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Saving Private Ryan's Omaha Beach scene hasn't been rivaled by any war movie

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J

Jonm1010

Banned
It will be hard for any film to rival D-Day at Omaha beach, thats before factoring in Spielberg's masterful handling of it.

There are almost no people I know that don't have that scene burned into their head for the rest of their life.

The combination of its point in history(veterans still being alive) and the brutality of modern war is hard to match its impact. I am sure Dunkirk(if they don't cop out and go PG13) and Hacksaw Ridge will make their case.
 
S

subwilde

Member
We Were Soldiers had some pretty good scenes from what I can remember. But Saving Private Ryan still takes the top spot.

Looked up We Were Soldiers, Mel Gibson circa 2002...Anyone seen this recently? Does it hold up lol
 
M

Michael F. Assbender

Banned
Jonm1010 said:
It will be hard for any film to rival D-Day at Omaha beach, thats before factoring in Spielberg's masterful handling of it.

There are almost no people I know that don't have that scene burned into their head for the rest of their life.

The combination of its point in history(veterans still being alive) and the brutality of modern war is hard to match its impact. I am sure Dunkirk(if they don't cop out and go PG13) and Hacksaw Ridge will make their case.
Click to expand...

I'm actually very excited for both. They don't have to match Spielberg's gem to be excellent in their own rights.

Though part of me still feels iffy on anything Gibson does because of the whole "drunken racist, sexist asshole" thing. But he's definitely a skilled director.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
If there's one aspect I felt that beach scene could have done better, it's scale.
98d9524122a4d1197dd9b3762c4009c9.jpeg
Click to expand...
While the landing is relentlessly brutal, it does seem small compared to the images from the battle
landing-craft-saving-private-ryan.png
Click to expand...

9QgMsON.jpg
OmahaBeach-HonorandSacrifice.jpg
Click to expand...
 
J

Jonm1010

Banned
zeshakag said:
I think while it doesn't come close in scale, gore, chaos or intensity, I think the opening fight of the Revenant is on par with Saving Private Ryan in terms of how engaging it is to the viewer, where you can't stop watching and you get drawn into the point of view of the characters. Also on cinematic technical quality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqK_QytVLfU
Click to expand...

That was really impressive.

Going outside of WWII I would love to see a modern attempt at some of the great battles in antiquity.

There have been some obvious examples of large scale battles from that period or thereabout(Braveheart, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, Troy, GoT) but nothing that has really been able to put into perspective the full range of emotions and brutality of ancient combat like was achieved with Saving Private Ryan.

I think of that Hardcore History podcast on The Punic Wars and The Battle of Cannae and it would be quite crazy to see something like that realized.
 
F

Fitts

Member
I watched Furious 7 a few weeks ago. That beach scene with Missandei in a bikini easily tops Saving Private Ryan's.

And the film pretty much becomes a war
in the streets
movie by the end so it qualifies.
 
U

UraMallas

Member
More_Badass said:
One of the reviews compared it to Braveheart, saying how Gibson still knows how to direct large-scale conflict excellently.

Considering the story is about a CO medic, capturing just how gruesome the battlefield was and how unsettlingly gory battlefield injuries are is a means to make the man's achievements that much more incredible and impressive
Click to expand...

He's such a gore whore. I love that about him.
 
F

freenudemacusers

Member
he also knows how to make it both eye-searing yet never tipping over into pure shlock/gratuitous visual noise. apocalypto in a lesser director's hands would have been a disaster.
 
M

Mister Negative

Member
More_Badass said:
If there's one aspect I felt that beach scene could have done better, it's scale.

While the landing is relentlessly brutal, it does seem small compared to the images from the battle
Click to expand...

I think that's kind of the point, layered in with some cost effectiveness.

The entire sequence is shot to give a real sense of claustrophobia. It's a big event taking place in a small space. During the initial landing, especially, Once we get our "good-enough" establishing shot of the landing boats, we get tight shots of worried faces up until the doors open. After all, the movie wasn't about World War II on a grand scale, it's about the personal cost of the war. It's about one man who's getting brought home just because his mother shouldn't bear having to lose her last son, and the squad sent to get him.

It's chaotic, claustrophobic, confusing, and intensely personal. Just the way any one of those men would have been experiencing it.

They added just enough background noise to add to the sense of scale of the battle. It would have been wasted budget to go overboard, because the scale of the invasion wasn't what was important for this scene.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Jonm1010 said:
I think of that Hardcore History podcast on The Punic Wars and The Battle of Cannae and it would be quite crazy to see something like that realized.
Click to expand...
Game of Thrones basically brought Carlin's description of Marathon and Cannae to life. The rush of calavry, the piles of bodies, the suffocating crush when an army is surrounded.
 
F

foxuzamaki

Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
My history teacher also showed that scene to me in I think junior high it was so intense
 
S

Sulik2

Member
plop said:
I'll never forget seeing this in the theater and watching as an old man who had been seated in the front of the theater in his wheelchair got jogged out of the room by a young lady pushing his chair as he sobbed into his hands.

I don't know if he was at Omaha, but I'm guessing he'd seen war at some point in his life and that scene brought the memories rushing right back to him. It's vivid and brutal and chaotic as fuck.
Click to expand...

There are lots of reports like this. Nothing will ever show the real insanity of horror of war as well as Saving Private Ryan does just based on how many veterans react to it.
 
C

Caddywompus

Member
TheLostBigBoss said:
You know that's actually kinda something I haven't thought about.

After Black Hawk Down, I can't remember a big, large scale movies about a battle/war period piece. We've had movies that take place in war, but nothing like SPR or BHD from what I can remember. Well, I guess Lone Survivor can count as a war movie, although it isn't on the scale of the others.

Not counting BoB or The Pacific as those are shows.
Click to expand...
We've really only had current war movies as of late, Zero Dark Thirty, Seal Team Six, 13 Hours, America Sniper ect. Hopefully they have run their course and we can get back to some variety.
 
Z

ZombieSupaStar

Member
More_Badass said:
Like just WW2 or all war movies? Game of Thrones essentially gave us the Saving Private Ryan of medieval battles

And Mel Gibson's upcoming movie is supposed to make the beach scene look tame according to the reviews

Edit: ^^^^
That's the quote I was thinking of
Click to expand...

Havent seen GOT yet, better than Braveheart even?
 
D

Dylan Sexbang

Banned
This thread made me rewatch the movie. Holy shit, Nathan Fillion.

Aside from that, yeah. Omaha in Saving Private Ryan is unmatched, because you aren't just watching the battle; you're living it alongside these young men. You're on that beach, your friends are dying besides you; drowning, exploding, shot, bleeding, gutted, screaming, crying, praying, begging. It's terror incarnate, and I can't even fathom to imagine what it would have been like to storm that beach myself. Or to even be an axis soldier defending the beach. But this is as close at it'll ever get.
 
J

Jonm1010

Banned
More_Badass said:
Game of Thrones basically brought Carlin's description of Marathon and Cannae to life. The rush of calavry, the piles of bodies, the suffocating crush when an army is surrounded.
Click to expand...

When I saw that episode I sort of thought that and impressed me like hell in its own right, but while the scene was great for GoT, it didn't quite nail it in the way Saving Private Ryan or even Carlin described it on the various different levels.

It definitely sets a bar - which I never expected to say about a TV show - but I think it is still missing some things that don't quite reach the Saving Private Ryan of medieval battles.
 
M

Michael F. Assbender

Banned
Mister Negative said:
I think that's kind of the point, layered in with some cost effectiveness.

The entire sequence is shot to give a real sense of claustrophobia. It's a big event taking place in a small space. During the initial landing, especially, Once we get our "good-enough" establishing shot of the landing boats, we get tight shots of worried faces up until the doors open. After all, the movie wasn't about World War II on a grand scale, it's about the personal cost of the war. It's about one man who's getting brought home just because his mother shouldn't bear having to lose her last son, and the squad sent to get him.

It's chaotic, claustrophobic, confusing, and intensely personal. Just the way any one of those men would have been experiencing it.

They added just enough background noise to add to the sense of scale of the battle. It would have been wasted budget to go overboard, because the scale of the invasion wasn't what was important for this scene.
Click to expand...

That plus the logistics of planning and excecuting anything on a larger scale would be a nightmare.

In the OP video, at about the five minute mark, you can see that as the camera stays focused on Hanks most of the time, there are dozens of people behind and around him who are running, shooting, falling, screaming, being set on fire, exploding, being shot at...to try and pull the camera further back and show that same level of intensity while directing hundreds of people at the same time would be nearly impossible, IMO.
 
Z

ZombieSupaStar

Member
More_Badass said:
It can't compare to Braveheart's scale, but GoT's battle is suffocating and chaotic and seeing the bodies piled high really captures how much of a slaughtering ground a medieval battlefield is.
Click to expand...

hmm i want to watch it, debating HBO Now, vs just getting the 1-5 bluray set on amazon.... I havent read the books either despite owning the (5?) box set.
 
J

Jonm1010

Banned
ZombieSupaStar said:
hmm i want to watch it, debating HBO Now, vs just getting the 1-5 bluray set on amazon.... I havent read the books either despite owning the (5?) box set.
Click to expand...

As someone that stopped reading the books and ended up watching the series, I would recommend the books first and foremost. The series is solid and has some great moments(like some of the battles) but the books are superior.

...Then again there is a very real chance you might be waiting another decade to finish the story through the books.
 
J

Jonm1010

Banned
Dylan Sexbang said:
This thread made me rewatch the movie. Holy shit, Nathan Fillion.

Aside from that, yeah. Omaha in Saving Private Ryan is unmatched, because you aren't just watching the battle; you're living it alongside these young men. You're on that beach, your friends are dying besides you; drowning, exploding, shot, bleeding, gutted, screaming, crying, praying, begging. It's terror incarnate, and I can't even fathom to imagine what it would have been like to storm that beach myself. Or to even be an axis soldier defending the beach. But this is as close at it'll ever get.
Click to expand...
Yeah this really nails it.

Its also kinda why I hesitate to agree with those that say it could possibly be improved a bit by adding a sense of scale.

Inserting shots like that could very easily take a person out of that intimacy that is so impactful.

I often imagine had I been there, sure, there would be moments where the scale would overwhelm me as I was getting to the beach, but once the shit hits the fan? Or as you are anticipating it like where the scene begins? You aren't really going to be taking in the sites. Things are going to seem immediate, chaotic, scary, and extremely intimate. It wouldn't be til that moment Hanks looks out over the landscape that you would feel comfortable taking in the sites again.
 
R

Reeks

Member
I don't think that the war scenes are as visceral as the beach scene in SPR, and they are very different in general, but I really enjoyed The Curse of the Golden Flower.
 
Jin

Jin

Member
It's the incredible sound. Seeing this in theater the one thing that I remember most was the non stop sound of bullet flying all over place. It was a constant "tinging" sound as bullets ricocheted everywhere that I couldn't understand some of the lines the actors were yelling.
 
T

Trouble

Banned
Dr.Acula said:
I'm partial to the Bastogne episode of Band of Brothers. But Spielberg has his fingerprints all over that series too.
Click to expand...

That episode had me damn near a nervous breakdown the first time I watched it. Especially since it follows a medic for the entire episode.
 
B

burnside13

Member
Band of Brothers is one of my top favourites of all time. I have to say I was disappointed with Pacific though compared with the original.
 
Stiler

Stiler

Member
Hard to top that scene, there just isn't a lot of movies that do big epic battle scenes. Closest thing is Band of Brothers.

Not nearly as epic but one of my favorite movies, The Last of the Mohicans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyrPzy6y_IA


I wish there were more movies that covered the French and Indian war.

Also as far as middle ages battles go, I remember that scene from The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, it was bloody intense but I can't for the life of me find that scene on youtube :(.
 
J

Jimrpg

Member
I remember how utterly amazing it was, watching at the cinemas opening weekend. I was a big film buff then, so I saw everything and this was on another level. It was so good that the rest of the movie didn't feel like it was as good as the opening. But on the second viewing, I realised just how much of a masterpiece and classic it was.

If I do have any objection is that on repeated viewings, Upham's character gets too exposure for what its worth, and I'm probably in the minority for this but I like the teacher speech from Tom Hanks.

This movie also reminds me how much I dislike the Oscars. Political Trash.
 
D

Dubbedinenglish

Banned
More_Badass said:
If there's one aspect I felt that beach scene could have done better, it's scale.

While the landing is relentlessly brutal, it does seem small compared to the images from the battle
Click to expand...

Yeah, I watched A Bridge Too Far not too long ago and the scale alone of the para drop is something that I haven't seen any modern rival to.
 
N

nhlducks35

Member
More_Badass said:
If there's one aspect I felt that beach scene could have done better, it's scale.

While the landing is relentlessly brutal, it does seem small compared to the images from the battle
Click to expand...

Eh really I think it shows it off pretty well

Remember there were multiple sections of Omaha Beach, the movie takes place in Dog Green

omaha-04-large.jpg
 
B

Blargonaut

Banned
If you haven't watched Fury, you should

That scene with the screaming cannon, you know the one

It did ricochet off a tank like it was a monster movie

Fucking incredible sound
 
E

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
Saving Private Ryan is a movie that doesn't even feel like a movie. It's so real that it almost feels like you're watching a documentary.
 
T

ThoseDeafMutes

Member
schroddycat said:
The Tank vs Tank battle was great but the 300-esque standoff in the end was... well, in real life,
Nazi troops won't be that stupid to rush headlong into Fury's (the tank) gun fire.
Click to expand...

The tank battle seems to have been written for a stock sherman, while the Fury they got for filming is an Easy 8 model. That 76mm gun would have been able to penetrate the tiger frontally at the depicted range.
 
R

Ratrat

Member
Its definitely the most memorable.


For SF, Starship Troopers and Edge of Tomorrow are pretty great.

If only Ridley would make Forever War...
 
M

Machina

Banned
Einchy said:
Saving Private Ryan is a movie that doesn't even feel like a movie. It's so real that it almost feels like you're watching a documentary.
Click to expand...

Spielberg is the GOAT when It comes to this. Schindler's List is exactly the same, just in a very different context.
 
H

Hermii

Member
schroddycat said:
The Tank vs Tank battle was great but the 300-esque standoff in the end was... well, in real life,
Nazi troops won't be that stupid to rush headlong into Fury's (the tank) gun fire.
Click to expand...

Yea the ending was terrible. The Movie up to that point were depicting how shermans were getting slaughtered by superior german weapons, and in the end one American tank takes out hundreds of germans by itself. Also Brad Pitt should have been blown to pieces like that guy at the beginning when the new guy has to clean the tank, instead he has some heroic last words.
 
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