Re: Private Ryan, The Thin Line and back to Ignatius J. Reilly

jason varsoke (jjv@caesun.msd.ray.com)
Thu, 16 Dec 1999 11:16:26 -0500 (EST) 

On Wed, 15 Dec 1999 AntiUtopia@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 12/15/99 3:44:54 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
> pariah1980@yahoo.com writes:
> 
> << ribisi talks about how he
>  used to pretend like he was asleep when his mom would
>  come check in on him at nights. to me, that was one of
>  the best scenes. just my two cents. >>
> 
> Good lord.  This post and the one about the knife scene are bringing the 
> movie back to memory more and more...and yes, both were powerful scenes.  The 
> movie veered a bit toward sentimentality at the end,  but was powerful enough 
> throughout to make it forgiveable.  The sense of debt toward those who had 
> sacrificed pretty well sums up our national consciousness toward WW 2 vets...
> Jim  

   Nothing can bring a jaded man to tears like a good war film.  I saw SPR
and cried three times during the film.  It was a wonderful feeling
noticing that there wasn't a dry eyed man that left that theater.  I'm not
sure how all of you judge a film but to me I think Spielburg nailed it.  I
also talked to a few Legioniers at the local VA, who were at Normandy.
They said it was a hard film to see, but they were damn glad someone made
it.  They said Spielburg came as close as anyone would ever come.  They
were happy someone was telling their story with such fidelity.  One guy
said that there was only one thing missing on that beach scene - the faces
of all your friends, try seeing them get mowed down.
   The rest of the movie is also pretty good.  I like the assault on the
bunker, the sniper taking out the other sniper, the question of who is
Cap?  The academic, caught in the dog fight, the ingenuity of sticky
bombs, and their concequences, the sniper in the tower facing off a tank,
the single action rifles in contrast to the german machine gun, grabbing
grenades live and tossing them out, johnny on the spot with cold feet,
hate, the personal, not knowing what your enemy is saying in your final
moments of death.  Damn, this is all good stuff.  It's all worthy.  And
the first time of those three I cried wasn't the beach, it was when the
car drove up to the farm house.  What a great scene!  Again, I don't know
how you guys judge a film, but I judge this one on visceral impact, and
give it a thumb up.

   Thin Red Line never made me even blink.  Yes, the shots were beautiful.
But the plot was crap.  The only thing I can say is Nick Nolte did a great
job playing a commander who hadn't made general because he was too late
for the last war.  I didn't identify with the main character, i didn't
find the whole island scene believable, waxing metaphysical in the middle
of a fire fight wasn't all that believable, you never really care about
woody harrilson's character, so when he pulls hte pin on his own grenades
his death isn't anything but another casualty.  The scene where the guy is
taking teath out of the victims isn't anything we haven't seen before.  In
all the film wasn't compelling.  It didn't make me realize anything.  I
didn't make me identify with the troops.  It didn't even make me ponder,
"gee here is man with all his crap and violence, in the middle of nature's
beauty.  Are we the abomination of nature?"   No, none of that.  The
bunker scene in contrast to SPR was a joke.  Completely unrealistic.  A
thumb down.

-j

   BTW: also talked to Vietnam Vets after Platoon.  They said, "that
exactly the way it was, except for one thing.  We would never have left a
man behind."