to face the fact that the events in the film were more than real. The entire “hitting the beach” scene has stuck with me, but especially the scenes where the medic stops the soldier’s bleeding just for the soldier to be shot in the head, not even a second later, and where the soldier takes off his helmet in shock of his luck from his incredibly close encounter with a bullet to the head only to be shot in the head right after.
ReplyDeleteThe Longest Day is so much less personal than SPR. There are less close-in shots and a lack of sacrifice. When the men hit the beach, they are not mown down. Some of the soldiers in TLD JOGGED onto the beach. Also, the scenes where SPR soldiers jumped into the water to avoid the bullets only to be killed below the waves are powerful: they show that there were no places to hide. TLD leader (General? I’m not sure about rankings) almost joked with the young soldier about leaving his gun. It was almost offensive how TLD treated the beach in comparison to SPR, but it was also a relief to experience less emotional burden while watching the film. I feel it is the least I can do to watch a film about the war, while so many others experienced the horror first-hand, and TLD did not give me that feeling. Spielberg is obviously aiming for reality in his film; I think he wants to give us the soldier’s experience. TLD seems to focus moreso on the surfacey “what does war look like, show me the violence of war” theme. I do not feel any personal connection or gratitude towards anybody in TLD.
The typewriting scene is overwhelming on purpose. It hits you just how many men died in that war because there are so many voices layering on top of each other along with the frantic typing sounds. However, all of this is paired with seemingly calm women who do this for a living. I cannot imagine having to write tens of death letters a day and then going back to a “normal” life. Most of those women are probably the sisters and wives of the men whose letters are being written. I think Marshall’s insistence on finding Private Ryan is very empathetic and “heroic;” however, I believe putting other men’s lives (especially a soldier who makes maps and has never been in combat before) is not professional whatsoever, especially in a job position where he is responsible for so many other soldiers. I am sure there are many cases similar to this where the mother’s remaining son is not rescued, which to say a word I hate, is not incredibly “fair.” This is speculation, but maybe Private Ryan May does not want to be saved while his brothers died in the line of duty.
He does not seem like the type to say, “I'm here with you. I made it back. That ought to be enough,” especially regarding how the cemetery brought him so vividly back to all those who were lost. Him making it back does not seem to be enough. I was surprised by how out-of-place his family seemed in the cemetery, which leads me to believe they know little to nothing about what happened. This is made especially clear when his son takes a picture of him when he approaches the cemetery. I would not want my son taking pictures of me in front of a cemetery for hundreds (thousands?) of men who were murdered right next to me.
Prompt One: I don’t think that the point of this scene was to showcase any particular heroism. Instead I saw the viciousness and brutality of war. I felt unpleasant watching the first wave of troops exiting the boats, mowed down by enemy fire. I felt trapped as I watched the men in the back of the boat waiting for their turn to escape. And this feeling ran deep as my stomach, a visceral reaction not unlike that which Tim O’Brien described. Still I remember the men jumping off the sides of the boats as if anything was better than to exit the front.
ReplyDeletePrompt Two: Like I mentioned, the opening scene of SPR gave me a visual representation of the brutalities of war. There was constant screaming and explosions, whereas the silence at the beginning of The Longest Day was what stood out to me most in contrast. Also, in TLD, I noticed how many seemed to cheer as they charged forward through the mines and bullets. I did not notice a similar fervor in the men of SPR. No, those men were just trying to stay alive. This point was emphasized by the documentary style filming which (through its shaking and erratic tracking) heightened the sense of panic and confusion.
Prompt Three: I think that there was certainly a juxtaposition here between the women typists and the men’s voices. For me, the typists represented the—what I would think—impersonal government condolences. However, with the men reading the letters, especially just after Omaha, it seemed as if these were the words a soldier always wanted say about his friend who died in battle. The most heartfelt of eulogies. Sure, a soldier is dead and a mother or wife is grieving (what we mentioned in class), but so too grieve the soldiers who helplessly watch as their friends get blown up and killed.
With that in mind, I think that the Marshall's decision to save Ryan was rash and impersonal. To risk the lives of an entire team to save one guy is not valuing human life, but simply an inciting event for a movie. I hope that missions like this one don’t actually happen in real life because all of those soldiers to be deployed have someone waiting for them to return too!
Prompt Four: Even if he did tell them, I’m not sure they would be able to fathom his sadness. Their shock at his collapse is evidence enough, and I am inclined to believe that he didn’t tell, because Siegel also wrote about the difficulties of opening up to his wife in Smile, There are IEDs Everywhere. I definitely think that this older man wouldn’t have been able to talk so dismissively about about the invasion as Colin did… imagine if he said “And it was full of bullets, sand, and dead men.” No, I don’t think he could ever just sum up what happened in such an arbitrary list. If he ever did talk, he might tell it as it was… Talk about the friends who never came back. That’s why the cemetery is so overwhelming to him.
1. I'm not even going to lie, watching the landing on Omaha Beach and the opening War scene of Saving Private Ryan, I was shocked. I knew war was terrible and we have been discussing it since the first day of class and all of the casualties but seeing it so graphically portrayed was horrifying and a huge eye-opener. First of all, before they have even landed on the beach and the fighting has even begun, you just see men vomiting everywhere on the boats. One particular scene that comes to mind is when (and I'm not really sure how to describe it or what exactly happens) an enemy tower is blown up and lights on fire from the inside and one of the soldiers yells "just let them burn!" Then, to your horror you watch as bodies on fire fall out of the tower.
ReplyDelete2. The opening of the movie tells me that war is way worse than I could've ever imagined and it's honestly no wonder people get PTSD after coming home from battle. It was interesting to watch how differently The Longest Day clip and the war scene from the movie portrayed the fighting and the landing on beach. First of all, there was no blood in the clip from the The Longest Day. Also, it seemed like everything was a lot more proper and looked like planned or staged combat and fighting. The war scenes from Saving Private Ryan were messy, bloody, complete pandemonium and did not follow a plan or routine in any way. I feel like the point that Spielberg was trying to make by depicting war in such a graphic way was to show everyone what they had been missing about the realities of war when watching other war movies, like the one that the The Longest Day clip is from, because the other movies had kind skipped over all of the blood and gore.
3. A) It was interesting to see the women typing the letters from the point of view of a solider who claimed to know the soldier who has just died. I think the point of this was to show how war is just like a machine. When someone dies, the same adjectives and phrases are used to describe the deceased soldier over and over again and it becomes something like a meaningless routine. Everybody's got to do their part whether it's moral or not. B) I think that it might have been a little much for this mission to get all the way to the general because I feel like more important plans go to him and this is just a plot line and wouldn't really happen. I feel like in a real war, soldiers and generals are way too busy strategizing or fighting to notice or care that three brothers have just died. People die all the time in war.
4. I do not think the unidentified veteran told his family about what he saw and what happened on D-Day. Based on the gruesome scenes of D-Day in the movie, if that is what the veteran experienced, I don't he would ever be able to talk about it or be ok with sharing it. This is similar to what Colin is going through with not being able to tell his wife about Afganistan. How can you even begin to explain to someone on the outside something so terrible? Where do you even start?
I was horrified. I often found myself looking up at the ceiling because I couldn’t stand seeing what was on-screen. There was one part where a man, still living and yelling for his mother, was laying on his back with his entrails spilling out and onto the sand. It sticks with me now because it was so horrific - not just the gore of the exposed guts, but the pain in his voice as he hoarsely screamed for his mother.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest differences I noticed in the “The Longest Day” clip was how the general, who was on the beach, sent the young soldier back out into fire to get his rifle. While I understand that a rifle would be a good thing to have, the commanders in SPR, especially Hank’s character, were primarily concerned with getting their men out of the line of fire and off the beach, and it seems unlikely that they would have sent a man out into the line of fire to get his rifle. The whole clip seems more tame then the SPR scene, while we see people die, death appears to be much less certain for those invading the beach.
A. I thought that it was very interesting how the contents of the letters, at least what was voiced aloud, seems to be from the point of view of the deceased’s fellow soldiers. They talk about how the deceased held them all together, or tell stories of them in combat, which contrasts with the people we see writing the letters. Those writing the letters likely never met the person who died, and are likely embellishing what is said in the letters to provide more comfort to those receiving them. B. I do not think this is a good idea. As it is said a bit later in the movie, its “like finding a needle in a stack of needles.” I think it will be a near impossible task, and I think that the War Department Colonel makes a good point in saying that they are effectively sending five more men to their deaths. While it’s a nice thought, I think it just means that five more families will be getting telegrams in the coming weeks.
I’m sure that he has told them some things, maybe mentioning some friends he made during the version, but he certainly hasn’t told them everything. He likely wouldn’t have wanted to relive the horrors that he’s seen, and wouldn’t want to have scared his families with the awful truth. It reminds me of the line in chapter 7 of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” where the narrator decides not to tell his family about what he’s seen. He says: “but it is too dangerous for me to put these things into words. I am afraid they might then become gigantic and I be no longer able to master them” (Remarque, 165)
ReplyDelete1) The beach scene very grotesque, having bedlam in every shot. It showed that at this point, it was a matter of survival, fear, chaos, and determination. Not only is it saddenning, but the scenes themselves are very shocking, such as the scene with organs of a soldier laying right next to him, or Captain Miller dragging a soldier, only for them to be blown up seconds after. However, I think the scene that really hit me was when the soldiers needed more amo, they ran back to the bodies of injured or dead soldiers, gathered their amo, and left them on the beach. I think it really impacted me because it emphasizes the quick and tough decisions that are needed to be made on the battlefield.
2) The opening scene was definitely chaotic with the close footage scenes of the casualties in the movie. In contrast to The Longest Day clip, SPR was not only more heart-wrenching, but also a lot more personal as well. It is focused more on the perspective as a soldier (for example, there are many slow shots from the point of view of Captain Miller), whereas TLD clip seemed as if it was PG rated summary of war: it was very short, dry, and calm compared to SPR, not really showing us how it is like in the battlefield. TLD ends with, “There was a high number of casualties”, however, the shots never zoom into any of them. I think one point Spielberg depicts the landing is that the soldiers could die at any moment. Before the soldiers could even arrive at the beach, they were gunned down, a massacre of life.
3a) In a way, the women writing the letters instead of men in battle with their loved ones seems almost manipulative to the families, shielding them from the truth. However, I believe it not only romanticizes the idea of war, but shields the family of the harsh realities of the battle field. What struck me the most is the indifference of all of the women writing the letters. Even when the secretary grabbed a letter from another’s desk, they did not move to see what she was taking. Instead, she simply kept on writing like a machine.
3b) Although the idea is well intentioned, I believe in reality, the situation is too risky. First of all, it will be hard to find Private Ryan when they don’t even know if he is alive or not. Seeming that they do, what if he is dead? What about the lives of other soldiers that died to help find him? Who is he to say the numerous amount of soldiers hired to find him are less important than Private Ryan. All of the soldiers that will be assigned with the task to find him are also apart of families, much like his own. In reality, the risk of life is too high, as they have almost no information about Ryan.
4) I believe the vertran most likely told his family short details of the war, such as fond memories of people he bonded with, but mostly likely, he left out all the grotesque horrors of war. It is clear that the family does not understand him pain and has not been told about it in their reaction to him collapsing. In regards to Colin, oftentimes talking about something brings it back to life, solidifies it in reality. By talking about it, it would rekindle traumatic moments. In addition, that fact that he might be reenlisted to serve again strikes that he may relive those horrific moments again. Instatead, he would rather not talk at all, or talk about something else.
1.)The landing at Omaha Beach was horrific because of how realistic the portrayal was. I felt disgusted by the imagery of blown off heads and guts spilling everywhere. The image of the young soldier whose skin had been burned off revealing all of his organs but still struggling on the ground stuck with me. I imagined how agonizing his death must be especially because he would probably lay there in extreme pain for hours waiting to die in the midst of the bloody gore.
ReplyDelete2.)The opening showed me how desensitized the soldiers must be in order to survive the attack.
They had no time to grieve over a loss. The opening really made me understand the quote about how soldiers fight for their friends who were killed. The Longest Day clip greatly differs from SPR because of the way it was filmed which allowed me to disconnect from the soldiers. A lot of the film was shot from a birds eye angle making it less personable, and they focused on the living rather than both the dead and alive. Also, I was confused as to why the general asked one of the men to retrieve his gun even though it was obviously very risky.
3.)
A.) The quiet and organized room in which the woman are typing in serves as a sharp contrast between the loud violence a couple minutes prior. The typists felt very separated from the world they were writing about. This scene shows how the government and everyday civilians in America who think they know the war inside out are in fact extremely disconnected from the warzone itself and the lives of the soldiers they glorify.
B.) This scene strikes me as bizarre because at Omaha beach so many men were killed as if their lives did not matter, yet Marshall wants to send a search party for one soldier. Perhaps Marshall’s motives comes from personal experience. He understands the pain Ryan’s mother will endure and seeks to ease her pain by saving the last Ryan son.
4.)I would argue that the man has not told his family of the horror that he witnessed. Telling his war story would mean reliving some of the pain. Going to the cemetery was a trigger for him, so I can not imagine him retelling his experiences as a soldier. Colin, similarly, can not begin to explain his experience with war. Both characters have lived through experiences so different than their families, their families would probably not even understand their story.
1. The documentary-like beginning of the film was almost too hard for me to watch. Everytime the screen flashed to a heavily mutilated soldier, I had to turn away because I felt like I was going to be sick. Because the opening was so well made and has a documentary-like appearance, I had to remind myself that the movie was not real footage. One of the images that has stuck with me is the image of the dead men and fish on the beach with the bloody ocean beside them. I think the color of the water is shocking because I can’t imagine how much blood would need to be spilled to color the ocean red. The image is quite literally of a bloodbath.
ReplyDelete2. I think the opening says that war is violent, but hazy. In the clip, a lot of the soldiers appear to be confused. There are explosions, flying bullets, and injured people everywhere. It is unclear which side is “good,” and based on the soldiers that shoot the men that surrendered, there may not even be one. “The Longest Day” depicts war without the gore of “Saving Private Ryan.” It presents the same scenery, outfits, and weapons, but it does not show the pain and emotions of the soldiers or the gruesome ways in which weapons tear the soldiers apart. Similar to other responses, I think that Spielberg is aiming for reality. He wants the opening to accurately portray the violence of that day, as well as the feelings of the soldiers as they are dying or watching their fellow soldiers die.
3A)I think one point of the women writing the letters is to show just how many people have died. The fact that there is an entire room full of blank-faced women typing out letters about the dead shows the sheer number of casualties. They do not have time to find true stories for every name on the list or become emotionally involved. While the letters are manipulative and tell false stories, they will also provide the recipients with a little comfort, as compared to no letter at all or one containing the truth about how most of the men died or the conditions in which they were living. In some ways, the fake tales tell the “truths” that many families may need to hear. The clip also shows a snippet of the war at home and a role of women in the war.
B)I do not approve of the mission. While saving someone’s life is heroic, the plan does not value the lives of the men who are searching for him. It seems like an impossible task to pull off. The realistic opening is a sharp contrast to this plan, which I don’t think would have ever happened.
4. I doubt that he has told his family everything. I can definitely imagine him saying the same thing as Colin because I don’t think the trauma from war can ever really go away, and once a veteran has found a way to cope with the fear, guilt, anger, and other emotions (PTSD) they feel, I don’t think they would want to rehash their time at war.
As the American soldiers stormed the beach, I felt disbelief. I had seen the movie before, but I hardly remembered the gore of the scene. I remember thinking about how awful it would feel to know death was imminent. I was incredibly impressed by the courage and devotion to the United States that the soldiers showed in this situation. A moment that shocked me the most was the image of a man missing an arm and he reaches down to grab it and then continues running. This image showcased the brutality of the scene and was unforgettable.
ReplyDeleteThe opening of the movie said to me that war is an unimaginable event that only men and women who have experienced it can begin to understand. While viewing Spielberg’s depiction, I felt pretty horrified, but I began to understand that I could not comprehend the emotions of the men on the beach. The clip from The Longest Day did not affect me in the same way because it was far less dramatic. The men manage to reach the edge of the beach very quickly and the men who did not were never focused on. Overall, I think that Spielberg made his scene so graphic and realistic to give outsiders just the slightest understanding of what a war experience feels like.
A. The effect of the women typing juxtaposed with the male soldier’s voices reading the letters is that each soldier is made to seem important in an almost unrealistic way. Some of the voices can be heard saying, “he held us all together” and “we were involved in one of the most important operations,” which gives the illusion whether it is true or not that each man that died was a hero. This illusion is likely used to make people suffering from their losses feel as though their loved one died uniquely. The idea that a soldier’s death was not very different than any other impersonal death to a machine gun is more painful. B. I think that the mission to save Private Ryan is a bad idea. As dark as it may sound, war is a numbers game, so sacrificing more lives than one in order to save Private Ryan is too costly. I believe that in war you have to believe in utilitarianism, or the good for the most amount of people, and this order directly contradicts that.
I think that the man kneeling in the Normandy American Cemetery has likely told his family an overview of what happened when he stormed the beach, but they lack a deeper understanding of the horrific things he has seen. I think that just as I could not fully understand what the soldiers were feeling in the movie, this man understands that even his family cannot fully understand the atrocities he has experienced. I think that he is different from Colin because he knows that it is over; whatever happened during that time will not happen again, whereas Colin may have to experience it another time.
1. This was my second time seeing the opening scene of SPR, so going into it this time around, I knew what was coming. Interestingly enough, this made my gut reaction even worse. Not only did I experience the same disgust I had the first time around, but I now had that pit-of-your-stomach, “I know what’s coming next and I’m not excited about it” sickness. The image I so anxiously anticipated was when the soldier turned behind him to retrieve his severed arm. Like I said earlier today, I could talk for hours about just that shot alone. There’s so much to unpack there.
ReplyDelete2. While both scenes trigger an emotional reaction in the audience, they do so in very different ways. The most obvious difference between the two scenes is how violent SPR is in comparison to “The Longest Day”. SPR shows the horrors through visual imagery, leaving very little to the imagination and sparing no detail that could confuse anyone on why soldiers are so affected by war. TLD, on the other hand, shows this same impact through a vulnerable moment in a quiet, enclosed space. The characters tell their story rather than show it. I think Speilberg’s method achieves a similar shock value to what I assume many soldiers face in combat, making the scene easier to connect to as an audience.
3. One thing that strikes me about this scene every time is the (clearly intentional) inconsistency in the case of each soldier’s significance to the war. The letters heard through voice over all sound very personal, describing each death as heroic and incredibly meaningful. However, the readings of each letter run together, overlapping and unfinished, discounting the significance of each individual life entirely. They seem rehearsed, repetitive and impersonal. In a similar way, the scene on the beach includes images of hundreds of dead soldiers, limbs tangled together and faces indistinguishable from one another. This seems to imply the insignificance of each individual life, dehumanizing the bodies that moments earlier held lives, each unique and separate from the other. The scene also includes many shots of individuals, wounded or dead, that provoke a strong emotional reaction, an empathy for a completely unnamed character. This contrast is extremely interesting, and extremely realistic.
4. I was definitely surprised to see how seemingly unprepared the family was for the veteran’s reaction. Even if the man did not tell his family about the details of his experience, his reaction is clearly warranted. I assume, based off of the family’s reaction to his crumpling to the ground as well as the clear familial separation symbolized in their walk to the cemetery that the veteran is not close to his family. Maybe reliving those events through a discussion would be too hard for the veteran to process, more difficult than simply repressing the memories. Although this method is not the healthiest in terms of preventing post traumatic stress, it is not an uncommon one. Emotional reactions to war were probably discouraged in combat, and I would not be surprised if the veteran continued to live his life as if he were still on the battlefield.
1. I could not believe the number of people who were dying. I was amazed when any of them made it to shore and then when they made it up the hill, I was flabbergasted. I do not understand why all of them did not die. Was it just dumb luck? Another moment that really struck me was when the soldiers were leaving their boat-things and the camera showed what was happening below and above the water. The tranquility of the underwater severely juxtaposed the chaotic yelling and gun-firing above the surface.
ReplyDelete2. The first scene of SPR does not portray war as heroic at all. The soldiers are scared for their lives. In The Longest Day the soldiers do not seem nearly as concerned with death. The only moment from the clip where I could tell that a soldier was scared was when one of the commanders told a young soldier to go back to the fire-zone and get his gun, and the soldier hesitated before following orders. In The Longest Day, the soldiers just died as apposed to SPR where many of the soldiers did not immediately die and stayed alive moaning in agony with torn apart limbs. The Longest Day was made much closer to the actual D-Day, so many of the viewers and/or actors probably served or knew many people who served during World War II. One of the possible reasons for The Longest Day not showing war as being as futile as it is depicted in SPR could have been because people were not ready to see the war that way. Speilberg’s point is to portray the futility of war and the luck of survival. The scene with the medic who is taking care of a soldier and right as the medic finished, the soldier gets shot in the head really shows Speilberg’s point about futility.
3. A) When the scene changed from the beach to the voiceover in the office I was not sure if the voice over was about the same people. Then I remembered that obviously those soldiers had more than one side to them and during combat, they probably behaved differently than when they were all drinking beers together.
B) I definitely understand the mission. I think it is admirable of the army to help a grieving mother by ensuring that one of her sons survives; however, it is war and war is not fair. I approve of the mission, but I wonder if private Ryan and the other troops will approve of the mission.
4. I do not think that the man at the beginning of the film told his wife or family. Many veterans never share their experience in combat, just like Colin because they do not want to relive it. The man in the film never has to think about the war again. He most likely does think about it but will never fight in a war, again, unlike Colin who may be sent back for another tour. The warfare in Afghanistan is different from the warfare during World War II. It was much clearer who one was fighting in the war.
I remember thinking that I could not handle much more of the horror and I didn’t know if I was really going to be capable of doing anything productive after the movie. It was so drastically different than the safe routine of civilian life I was expecting to experience. It was disorienting, brutal, and stomach-turning. I was shocked. Sometimes, I found myself disgusted that I was looking away and had to force myself to watch, and yet at other points, I couldn’t look away as much as I wanted to.
ReplyDeleteSpielberg’s opening viscerally reminds me that war is so mind-numbingly brutal that such carnage is commonplace and expected, if still not comprehensible. It also made me realize that, on the ground, there is so much chaos that there’s not much meaning or sense or order in any of it. Considering the magnitude of the slaughter, that shouldn’t be, but is still, surprising. In contrast, in The Longest Day clip, the war seems to make sense. There are calmly spoken orders, things appear to go to plan, and there’s even enough time for a second of completely unnecessary narration before they get off the boat. While there are still people dying and guns going off, there is no gore. The viewer is outside of the scene and it doesn’t have the same gut feeling of overwhelming chaos that Spielberg provides. By O’Brien’s definition, this is sanitized enough to not be a true war story. Spielberg’s version has a commitment to not giving into the narrative of WWII being the last “Great War”. However righteous the causes may have been, and how important D-Day turned out to be, it doesn’t change the fact that the cost was gut-punching and bloody. Even if taking part in D-Day is a duty to the country, there is no glory in dying on Omaha Beach.
What struck me this time around was the sheer number of women. If their only job is to produce a sanitized, more comforting version of war for the grieving parents, that’s a scary amount of PR control going on there and a staggering amount of death being processed. The contrast between the men’s language on the beach and their voices speaking the women’s words and the general made up appearance of the women also pointed to the fact that they are acting a polished, if invisible, public faces for this war.
Like most people in the class, I do not think it is a good idea to send so many soldiers out to find one man. While I can see the emotional appeal, it does not make much sense, especially since the mission itself is such a long shot. All of these soldiers sent to find this boy will probably die, and it seems unreasonable to say their lives matter less than the boy’s does. It feels rather harebrained and Hollywood, and I don’t think the throwaway line about it being a public relations mission really does much to justify it. That being said, a quick search on (the very reliable) Wikipedia reveals that Saving Private Ryan was in fact loosely based on the story of Niland Brothers. After three brothers were presumed dead, the surviving brother was sent back to the US. There is also apparently (again, according to Wikipedia) some kind of Sole Survivor Policy put in place after WWII, where if a sibling has died in combat, the surviving sibling is exempt from military service. However, I would think in those cases, it was less of a logistical nightmare to find the soldier in question and send him home, and did not involve a risky jaunt around occupied France.
I don’t think he told his family much about D-Day if they are that surprised by his reaction. It does make sense that he would not want to relive Omaha beach by having to tell the story, like Colin does not wish to relive Afghanistan, especially considering there is such a wide gap between war and civilian life. Like O’Brien says, war stories are partly about people who never listen, and if no one around him can truly understand his trauma, perhaps there is limited value for him in sharing it. Specifically for Colin not wanting to discuss Afghanistan, there’s a sense that he is eager to leave the horror of war behind and integrate into civilian life again. Perhaps this was not always the case, considering he went on three deployments, but it’s a pretty firm choice now. In addition, if his experience is anything like Omaha Beach, it would make sense that he may want those two lives to stay separate.
Delete1. In all honesty, I was not as affected by the Omaha Beach scene as I would have thought I would be, maybe because it was early in the morning and I was still tired. That is not to say that the scene left me unaffected – on the contrary I think I was so overwhelmed by it that I had difficulty properly processing all that was taking place on the screen. Thinking about it now, that seems like a rather good metaphor to describe the reality of war; everything is so overwhelming what with the thundering of explosives, the constant gunfire, the heartbreaking screams of the wounded, and the ever present sense of death and destruction.
ReplyDelete2. Spielberg’s depiction screamed of chaos and insanity, especially when compared to the rather neat and orderly clip from The Longest Day. A particular thing I noticed while viewing the two clips was the difference in the way each was filmed. In SPR the shots were up close and personal, whereas TLD favored more widescreen, panoramic views. For instance, SPR focuses in on one soldier who survives a shot to the head thanks to his helmet, and while he is marvelling at his fortune yet another shot is fired. SPR is full of small moments like this that emphasize the intensely personal aspect of warfare. Yet I do not think that one depiction is better than the other – SPR illustrates the personal emotional side of war, while TLD captures the totality of it. Each offers something different, yet both are equally important.
3a. The contrast between the two scenes is stark and it further highlights the superficiality of the letters the women are writing. To me, the letters seem superficial because the contents of them are so far from the truth. In no way do the letters capture the harsh reality of the war, and in many ways they devalue the lives of the soldiers by perversely romanticizing something that was from glorious. Now I do not think that the women themselves are at fault for they are merely trying to find some sort of salvation, but it does make me question the very notion of heroism and the large role it has come to play in our society, especially as it relates to war.
3b. I’m not exactly sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I understand why Marshall wants to save Ryan – his mother must be devastated and he wants to do anything he can to rectify her suffering in some way. However, this act of heroism can also been seen as a rather selfish attempt to make the lives of a small few better. Why does one man’s life count more than the lives of the others?
4. Though obviously each person has their own unique way of reacting to things, I struggle to imagine that this veteran has been able to adequately relate his experience to those at home. Even if he had told his wife and family about the war, it is doubtful that they would be able to truly grasp what happened. There are just some things – war for instance – that can only be shared and understood through experience, and even then no two people will have the same experience.