I decided to watch Saving Private Ryan today.

[redwitch]

From the moment he drops to his knees at the American cemetery and starts to weep so did I. A special place in Heaven must surely have filled with those men who landed in the first wave. They were sick and scared, so scared! This opening sequence is absolutely brutal. I’m not sure if I can keep watching although I have seen the film in its entirety when it first came out.

Someday I hope to go to Normandy to pay tribute to the bravest of the brave. I’m grateful for what they did. RIP

Edited to add my gratitude to the veterans on DU.

[Irish_Dem]

1. Excellent movie.

[Beachnutt]

2. When you have time

go on youtube and search for "Voices of History Viet Nam", this guy goes all over the country interviewing veterans who have been in war.
They tell their stories of memories in battle, these men went through hell for this country and trump calls them losers.
Youtube, VOICES OF HISTORY VIETNAM

[Mme. Defarge]

3. Saw it for the first time quite recently.

Absolutely shattering. A much needed antidote to the glamorized accounts of WWII I grew up watching.

[Aristus]

16. There's bad news and good news regarding that bone-rattling scene on Omaha Beach.

That battle actually went on for the entire day and part of the next, instead of the few hours or so depicted on screen.

The good news was that that was as bad as it got. Nobody on any of the five invasion beaches had an easy time of it. But Omaha Beach was the worst.

[senseandsensibility]

4. Hate to admit I've never seen it

I should, but I have a weak constitution for that kind of thing. I know how much we owe those soldiers, and I will pay my respects to them tomorrow.

[elocs]

5. My father was a heavy machine gunner who landed on Omaha Beach on D-day.

I remember watching "The Longest Day", a black & white movie that was a sanitized version of D-Day that was full of male Hollywood stars even though the Germans spoke German with subtitles and the French spoke French. But it wasn't until I saw "Saving Private Ryan" that I fully realized what my father meant when he wrote home to his dad, "You almost had 1 less son that day". I'm surprised as many GIs made it off that beach as did.

My father survived the war although his wounds ended up sending him home in November of '44 but unfortunately the PTSD he suffered did kill him 25 years later in 1970. But since I was the dependent of a 100% disabled veteran, his service sent me through college on the GI Bill.

[redwitch]

9. I don't know how anyone can experience that and remain sane.

They came home and stashed the horrific trauma away as best they could. I don’t know how. I feel damaged just reading about it .One would think that the human race has had enough of war but we keep fighting. Bless you, it can’t have been easy seeing his pain and not being able to do anything about it.

[BigmanPigman]

6. The first 20 minutes is bloodbath.

I cry when I see it, no matter how often.

I visited the cemetery and saw the old caissons still in the ocean. No one on my tour knew what caissons were and how those behemoths went across the channel to create a false harbor. I finally figured it out.
It is called the Mulberry Harbour...incredible engineering!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulberry_harbour

[ok_cpu]

8. I saw it in the theater

with a man behind me who appeared to be of WWII age. He cried out and sobbed the entire landing sequence.

His son was next to him saying "it's ok" the whole time.

[Torchlight]

7. The actor portraying the elderly man at the gravesite who weeps

was for me, an entire semeter's worth of a master class in acting illustrated in about three minutes of screen time. For all the other memorable scenes, his is the defining scene for me as the camera does its last, slow close-up on him before cutting to the invasion.

[Celerity]

10. Saving Private Ryan opening cemetery scene + Omaha Beach Scene [4K HDR]

[WarGamer]

11. Great movie... and the emotion is THOUSANDS of years old.

On a landing craft off the shores of France...

Or on a hot sunny field in a place called Gettysburg as General Pickett was organizing a charge to break the Union line...

Or a Templar Knight outside of Jerusalem...

Or a Roman Centurion at Carthage...

An archer marching with Alexander the Great?

This action of resting a knee, collecting ones thoughts... rubbing your hands together with some dirt and picking up the sword/rifle...

As old as time.

[mitch96]

12. The first time I saw it the scenes just tore me up. My old man was there but he was on a heavy cruiser

Pounding the beaches.
Was he ANTIFA?
YES...
m

[Hotler]

13. Complete Band of brothers airs tomorrow Monday, AMC channel, 9:00AM mountain time. 11:00AM on the East coast

Last edited Sun May 26, 2024, 10:08 PM - Edit history (1)

check your local listing to verify.

[Beachnutt]

14. Watch "We were Soldiers"

Several of the Viet Nam vets say this is the closest to what it was like in the bush.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

17. As a Vietnam vet, I can tell you that is absolutely true.

I visited the Vietnam Wall several years ago and found several of my comrade's names, I broke down crying right then and there as did other vets.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

[Wonder Why]

15. You do need to go visit the Normandy gravesite. Both my wife and I were shocked and saddened when we saw all

the gravesites. It's one thing to see some. It's another to see thousands. Very humbling. My father, uncles and their cousins all served. One uncle was offered a battlefield commission but turned it down because he said he didn't mind dying for our country but he couldn't handle sending other men into battle to die.

The one in Normandy is not even the biggest American war cemetery in Europe.

Even walking through Arlington Cemetery and reading the names on the gravestones is very difficult as is visiting the Wall and seeing all those names. The same is true of the Civil War cemeteries. So many died.

Both my grandfathers served in the early part of the 20th Century.

My older brother was wounded in Vietnam. I just served.

Every time I listen to the song "Where have all the flowers gone?", I think of my visits to military cemeteries. I always stop and read some of the names and try to think what those young soldiers were like.

[Nixie]

18. It wasn't Saving Private Ryan but a documentary I saw that

hit me as hard as you are describing from this movie, so it must have been actual footage.

I haven't seen Saving Private Ryan since it first came out, so I forget the scenes, but this documentary showed the real-life soldiers and the looks on their faces took my breath away. It was soul crushing to see the fear and sadness in their faces as their fate awaited them. The sheer bravery and courage they had to muster deserves every honor that can be bestowed upon them.

We see the Hollywood versions of things, but this footage I saw was just devastating. I agree they have a special place in heaven. A grateful nation will honor them tomorrow.

We have been watching as many military movies and documentaries as we can on this Memorial Day Weekend. Yesterday we went to the Lyon Air Museum in Orange County and saw the bombers there. It's a small place, but rich with the history of the planes there and all the pilots and their sacrifices for this country.

Thanks for posting this thread. I am relating to every word you said and the heavy sentiment behind it.

Here's to all the veterans past, present, and on DU: Thank You for your service.