Posted by TheMojoPin at ip68-100-182-74.nv.nv.cox.net on June 17, 2002 at 02:20:07:
In Reply to: SPR was the TITANIC (the movie) to war... posted by Venessa on June 17, 2002 at 02:08:15:
...very easily...subtract the stuff set in the modern day. Absolutely useless. Start the film with that tight shot on Hanks' eyes as he's in the landing craft. Modify the ending slightly after he dies at the end, but DO NOT STRAY FROM 1944. Lose the Lincoln speech. Lose the Norman Rockwell scene of Ryan's mother finding out about his brothers. Lose Ryan talking to Hanks about he and his brothers back home. This film is about Hanks and his men, not Ryan. Ryan is a plot device. Any attempt to make him a character detracts from the flow and structure of the film. And you'll never, NEVER convince me that after all the bitching the squad did while trying to find Ryan they'd just up and decide to stay and hold the bridge as easily as they did. And even if it was just Sizemore and Hanks deciding, show them ordering the men to stay. No way in hell they'd just up and decide to stay after how pissed they got losing the doctor and The Iron Giant. Still, the first 20 minutes is one of the most stunning things I've seen put to screen, and the sound in a theater is incredible.
And REMEMBER: the German soldier that they set free is NOT the same soldier that shoots Hanks and stabs the Jewish soldier at the end. Trsut me on this. Check the crdits. Sloppy, sloppy casting on Spielberg's part, but a nice touch of "grey" to a film that's far too "black and white" in its depiction of WW2.
-TMP