BoardinBob – Member

People complaining a Spielberg film is schmaltzy

Schmaltzy, corny, hokey, cliched, sentimental, cheesy etc etc….aren’t words that you generally associate with greatness and critical acclaim. Saving Private Ryan is often spoken of as one of the greatest war movies of all time (some people will tell it’s the best film full stop).

It’s also incongruous with such frequent bloody violence and gore.

And for the record, I was referring to BoB as schmaltzy, not Saving Private Ryan.

Its the reason that I stopped playing war-based video games, specifically “Call of Duty”, which was the big game at the time it came out. I played it, and others like it, a lot.

Nah, that was way later. Medal of Honor was the game that really kicked off the whole WW2 FPS craze; it came out a year after Saving Private Ryan and was scripted/masterminded by Spielberg. Didn’t have the famous beach landing scene (although a later sequel did as did one of the CoD games).

It’s a good ‘Hollywood action’ film (and the serial Band of Brothers was much better IMHO) but in terms of ‘great’ war films then it has to come a loooonnnnng way down the list.

Some must sees:

A Walk in the Sun
Attack
Das Boot
All Quiet on the Western Front
Cross of Iron
The Day After
Downfall
Paths of Glory
La Grande Illusion
It Happened Here

Another quirky one is ‘Panic in Year Zero’ (1962 B movie post-nuke survival) with Ray Milland – loved him ever since he was in ‘The Man with X Ray Eyes in Alex Cox’s superlative Moviedrome series in the 90’s that introduced so many incredible films:

http://moviedromer.tumblr.com/

Paths of Glory, now there is a great film, really got a lump in the throat watching that, especially when the lady is singing and you realise the futility of war.

Probably one of the best “modern” war films, and one that is under-rated compared to other Vietnam films in my eyes, is “We were soldiers” with Mel Gibson before he became ones of them there racists (in the words of Father Ted)

but can’t watch the scene near the end when the German soldier stabs the American

was pretty excruciating to watch in the cinema, repeated viewings didn’t depreciate it much either.
Killing people is horrible, who knew?

the start/end in the graveyard (which I always seem to forget about) does feel pretty schmaltzy, asking his family if he was worthy, but then I guess that is the main point of the story, is saving one person worth risking others.

scud

Probably one of the best “modern” war films, and one that is under-rated compared to other Vietnam films in my eyes, is “We were soldiers” with Mel Gibson before he became ones of them there racists (in the words of Father Ted)

Speaking of schmaltzy, overly sentimental cliche ridden films…. I found it genuinely terrible.

I took for family to Normandy in the summer to see some of the D-Day stuff, went to Pegasus Bridge and now hoping this film out next year will be good:

http://pegasusbridgethemovie.com/

and you could say that SPR is loosely based on fact too.

cos, well the D-Day landings deffo took place (not seen them as subject to any conspiracy theories yet) and the Niland brothers existed too.

It’s a film/movie. Of course parts of it are made up but the key thing is the battle scenes. I’ve fortunately never been involved in any but they seem the most realistic and terrifying.

Some lads I knew at uni were film extras in SPR. That bit where a few American soldiers are sorting out the dog tags and some soldiers are walking past looking at them. One of them looks directly at the camera. Him! I knew him! Others were dotted around or in scenes that didn’t make the final edit.

Always thought the scene in BoB where the forest gets mortared for about twenty minutes rivals the opening scene of SPR when they’re in the boats.

Interesting reading about some people not watching the film because of TH being in it. Of the actors of that time, who would’ve been a better lead for SPR?

When it was released one of my friends said an old guy next to him was sobbing during the film. 😥

It was clearly a film that could stir some very real emotions.

Saw it at the cinema when it came out, I walked out a sweaty wreck, Mrs M said I was with them for most of the film. Watched it later on DVD and it wasn’t the same.

doordonot

Interesting reading about some people not watching the film because of TH being in it. Of the actors of that time, who would’ve been a better lead for SPR?

Daniel Day Lewis, Liam Neeson, Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman,Jeff Bridges, Kurt Russell, Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis, Kevin Spacey, Kevin Costner, Laurence Fishbourne, Mel Gibson, Michael Keaton, Nicholas Cage, Ralp Fiennes, Russel Crowe, Sean Penn, Tom Cruise, Willem Dafoe, Woody Harelson, Matthew McConaghey…..and i would happily say you could have gone into lower tier less well known actors too since the film wasn’t a Tom Hanks vehicle and the film’s success or failure is nothing to with him (although I don’t like him and found him to be too old and fat for the role).

Can’t stand Hanks normally, but didn’t mind him in SPR cos it’s one of the few films where he doesn’t try too hard.

As long as it is more ‘Band of Brothers’ than ‘The Pacific’ which was, quite frankly, dull.

The problem with The Pacific is the fighting there was very much a case of one “short” horrendous battle followed by either nothing else (for some soldiers) or a huge gap between that and another battle. I’ve read both the source books of the Pacific and they both have large non-fighty-war parts because, fundamentally, it’s quite the job to set up amphibious assaults.

I’d agree though, it was nowhere near as good as Band of Brothers.

One of the first dates with the woman who is now my wife (possibly the first time we went to the cinema, actually) I took her to see Crash. The Cronenberg film. That was a poor choice too.

Probably one of the best “modern” war films, and one that is under-rated compared to other Vietnam films in my eyes, is “We were soldiers” with Mel Gibson before he became ones of them there racists (in the words of Father Ted)

New Mel Gibson WW2 movie, as director, is supposed to be very good. Hacksaw Ridge.

Jeez. Some of you lot…

You’ll be telling my U-571 is an inaccurate portrayal of the capture of the Enigma next.

DaveyBoyWonder – Member
Jeez. Some of you lot…

You’ll be telling my U-571 is an inaccurate portrayal of the capture of the Enigma next.

POSTED 4 SECONDS AGO # REPORT-POST

Jeesss, everyone knows Jon Bon Jovi won the war for us!