Exactly. It's tiring seeing some of these experts be like: "oh this is unrealistic because actually the battle would last for two hours instead of 10 minutes, 5/10 for me". I love that this guy gives credit where credit is due, instead of just focusing on all the bad.
I was a student at Missouri S&T. I took probably 4-5 of Dr. McManus' classes. He was the absolute greatest for military history, and one of the best professors I ever had. Great to see you doing well Dr. McManus!
@@78LT383 I'm not sure when he started. It had only been MS&T for a couple of years when I was there. The UMR/MST Humanities department has the claim to fame of having more books and paper published (per professor) than any other university in the Midwest. That fact is because of this guy.
Especially the Crossroads episode and the attack on Foy. Justice for Lieutenant Dyke!! But also would love to see his thoughts on Lieutenant Spiers sprinting through the middle of Foy to connect the attack
A small detail that's my favorite in this film is the medic that gets shot in through his canteen and into his thigh during that D Day scene. The bullet punctures the canteen, water starts leaking, and after a second that water turns red because of the bullet wound. Details like that are just incredible
I’ve always assumed the pistol firing at the tank is more of a psychological thing. Miller knows damn well it isn’t gonna help but at least he can say he went down swingin’, you know?
what this movie does brilliant is showing lots of the people character during action scenes of who they truly are, caparzo compassionate, getting him killed, the doc always concerned for his fellow men, Mike keep on fighting even after hit. and this the same for miller, he will keep on the fight till his dying breath as the movie sets up well how he has a devoted sense of duty. that is also why we care and feel sad when they die, they are very well fleshed out characters
I wonder if he was really aiming at the tank driver. Otherwise it would have been a one in a million chance that the bullets would hit a shell in the tank and disable it.
@@kd5you1 the tank driver? there is glass (a visor) no bullets would go through there :-) Edit: (answer to "stealthmodeon") so...in the year 2024 you decided it's a good idea to post a comment without first using the internet to make sure you are correct? hahahahahahahaha dude...there are pictures of the glass that you can find online...just google it ;-) and that earlier scene is OBVIOUSLY not historically accurate...I remember watching the movie for the first time and laughing at the Tiger's inaccuracy (especially it's road wheels)
@@vasopel Nope - No glass, just a vision slit, Tank drivers at the time were close to blind and had to rely on the commanders instructions. That's why tanks driver seats have two positions "Heads up", with the drivers head above the armor, and "buttoned up" with head inside. The vision port itself had two positions - "Open" you get a window about 20cm x 10cm and a "Combat" position about 10cm x 3cm. Earlier in the scene when they disable the first Tiger, Miller shoves his Tommy gun in the slit and blazes away, the ricocheting bullet fragments would be devistating to the crew.
@@Stealthmodeon so..in the year 2024 you decided it's a good idea to post a comment without first using the internet to make sure you are correct? hahahahahahahaha dude...there are pictures of the glass that you can find online...just google it ;-) and that earlier scene is OBVIOUSLY not historically accurate...I remember watching the movie for the first time and laughing at the Tiger's inaccuracy (especially it's road wheels)
My father, a combat vet in Europe, said it was the most realistic war movie he had ever seen. He said you could hear a German tank coming for miles like in this movie, but it was the squeaking of the treads, rather than the roaring/engine sounds. He also said EVERY town was on fire, and the sky was full of smoke and dust and visibility was always very poor. But he said he understood that a movie wouldn't be very good if you couldn't see anything. He said they knocked down every structure like a tower or church that snipers or observers could use before they entered a town. He experienced horrendous things.
@RedrUffinsore - Re: "My father, a combat vet in Europe, said it was the most realistic war movie he had ever seen. He said you could hear a German tank coming for miles like in this movie, but it was the squeaking of the treads" The film gets that historical technical detail correct, which is to their credit. It takes place when Capt. Miller and his men are awaiting the approaching German force, and you hear the tanks as a Panther is silhouetted against the sky. The screeching sound was caused by the lack of ball bearings (or using worn-out ones) in the engine and drive train of those tanks. The Allied air campaign had crippled production of sufficient numbers of these bearings, and the ones that were made often took months to reach units needing them due to air attacks, partisans, railway delays, etc. The tracks also made a lot of noise. Approaching Anglo-American-Canadian forces were fired upon so often from church steeples and bell towers in every little French town, village and city that it was soon SOP to take them under fire preemptively. It destroyed a great many architectural marvels and irreplaceable works of art, sad to say. Later in the war, in German proper, it was so dangerous to be in the open that the U.S. took to clearing structures one-by-one from the inside. Meaning that the GIs would blast a hole in the side of the building at the end of the block, clear it, and repeat the same thing one structure after another, down the block. Minimizing the amount of time the men spent in the open. SOP very late was that if a German village put out a white flag and the approaching GIs didn't take fire, they would not destroy the town. But if the residents opened up on the advancing force, all bets were off and the GIs would blast the place and anything that moved.
I worked at a movie theater when this movie came out and we had WWII veterans come out of the auditorium shaking. We took up a policy of getting these guys whatever they needed. A little bit of soda, some popcorn, or candy. They all said that this opening scene was as close to the real thing that they had ever experienced. Some were able to go back in to finish the movie. Some got refunds or readmissions for another movie if they just couldn’t handle it.
When my dad saw this movie, he was shaken. He said several times 'Why do they have to make it so realistic?" One point he made was the beach shot where the M1 had a plastic sheath. Dad said that was real, but that the plastic was orange.
I always interpreted Captain Miller firing his sidearm at the tank as a last-ditch effort when he assumes he's going to die, either from the gunshot wound itself (which is what happens) or from the tank coming at him.
I knew a guy who held a airstrip on a pacific island on his own as everyone else was dead for a entire night, he literally had a machine gun a pistol and a rifle and ran out of ammo in the middle of the night but had killed so many Japanese that they left him alone and stopped suicidally charging his position like 150 dead at least and his uniform had so many shrapnel holes in it from grenades and etc that it looked like swiss cheese and none of them actually injured him. Total legend and second luckiest guy I know of. First is another family friend who went on the most bomber missions of anyone in ww2, survived multiple incidents of getting shot down and the plane bringing him back from Europe crashed on arrival and he survived and walked away from that. He had literal 9 lives. Best part of it is that he joined the canadian special forces before the United states joined the war, and went on the Sub Pen Raid that got nearly everyone that went on it killed and then ended up coming across the border back into the US when the US joined the war and going into the airforce.
@@pilsplease7561 I think he means to reference that the stories you've alluded to above would really add credibility if you added the names of those awesome individuals. From what you've described, it sounds like you know some pretty famous vets and heroes who most likely have told these stories and had them published so names would go a long way for those interested in doing some research! Have a nice day :)
I like his critique. What impacted my wife and I most was sitting on a bench outside the theatre for the next showing and seeing all these grown elderly men exiting the theatre with tears in their eyes...because this movie more than any other captured the trauma of their war.
MG-42 teams coordinated their bursts in order to discharge a constant stream of fire. When one paused, the other gunner would fire. So, to the Americans it did sound like a constant stream of fire. Spielberg should've shown that coordination with the tracers
mg-42 gunners were told to save ammo and fire short bursts. the damn thing was an ammo dispenser... unnecessary fast rate of fire that lead to ammo wastage. An experienced gunner would fire short burst for accuracy as well.
The way a soldier is taught to fire an mg42 and the reality of a scared, pent-up adrenaline filled solider actually firing the weapon during D-Day are two completely separate things. This is not beyond the realms of possibility!
@@killercrabman The barrel would have overheated fast which would have been a good narrative element to show the defenders panicking with a rookie mistake since many of the soldiers here were not the elite trained of the Wehrmacht or SS.
25:25 The scene of the captain shooting at a tank is actually taken from a german/russian encounter where a russian soldier's position was being overrun and he calmly proceeded to shoot at the tank pressing his position with a pistol. It was then promptly bombed by a plane and the attack broken up. He became a bit of celebrity in Russia as an object of defiance. There's another somewhat similar US Medal of Honor winner named Henry F Warner who used his pistol to kill the commander of a tank, forcing it to retreat, after his anti-tank gun jammed. I think either of these could have been the source of the scene of shooting the tank with their pistol in defiance.
It's also a homage to Spielberg's first classic Jaws where Chief Brody shoots at the approaching 'monster' then it blows up. The exact same number of shots are fired.
Shooting the pistol at the tank while you lay dying isn’t a cheap hollywoodism at all imo. Completely in character and realistic for a guy who was prepared for the end and ready to go out with his weapon in hand
Two old guys got up and left during the beach scene when I saw this. They were old enough to be WW2 vets. The scene really got to me as my Grandfather was at Omaha Beach. He even went back and helped build the memorial. He didn't talk about the time much, but we watched a lot of war movies.
My grandfather was a WW2 vet (artilleryman with the US 5th Army) and he passed well before this movie came out, but I always remember a quote from him watching WW2 movies on TV. He said, "it's not like that, with all these heroes and all that. It's just a bunch of young guys, and they're scared and don't wanna die." My father said he never really talked about the stuff he saw much, but he certainly had PTSD. He was the lone survivor of his gun blowing up and taking out his artillery team, and after he died, they found a news clipping that had a headline like "5th Army sees 365th day of straight combat at Anzio". A full year of nonstop death and trauma...I don't believe he could ever reconcile what he had to do to other people in that war for the rest of his life
By Far the best Historian to come on the Channel understanding the Hollywood Parts of movie and not judging every piece of the film, Bring him back for more Movies!!
I've tuned into these since they started and never thought I'd see a friend in one! John is hands down one of the most knowledgeable, passionate, humble and kindest folks around.
He is extremely positive and forgiving here which is kinda refreshing. He still fairly points out that a lot of things don’t make sense but he is all about the vibes and atmosphere and this is where the movie really succeeds
One of my favorite things about Saving Private Ryan is the cinematography. The film is shot like a documentary, which adds to the realism. The cinematographer, Janusz Kamiński, is a wizard. His work on Schindler's List is amazing, too.
I distinctly remember the first time I saw Saving Private Ryan, and how I was weeping openly during the Omaha Beach scene. It's so visceral, so brutal, so much like how intense combat really is. SPR caught the reality of that day in a way that earlier films didn't, and it changed how later war movies were made.
The trailers didn’t even hint at how brutal the combat scenes were. We had no idea what we were in for. I was working in a movie theater and we watched a private screening the night before it was released. We all had our jaws dropped at the Omaha Beach scene. Nobody made a sound.
My grandfather who was there had to walk out of the cinema it affected him so deeply. He would only say that it was too close for him to relive the way it was portrayed
even being brutal and "visceral".... its not even 1% of what really happened..... taking some beaches took like 6 hours. 6 hours of germans fighting back, thousands of americans, canadians, british died. in saving private ryan the fight was like 8 minutes???? this is why war movies will never be realistic.......... they cant show reality at it was.
I absolutely HATE when people call Upham a coward. He's *meant* to not be a warrior. He's a geeky translator from the typing pool. He's never seen combat. He hasn't had the chance to be toughened by repeated combat experiences, like all the others in the search/rescue party sent after Private Ryan. And "freeze" is as much a response as "fight" or "flight". I thought it was brave of the writers to include such a scene, because it's very human and very realistic. This 100% would have happened in every war throughout history. Either a rookie, or a veteran pushed over their limit, and they just....can't.
He is not a grunt. That was made very clear. He is not hard. He is not experienced and suddenly, he is tossed into a firestorm. Yeah, he froze. Most would, no matter they tell themselves
I absolutely loved the pistol tank scene, the man knew he was gonna die and he refused to quit fighting no matter how pointless it was firing a gun at a tank he just refused to give up.
It's also a homage to Spielberg's first classic Jaws where Chief Brody shoots at the approaching 'monster' then it blows up. The exact same number of shots are fired.
One of the great things about this movie is even where there are little strict inaccuracies for the most part they serve to enhance and increase the emotional and thematic accuracy of the scene. In other words no you couldn’t shoot a machine gun like that, but it certainly conveys accurately how intensely under a cone of fire the troops were. Incredible. A film worthy of portraying what those heroes did.
He also fully accepted he was going to die there. Why not draw the tanks attention, if anything? I'd imagine myself in that position (if not frozen from fear) to do the same like "well I may as well go out swinging." It can come off as some glorious last stand but I think it just speaks to the obligation he felt as a captain and a soldier.
@@littlesmallworld123 Kind of reminds me of the scene in the movie Patton where Patton shoots at the German fighter with his revolver. Unlikely to bring it down and I doubt the real Patton would have done it (also not sure it was fictious or real) but I felt it showed the type of person Patton was in terms of a soldier.
@@SEAZNDragon Might've been based on Owen J. Baggett, who allegedly shot down a Japanese plane by hitting the pilot with his sidearm. They were shooting the bomber's crew who bailed out and Bagget played dead until a KI-43 flew close to make sure. Japanese wartime records claim no planes were lost that day. So unfortunately, we don't know if the pilot crashed, recovered and returned to base, or the whole story is made up.
@@SEAZNDragonapparently, a German bomber raid actually happened just as Patton was talking to others about not having air cover. And he got mad. There were a bunch of witnesses, but the movie cut a lot of what he said afterwards for very good reason
There is a scene in this movie during the end battle where the Sergeant ends up trying to shoot a German with his pistol and ends up throwing his helmet at him, and when i asked my dad about it, he told me a story that his dad had told him about pretty much the same thing happening, except that he and the German had ended up basically going to fists, and by some event or another they ended up getting separated. Fast-forward to when my dad was stationed in Germany during the Cold War. He had granddad visit and they immediately went to get a beer. At that bar, granddad saw the guy he'd been fighting, who also recognized him. They ended up drinking and crying together and were good friends until one of them passed away. One of the crazy things about this is that my granddad was in a ton of combat during that war and fought in Korea afterward, and as you'd imagine he took a lot of lives and was in hand-to-hand combat a number of times, so instantly recognizing that one German guy at the bar, tells me that either that specific memory was important to him, or that he probably remembered a ton of people he'd fought against and maybe killed. Either way, that's just one example of the weight that soldiers carry around in their minds.
Czech Native speaker here. The line Czech soldiers say at Omaha beach is Please do not shoot, I haven´t killed anyone. The inclusion of non German citizens in the lesser guarded areas of German territory(Like whole Normandy coast line thanks to Enigma breakers, huge gaslighting operations from west and Hitler innate and drug fueled paranoia, also leading him to believe that D day is a ruse, and that real invasion will begin later, somewhere up the French coastline closer to Calais) was a casual procedure, to preserve the better trained and armed core armies of third Reich to the more strategically important fronts, like the eastern one for example I believe in that time. Also the symptom of a dumb German may be super far fetched in modern media and stretched to the insanely goofy levels, possibly due to political and social engineering reasons, but the abundance of stimulant drugs Germany was fueled by officially since 1938, but possibly from the beginning of the 30s and maybe even before(methamphetamine was firstly synthesized in 1913 in Japan), which Germany suddenly lost access to due to shortage of resources, and the need to funnel them into the war effort through conventional means to at least sustain the momentary state of war(a problem which maybe also led to German downfall on the periphery of Moscow) may have left most of German troops in semi limbo state, after years of very aggressive, P2P pure efedrine based stimulants abuse, after shift lasting days even weeks, having a destructive impact on the problem solving, spatial awareness, improvisation or even basic decision making skills. A wild assumption indeed, but one that is based on very few semi believable confessions of German and Finnish troops, and sightings from todays world also.
That`s so cool. I was always wondering what are they trying to explain. Same as what is that german saying trying to kill jewish guy with a knife, it was always chilling to see and hear him talking
The German use of combat drugs has been *vastly* overstated in recent popular history The Germans issued amphetamines in very limited numbers, primarily to rear line troops (you do *not* want to be on a come-down on the front lines), and was basically gone entirely after the initial French campaign. The German army wasn't storming around on meth, they just weren't. Interestingly though, many paratroopers on D-Day *would* have been. Paratroopers were issued amphetamine pills to keep them going through an extra day or two, where they would be relieved and sit out their crash behind friendly lines.
Those are excellent points you're making. Germany was fueled by meth for sure, and I can't imagine the withdrawals - especially in that insane situation. Also your point about Nazis focusing their main soldiers and commanders is true as well. I enjoyed this video, but like you I was surprised he didn't know about these facts. ✌️❤️🇨🇦
@@rednek666UGH! The scene where Mellish is stabbed by the German is absolutely horrific for me; and that's saying something in a movie filled with so much horror.
The reality was that the Germans were not particularly strong in beach defense, nor well trained. What they did have was their strongest heavy tank divisions guarding a front a 10x smaller than that found in Russia. They were confident that their tanks could contain any beach-head. People forget that Operation Badgration started 3 weeks later, and was lined up against a German army stretched over 1000 miles without their best tank divisions, as these were in the west. Over the next two months the war quickly went from defeating the Germans to saving Europe from the communists.
It must be mentioned that the Omaha Beach landing scenes showed NO ships in the background, in the Channel. A number of Navy ship captains saw what was happening on the beach, and took their vessels dangerously close to the shore in order to provide fire support for the Infantry.
My grandfather was 82nd Airborne. He was in DDay and Battle of the Bulge. 2 purple hearts among a few of his medals were received in those 2 battles. (Hand grenade shrapnel and frostbite, respectively)
Great to hear, my great grandfather was in the 101st, 1st btn 506th PIR, also there on DDay, wounded in market garden, made it back for Bastogne and the wars end. Currahee and Geronimo!
@@johanpersson6288 Paul Albert Flachbart, Able Company 506th PIR. There is a brief article on him that a local radio show did with my dad years ago but that’s about all u will find on him information wise. Sadly he never spoke of his experiences, not that he didn’t want to we just don’t think anyone bothered to ask. He did a few interviews for TV back in the 80s and 90s and also some newspaper interviews too. He was wounded attacking Germany 88s on the wilhelhemina canal on Sep 17 1944 outside Son. He caught a load of tree burst in the legs but survived. That’s the only story we really have of him during the war
Capt Miller did not have acoustic trauma during the ending scene. He was shot. My issue I had with that scene was that the planes were as likely to shoot Capt Miller when they started firing on that tank. Accuracy in those planes wasn't that great, where they could've pin pointed that tank with Miller only 30 yards away.
One thing is the Captain’s bars on his helmet would have been removed or covered somehow to avoid being picked off. Famously, Dick Winters used a M-1 in part to avoid being the target of German shooters.
@@your_royal_highness My granddad was in the pacific front and absolutely hated the carbine. Pretty much for that reason, because when a suicidal japanese soldier is charging you, you want him to drop when shot.
I think that's likely so we could identify Miller easily. Patton insisted his officers not cover their rank (he said officers should risk more than the enlisted men), but not many people listened to him.
Captain Miller is just fighting to the bitter end. And as someone else mentioned, it demonstrates the futility of the entire situation. I love that part.
It's a homage to Spielberg's first classic Jaws where Chief Brody shoots at the approaching 'monster' then it blows up. The exact same number of shots are fired.
Just wait, one day we'll be watching trans people rushing the beaches and females black lesbians in command, they'll call it " saving private Ryan from his white privilege"
It's kind of a remake itself. After the first half hour it turns into Kelly's Heroes. Instead of gold they search for Ryan. It even has the ending in a small town fighting Tiger tanks. The only difference is that SPR has mediocre characters and script.
I served in the Canadian forces, I was told to scratch my name, service number, and blood type inside my helmet. Mostly because if you take a direct hit from an arty round, the helmet is the only thing that will, likely, survive. That way they can identify the puddle of goop that used to be a soldier
😳 Yikes. My dad was in the U.S Army for over 22 years, and I myself am about to join the Air Force. I'm nervous and scared for sure, but also simultaneously excited to see what will happen! I want to do something that is risky and a bit dangerous because it just appeals to me, and I want to do something that not many are willing to do.
17:50 is not a dumb german moment. The half-track is taking rounds from it's left flank, so the first couple germans dismount and go to the right flank, putting the half-track between them and where they are taking fire. Then they get hit by Miller's squad who was hidden in the grass. No more infantry dismount to the right after that and their only other option was the left flank, hence why Miller says "take their left flank". They tried to dismount and put cover between them and where they were taking fire, there just wasn't any direction that was safe for them.
100% agree. I dont think i agree with any of the “dumb german” moments he said. Like in the pillbox when the people ran out after a grenade was thrown in its gonna be there natural instinct to run away from it they know the grenade is gonna win that battle and they wouldnt of had time to think about who was outside so they just ran. A probably wouldve done the same.
The whole point of the pistol-tank scene is about not giving up even with zero odds. It's a beautiful scene no matter how much harm Captain Miller might actually do.
The interesting thing about Jackson's M1 thumb, is that later on in the movie when they assault the radar position, Upham gives his M1 to Jackson in exchange for his Springfield, indicating that Jackson is proficient in the use of an M1 for close combat assault maneuverers, as well as long distance sniping. This probably isn't 'common' for snipers who would be designated into teams (indeed, snipers operated in a pair and Jackson doesn't have a spotter) but for a Ranger combat unit, who were considered elite, it's reasonable to assume Jackson is proficient in both weapons/roles.
Jackson would have been trained to use a Garand during boot camp, and with the Springfield being his primary weapon might be more likely to get M1 Thumb than people who use the rifle daily. Not sure how the host missed this.
Giving what he said this is the best and most impactful movie of all time. This movie sparked the veterans affairs association to set up a hotline for veterans with PTSD to talk to somebody after watching this movie. This movie was so moving that it affected the lives of many people. Hats off to one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. We salute you Mr. Steven Spielberg.
i watched this movie in theatre in South Korea when i was in active duty Army, and it gave me PTSD nearly from watching it. Knowing that could have been me in a different time in history. I am and always will be grateful to those who served before me!
I'm going to take issue with John's non acceptance of Captain Miller shooting his pistol at the Tiger. In the context of the scene; he's concussed, the battle has turned against them, they're loosing the Alamo, he's been shot twice at this point, and Sergeant Horvath has just died in front of him. That is a lot to cope with and he knows it's over. What else are you to do? I think it's a great moment of the strength of his character. Also, I believe the battle of Ramelle is the cookie the movie, Spielberg, and the audience deserve after making a movie this accurate, this atmospheric, and mostly restrained up to this point. Not jumping the shark immediately after the Omaha opening.
I saw this in the theater when first came out , and when Ryan was walking to find Millers head stone and just breaks down crying. Yes we had no idea that it was him , but his remembering Miller and his promise he made to him. Just the reaction of seeing Miller's stone brought on a flashback of that time in June of 1944.
Something I first noticed while visiting London many years ago in May: the sky. That's the exact battleground of the Battle of Britain. May 1940. Azure blue. Later in Normandy, driving along trying to get a glimpse of Mont St Michel in the distance I caught a glimpse of red. I stopped at the next bit of red. Poppies. The First World War. Of course not fought there, but poppies, in France... And of course we were in Normandy only May but close enough; so the fields, the brush, the leaves, the weather. Seeing Utah Beach at low tide? All that sand? Flat. No cover. So the weather, the plants, the sky, the water, are all near permanent aspects of battlefields.
Indeed, and anyone who has ever flown into Gatwick Airport from the continent and the plane does some circling getting into the queue to land is flying through the exact sky where the largest air to air battle in history occurred.
Weirdly, one thing I immediately found off-putting were haircuts on German soldiers. Spielberg decided to portray them all as 80s skinheads, as if that was some sort of standard cut in the German military. That was simply not the case. German soldiers would have all been sporting conventional 1940s haircuts, similar to Reiben's. A superficial point, but I found the plethora of skinheads a little annoying. Kinda constant reminder you were not watching a documentary of the time, but a modern movie.
Don't make too much of the very short haircuts shown in the film. Whereas it is true that some German troops captured at Normandy had quite long hair, others wore theirs in a typical military buzzcut. Often this was by choice, i.e., long hair is hot under headgear, and also can attract insects. It can also become entangled in machinery and grabbed by an enemy soldier in hand-to-hand combat. And many commanding officers of theirs, just as on the Allied side, insisted on a spit-and-polish image even in troops headed into battle. And getting one's hair cur very short meant that you didn't have to concern yourself with styling it for a long time; one less thing to bother with while out in the field. Having said all that, do you know for a fact that Spielberg decided positively to portray them that way? I haven't heard of that or read it, myself....
I like to think that Jackson got Garand thumb from training for the invasion, since he usually uses the Springfield he'd be less experienced with an M1. In reality, Barry Pepper just got it during their actor boot camp and they just filmed him with it.
He was mistaken here. The D-Day lands had several waves and this was the first wave. The first wave did not get beyond the beach. The tanks involved in the first wave did not make it or they were destroyed immediately. Again there were several waves that were needed to get off the beach. The landing on Omaha beech took several hours.
Also there was a backlog of soldiers on the beach and if I recall correctly there was talk of halting the landings as the beach was overcrowded with soldiers. Also I think it was around midday that the soldiers finally got off the beach.
Many tanks made it on the beach and were not destroyed, but they were in a similar situation as the rest of the first wave, with serious losses, at the wrong location, and disorganized. The 743rd battalion landed fairly intact, and was able to secure the immediate vicinity of its units, but couldn't actually leave the beach because there were anti-tank barriers blocking the draws and losses among the combat engineers meant they couldn't be removed. The landings took the whole day basically, though there were different levels of danger for the soldiers. At some locations, the infantry were able to clear and scale the bluffs soon after the arrival of the second wave. At others, the defences were cleared but the exits were blocked and progress was blocked and the landing troops were left to suffer from artillery bombardment. At some others, the survivors of the first wave were left under direct and indirect fire from intact defences all day.
@@tomnewham1269 The backlog was mainly because engineers were only able to overcome underwater obstacles in a few areas leading to the landing zones making a long traffic jam in the choppy waters as landing craft tried to move from the transports to the beach and back. Part of the discussion of whether to halt the landings was because 5 hours into the assault the Americans were still stuck on Omaha beach due to the intelligence and logistic failures that were turning Omaha into a meat-grinder. My one complaint about how the movie depicts Omaha beach is that it fails to show the last ditch effort to avoid the Allies abandoning the assault on Omaha of the naval bombardment ships coming as close to shore as possible to provide direct artillery fire to help overcome the heavy fortifications that had been pinning the Americans down. As big and as important a role D-Day played in WW2 it gets forgotten that aside from landing on the 5 beaches none of the other 1st day landing goals were attained due to the resistance on terrain that heavily favored the defenders. In fact originally the Normandy landings were to be aided by a second landing on the southern side of France but it was delayed due to personal and logistical losses so by the time it finally occurred in August the Allies had broken the 6 week stalemate in Normandy and the Germans were already pulling back to the western side of the country.
All of "Hobart's Funnies" modified tanks made it further at the other beach head landing sights. Omaha just ended up being such a shite show. Percy Hobart had very few issues where he was at with his tanks.
Honestly - the final act of defiance, where you have nothing left but your pistol against a tank - firing at it as your last act - it fits the character. He has nothing else to loose, so may aswell.
Well, when actual WW2 veterans say it is too realistic, it's nice to hear an "expert" who doesn't argue with them or diminish their feelings and memories.
One of the three medics, on the left, while working on the guy on the beach getting shot in the hip then proceeding to bandage himself up I think was one of the coolest subtle additions to a scene, felt that helped showed no one was safe.
Saw that movie about 20 times and noticed it about 2 years ago. At the first viewing I was also sure that the steamboat willie kills melish, and much later noticed that those are two diffrent actors (willie kills hanks, some completely other guy spares upham). This movie so well thought out that almost every scene is a closed story about terrors of war.
I was just on Omaha Beach at the cemetery for the 80th anniversary this past June. I spent the week working my way along Omaha and Utah Beach as well Carentan, Sainte-Mère-Église, Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, Brecourt Manor and all points in between. As amazing as this movie is and Band of Brothers is, nothing can match the experience of walking the actual locations and seeing what our greatest generation fought through and endured on The Day of Days.
I was very surprised how different Omaha beach looked in real life and kinda surprised he didn’t address it. Great movie and probably quite authentic but the real battlefield was so much larger and more complex (but the battle also took hours and the movie couldn’t just focus on one battle)
This movie got as close as possible to how combat feels. I'm a combat vet & you dont know how it feels until you go through it. Movies & video games can't replicate it because they can't make you feel anger, fear & doubt hitting you all at once. Sometimes you can actually feel peaceful while getting shot at. And sometimes you have the dumbest thoughts possible.
Prof M’s Normandy books - as with all his work - are must reads. The depth of his research and the ‘readability’ of his books are superb. And his recurring visits to the ‘We Have Ways’ podcast is definitely worth your time.
I also love the detail- from the crashed glider scene, the D-day +3 scene and the barrage balloons, pouring the plain black coffee... totally 1944. Also- the Upham on the stairs scene- notice how Steamboat Willie's face is also in shock as he comes down. He is seriously affected too. Two years ago I finally went to Normandy to sightsee these places. The fact that there are so many living museums and ruins still there is amazing. It brought tears to my eyes. If you haven't been, you should go.
Steamboat Willie isn't the German soldier that walks past Upham on the stairs. I used to think he was too because they look pretty similar and was surprised when I realised he wasn't... after watching it for about the 20th time 😆
Very valid and honest review. Saving Private Ryan is one of only three movies I paid to see 5 times in the theaters, 5 being most! That's how awesome it is!
Yeah, there are a ton of mistakes and twists in this show that are done for the sake of drama. But despite that, I really like BOB, especially episodes 5, 7, and 8.
Dr.McManus was my professor in college! Super nice man and extremely knowledgeable of Us Army History. He was just as passionate and enthusiastic instructing as it is displayed in the video. I enjoyed every second of his classes!
9:00 all the actors in the movie (except Matt Damon) basically went to bootcamp together (and presumably trained with the weapons), so the actor probably had actual Garand Thumb!
The thing II always notice about the P-51 tankbusters in that scene is where is the armament to take out a tank on the planes? There were no rocket tubes on the wings.
Good observation. That scene has always bugged me too. Before SPV I'd never heard Mustangs called "tank busters" and there's no way the '51 could blow up a tank in that manner. 51's could only strafe tanks with its six .50 cals, (or drop a fuel tank) but if that happened in the movie Capt. Miller would've been swiss cheese. The P-47 Thunderbolt was more suited with eight .50 cals & *5-inch rockets* but mostly, German tanks were killed by artillery.
@crashburn3292 part of that reason may have been the lack of airworthy P-47s, especially available in the UK at the time. The Old Flying Machine Company did that scene I believe, likely flown by one or both of Mark and Ray Hanna. It certainly looked like their flying, they were absolutely amazing at proper low level displays that are still breathtaking to watch 25+ years later. I don't know what the team flew at the time, but likely a P-51, Spitfire, and the HA-1112 that Mark later died flying. So the Mustang was likely the only available sort-of-suitable American aircraft.
It is poetic license with a little glorious last stand cliche but I think we give it a pass because Miller still succumbs to his wounds albeit offscreen which motivates the entire rest of Ryan's life.
@@DayTheBanksCollapse So, you don't know for sure whether it was Ray and Mark Hanna flying as stunt pilots in the movie, (which can be learned with a quick Google search) but you believe it was "likely" one or both of them, based on the 2 seconds the planes were shown flying in the movie. Wow.
@@erakfishfishfish which is how it should be used, but it has gotten better over the years and can be done right if the effects house has the time and money both of which can be in short supply at times so they are forced to rush things out that look good but not WOW
Most of us, when we're watching a movie, do it for the story, not to watch frame by frame and try to pick apart the effects. Much more entertaining that way.
@@erakfishfishfish That's a good point. I break immersion from a movie when they use it too much. You'd think CGI would have advanced more but it still looks like a cartoon to me.
I think the biggest miss on the final battle is the idea that air cover couldve had an impact outside of moral, we know it took roughly 10 aircraft to destroy one tank, and in that close of quarters they had just as good a chance of killing friendlies
I think the scholarship at that time was pretty limited on aircraft kills of tanks...all armies were very bad documenting kills, especially on tanks, especially from an aircraft going 500 miles an hour. A lot of scholarship just trusted battle reports and it was conceivable, specially because modern equipment certain was able to destroy tanks from many kms. Only recently has the narrative changed. But there are so many inaccuracies in favor of story and entertainment that who knows.
@@notiowegian that's a very real possibility, this movie came out in what? '98 and I hadn't found research showing how poor aircraft were against tanks or most vehicles until a handful of years ago 🤷
the on scene in the movie to me that should have gotten Hanks the Oscar is is breakdown scene after the medic is killed. How it comes upon him, how he can't control initially, then how he gathers himself. a master class in acting.
Yep. Completely agree ! I mean it's Miller's story. Everyone else is an incidental character, yet he reveals so little of himself because he's trying to keep all these unruly, scared kids in line while on a fools errand !
I had a teacher in high school. Whose father was a WWII sniper and she told us he said this was the only movie that did WWII justice and captured what they went through.
One thing the people have often wondered, and I myself did in the past is why does media always seem to focus on Omaha Beach when there were four other beaches that also were having operations taken place on them. And the simple answer is that Omaha was the one beach out of the five where just about everything went wrong. Now, then, of course, doesn’t mean that the other beaches had zero difficulty. It’s just that Omaha was the one where pretty much every part of the intricate planning didn’t really pan out. Like he mentioned the majority of the armor you know didn’t make it a sure, but a few of them obviously did. And the number of other things. One thing, though that I’m surprised he didn’t mention was the fact that the Rangers were in regular Higgins boats. If I remember correctly, and I could be wrong, but if I remember correctly, the Rangers were actually in basically the British equivalent of the Higgins boats because they were originally meant to assist the other Rangers in the operation to capture Point Du Hoc. But after word wasn’t sent that the initial landing, Rangers needed the back up. The men were then diverted to the actual beach. Now again, I could be wrong, but I know for a fact that the second Rangers did have that mission.
Also, three beaches had Brits and Canadians, so the two American beaches get Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, although there could still be more Utah Beach stuff with 4th Infantry and so on. maybe someday we'll get a good Juno Beach movie.
It is a real shame that no one - here in the 'States or in the U.K. - has done a "British 'Saving Private Ryan'" - because the stories of the men at Sword, Gold and Juno Beaches are just as compelling and deserving of being remembered as what happened at Utah and Omaha Beaches. The story of Omaha Beach was told because it went wrong in so many ways, but also simply because the film was an American film, intended for an American audience. The production might not have been green-lighted and funded in the first place, if it had been about one of the British-Canadian beaches. Sad but that is how Hollywood works. But having said that, I wish someone would make a film honoring the men of the other four landings, one American and three British-CW.
I'm so grateful to have seen this movie when I was a young teenager. It showed me the "realism" of weapons I never really knew at hte time. Especially grenades. Being a teen in the 90's, I had no idea grenades exploded that way. I always thought they were big fireballs of explosions. Same with artillery fire and a lot of the weapons in WW2. This movie is aging like a fine wine, and it was a catalyst for many movies, even games, to try "get it right". Even 20+ years later, the movie still feels gritty, still hits the emotions when certain members of the unit fall, and still captures how it probably really was to be in the middle of these combat situations.
I think the reason why the Germans in the armoured vehicle at 20:38 didn't jump out but hunkered down was to conceal the fact that they were wearing fire-resistant material which also covered their faces. If you look at the scene where they jump out of the vehicle once they've been set alight you can actually see the fire-resistant masks they have on.
this is one of those movies/video where viewers will go on to something else if you're not rating every scene 9 or higher how popular is that guy rating Tombstone a solid 6
I saw this movie in theaters back in 1998 and I remember the part where Upham let's the guy go down the stairs, somebody in the front row yelled out "Shoot him a$$hole!" Nobody laughed but it was obvious to me how impactful that part was because of the reaction of somebody who was willing to voice his opinion during the film.
I have no military experience and my father was not a veteran, so I was really impressed with how a scene of raw combat was presented. I was old enough to have seen the 1960s movie, the Longest Day and that one looked like a walk in the park.
As a tank nerd, the thing that got me the most was the T34/85 tank that was 'dressed up' as a Tiger Tank. I remember seeing it for the first time and thinking, "That isn't a Tiger! Why doesn't it have interwoven wheels?" A dead giveaway if you're into tanks as much as I am. But I get it, there is only 1 operational Tiger Tank left in the world and its a museum piece. I don't think the guys at the tank museum, Bovington UK would appreciate the punishment it would take being on set. If you munch its gear box, its game over for filming and possibly for the tank ever running again!
And how they are broken within minutes, not an entire day as was the case...and how German defenses were this thick because the US Navy's initial bombardment was off target.
@steveablet4041 The failure of the bombardment is not a small detail (but it is one which shows the US War machine in a bad light), and it is easy to display the passage of time without making the movie progress in real time.
Im really glad this man is overall postive about the accuracy of Saving Private Ryan and that he always looks to the story or reality behind something if it isnt interally accurate or not happening during that time or scene. I always loved history with ww2 as my favourite chapter and with so many movies, books and documentaries, Saving Private Ryan is my favourite movie of all time (BoB close second). When he started about Ramelle i kept the reviews of Nicholas Moran (Tank expert episode) in my mind like; Back Scratching from the 20 mm, the blindness of the tank crews during battle and what could have bin possible to use for a movie to make a movie more realistic. Example; i personally would be fine with if they used German Panzers like a Panzer lV or maybe a Panther tank because they were more common to encounter on the battlefields of Normandy because they were in higher numbers than the Tiger, but as Nicholas said; A Tiger is totally fine for a movie and on the other hand, it also tells about the status of the Tiger and how much it was feared by the allies because it was still hard to kill by armor and armament. I hope to see more of this. Excellent work!
Really fascinating and informative. I saw the film in the theater and back then, there wasn't much pre-release hype. I didn't know what to expect. The opening invasion scene was one of the most intense experiences I've ever had in a movie theater. One element that wasn't mentioned in the review was the sounds. From the bullets whizzing by to the tanks and other vehicles, the exceptional sound made it all the more real. I've wondered how accurate it was. For example: the difference in the .30cal vs. the MG42 Really seemed accurate. Certainly, the historical accuracy is important so we can properly honor the brave heros of this particular battle and help our youngsters stay interested in learning about how they are free today so we never forget the sacrifice of thousands. Thanks for a great video.
Any police procedural shows this fallacy, when they test the bullet striations of a firearm by aiming it into a tub of water. If the bullet traveled like this, it would come out the other side.
Working as a journalist in the UK at the time, my newspaper took a handful of elderly gentlemen, who had fought on D-Day more than 50 years earlier, to see the new film when it was released. Afterwards, they all agreed the first 10 minutes were by far the most realistic movie interpretation of 'action' they'd seen.
As for the guys getting hit when they are pretty deep in the water, I don't buy it. Myth busters did an episode where they fired various rounds into water with high speed cameras and even .50 cal didn't go far before it was really slowed down and broken up. I'm talking maybe three feet, and it's done. I agree with you on the taking of the machine gun at the defunct radar station. Use the sniper, you have a great one. But before you said that, I always thought, man there's a lot of ground around there, why not flank the sobs, you don't have to charge from the front, but, it's a movie. I'm sort of surprised you didn't mention the massive bunker in the opening scene. Those just weren't there at that beach, I've seen photos of the bunkers and they didn't look anything like that and typically, they fired down the beach not towards the water.
Yeah the bunker should really have been mentioned. There were real ones with that shape on the Normandy coast, but they were small observation bunkers, not for machine guns. I think there is some interview with spielberg were he explicitly says he used them in the film because they looked more imposing.
I was stunned with this movie. It look so realistic. Very intense. My grandpa was a war hero who fought for the US in the Philippines during the war, so I can relate to stories like these from what my grandpa was telling when he was still alive.
Professor, please correct me if I'm wrong. 00:37 Entirely accurate; yes and no. I believe most American troops landing at Omaha came ashore from British landing craft that were considerably larger than the LCVPs shown. The Rangers did land in the smaller LCVPs, but I think they were not in the first wave as shown; those landing at Omaha were diverted from the assault at Pointe du Hoc. So I don't think anyone in the first wave hit the beach in LCVPs. 01:40 For filming purposes it would not have been practical to show this, but due to the low tide the troops had several hundred yards to advance after exiting the landing craft. I think it would be improbable that they would get mowed down so effectively at that range by mg fire as soon as the ramps dropped. As you said, mg fire was not the biggest initial threat.
I remember watching this movie in the theater. I immediately thought to myself "war movies will never be the same again". The realism was so overwhelming you almost left the theater with PTSD. I grew up watching so many war movies in the 60's and 70's and they always made it look much more sanitary. They didn't have the means back then to give these movies the realism they deserve. I still watch this about once a year or so, it's that good.
Aside from the fact most of the landing craft used on Omaha were British LCAs piloted by Royal Navy sailors rather than Higgins Boats...but yeah, sure, give it a 9/10 because the beach obstacles are the wrong way around...
And also, yeah the machine gun nest is wrong, the dumb germans, the flame thrower, the wrong nationality for foreign Wehrmacht soldiers, the suizid sniper run, ballistics in the water, yeah 9/10. Completely wrong unit in town, dumb germans, who let the americans shoot first, when the wall collapses, the lone sniper in the church tower, no tactical maneuvering to safe the wounded, yeah 9/10. etc
I appreciate this dude cause he understands at the end of the day its still just a movie, he isn’t knit picking unnecessarily.
Exactly! He's looking at the big picture, which this movie got oh so right. The little incorrect details don't even matter.
Nit picking not knit picking.
Nits are these insects that infest wigs.
@@rustomkanishka and schools!
Nitpicking*
Exactly. It's tiring seeing some of these experts be like: "oh this is unrealistic because actually the battle would last for two hours instead of 10 minutes, 5/10 for me". I love that this guy gives credit where credit is due, instead of just focusing on all the bad.
I was a student at Missouri S&T. I took probably 4-5 of Dr. McManus' classes. He was the absolute greatest for military history, and one of the best professors I ever had. Great to see you doing well Dr. McManus!
I’m sure his lectures were riveting, like his jaw being riveted shut.
@@RustyBlumpkins😂😂😂😂😂😐
I was there when it was UMR. I wish I had known about him, but he may not yet have been there.
@@78LT383 I'm not sure when he started. It had only been MS&T for a couple of years when I was there. The UMR/MST Humanities department has the claim to fame of having more books and paper published (per professor) than any other university in the Midwest. That fact is because of this guy.
Me too! He's a fantastic instructor and I was excited to see him in the thumbnail.
We need him reviewing Band of Brothers.
A video for each episode!
came here to say the same exact thing lol
War & Truth channel goes in-depth and how poorly the real people were portraye based on Ambroses' faulty "research."
Especially the Crossroads episode and the attack on Foy. Justice for Lieutenant Dyke!! But also would love to see his thoughts on Lieutenant Spiers sprinting through the middle of Foy to connect the attack
He will give 10/10 or 9 for every scene... Not very interesting to watch
A small detail that's my favorite in this film is the medic that gets shot in through his canteen and into his thigh during that D Day scene. The bullet punctures the canteen, water starts leaking, and after a second that water turns red because of the bullet wound. Details like that are just incredible
the medic who's patients keep getting stapled by machine gun fire is like gruesome slapstick
Dude I noticed that too. It’s brilliant and makes the scene so much more believable like you’re actually witnessing real combat!
In that same scene when he gets shot in the head all the sand on his helmet is knocked off by the impact
I’ve always assumed the pistol firing at the tank is more of a psychological thing. Miller knows damn well it isn’t gonna help but at least he can say he went down swingin’, you know?
what this movie does brilliant is showing lots of the people character during action scenes of who they truly are, caparzo compassionate, getting him killed, the doc always concerned for his fellow men, Mike keep on fighting even after hit. and this the same for miller, he will keep on the fight till his dying breath as the movie sets up well how he has a devoted sense of duty.
that is also why we care and feel sad when they die, they are very well fleshed out characters
I wonder if he was really aiming at the tank driver. Otherwise it would have been a one in a million chance that the bullets would hit a shell in the tank and disable it.
@@kd5you1 the tank driver? there is glass (a visor) no bullets would go through there :-)
Edit: (answer to "stealthmodeon")
so...in the year 2024 you decided it's a good idea to post a comment without first using the internet to make sure you are correct? hahahahahahahaha
dude...there are pictures of the glass that you can find online...just google it ;-)
and that earlier scene is OBVIOUSLY not historically accurate...I remember watching the movie for the first time and laughing at the Tiger's inaccuracy (especially it's road wheels)
@@vasopel Nope - No glass, just a vision slit, Tank drivers at the time were close to blind and had to rely on the commanders instructions. That's why tanks driver seats have two positions "Heads up", with the drivers head above the armor, and "buttoned up" with head inside.
The vision port itself had two positions - "Open" you get a window about 20cm x 10cm and a "Combat" position about 10cm x 3cm.
Earlier in the scene when they disable the first Tiger, Miller shoves his Tommy gun in the slit and blazes away, the ricocheting bullet fragments would be devistating to the crew.
@@Stealthmodeon so..in the year 2024 you decided it's a good idea to post a comment without first using the internet to make sure you are correct? hahahahahahahaha
dude...there are pictures of the glass that you can find online...just google it ;-)
and that earlier scene is OBVIOUSLY not historically accurate...I remember watching the movie for the first time and laughing at the Tiger's inaccuracy (especially it's road wheels)
My father, a combat vet in Europe, said it was the most realistic war movie he had ever seen. He said you could hear a German tank coming for miles like in this movie, but it was the squeaking of the treads, rather than the roaring/engine sounds. He also said EVERY town was on fire, and the sky was full of smoke and dust and visibility was always very poor. But he said he understood that a movie wouldn't be very good if you couldn't see anything. He said they knocked down every structure like a tower or church that snipers or observers could use before they entered a town. He experienced horrendous things.
Makes sense actually. Other historians also mention that fact about structures would have been knocked off because of snipers
My respects to your father, for making possible to live in a free world.
@RedrUffinsore - Re: "My father, a combat vet in Europe, said it was the most realistic war movie he had ever seen. He said you could hear a German tank coming for miles like in this movie, but it was the squeaking of the treads"
The film gets that historical technical detail correct, which is to their credit. It takes place when Capt. Miller and his men are awaiting the approaching German force, and you hear the tanks as a Panther is silhouetted against the sky. The screeching sound was caused by the lack of ball bearings (or using worn-out ones) in the engine and drive train of those tanks. The Allied air campaign had crippled production of sufficient numbers of these bearings, and the ones that were made often took months to reach units needing them due to air attacks, partisans, railway delays, etc. The tracks also made a lot of noise.
Approaching Anglo-American-Canadian forces were fired upon so often from church steeples and bell towers in every little French town, village and city that it was soon SOP to take them under fire preemptively. It destroyed a great many architectural marvels and irreplaceable works of art, sad to say.
Later in the war, in German proper, it was so dangerous to be in the open that the U.S. took to clearing structures one-by-one from the inside. Meaning that the GIs would blast a hole in the side of the building at the end of the block, clear it, and repeat the same thing one structure after another, down the block. Minimizing the amount of time the men spent in the open.
SOP very late was that if a German village put out a white flag and the approaching GIs didn't take fire, they would not destroy the town. But if the residents opened up on the advancing force, all bets were off and the GIs would blast the place and anything that moved.
I worked at a movie theater when this movie came out and we had WWII veterans come out of the auditorium shaking. We took up a policy of getting these guys whatever they needed. A little bit of soda, some popcorn, or candy. They all said that this opening scene was as close to the real thing that they had ever experienced. Some were able to go back in to finish the movie. Some got refunds or readmissions for another movie if they just couldn’t handle it.
My dad got free stuff since it brought painful memories. Now I have them too of my service, 23 years army
@@ak9989 Thank you for your service.
It' not realistic at all... americans who don't do warcrimes? Unrealistic af.
@@DasLicht2907they literally show Americans committing “war crimes” in this movie when they shoot the surrendering soldiers..
@@ak9989I thank you, your father and your brothers for your service.
When my dad saw this movie, he was shaken. He said several times 'Why do they have to make it so realistic?" One point he made was the beach shot where the M1 had a plastic sheath. Dad said that was real, but that the plastic was orange.
I always interpreted Captain Miller firing his sidearm at the tank as a last-ditch effort when he assumes he's going to die, either from the gunshot wound itself (which is what happens) or from the tank coming at him.
I knew a guy who held a airstrip on a pacific island on his own as everyone else was dead for a entire night, he literally had a machine gun a pistol and a rifle and ran out of ammo in the middle of the night but had killed so many Japanese that they left him alone and stopped suicidally charging his position like 150 dead at least and his uniform had so many shrapnel holes in it from grenades and etc that it looked like swiss cheese and none of them actually injured him. Total legend and second luckiest guy I know of. First is another family friend who went on the most bomber missions of anyone in ww2, survived multiple incidents of getting shot down and the plane bringing him back from Europe crashed on arrival and he survived and walked away from that. He had literal 9 lives. Best part of it is that he joined the canadian special forces before the United states joined the war, and went on the Sub Pen Raid that got nearly everyone that went on it killed and then ended up coming across the border back into the US when the US joined the war and going into the airforce.
@@pilsplease7561
Sounds like your pretty gullible..
@@freedfree7933 i think the words "total legend" are the most significant in his post. ("Total legend and second luckiest guy I know of.")
@@freedfree7933 Nope, Some crazy stuff happened during ww2. Im fortunate to have known a lot of ww2 veterans, including a Uboat Captain
@@pilsplease7561 I think he means to reference that the stories you've alluded to above would really add credibility if you added the names of those awesome individuals. From what you've described, it sounds like you know some pretty famous vets and heroes who most likely have told these stories and had them published so names would go a long way for those interested in doing some research! Have a nice day :)
I like his critique. What impacted my wife and I most was sitting on a bench outside the theatre for the next showing and seeing all these grown elderly men exiting the theatre with tears in their eyes...because this movie more than any other captured the trauma of their war.
MG-42 teams coordinated their bursts in order to discharge a constant stream of fire. When one paused, the other gunner would fire. So, to the Americans it did sound like a constant stream of fire. Spielberg should've shown that coordination with the tracers
mg-42 gunners were told to save ammo and fire short bursts. the damn thing was an ammo dispenser... unnecessary fast rate of fire that lead to ammo wastage. An experienced gunner would fire short burst for accuracy as well.
The way a soldier is taught to fire an mg42 and the reality of a scared, pent-up adrenaline filled solider actually firing the weapon during D-Day are two completely separate things. This is not beyond the realms of possibility!
@@mirific87 the barrels also had to be changed frequently as they would over heat due to it's high fire rate.
@@killercrabman The barrel would have overheated fast which would have been a good narrative element to show the defenders panicking with a rookie mistake since many of the soldiers here were not the elite trained of the Wehrmacht or SS.
@@killercrabmanwell said, training goes a long way but nerves go further
25:25 The scene of the captain shooting at a tank is actually taken from a german/russian encounter where a russian soldier's position was being overrun and he calmly proceeded to shoot at the tank pressing his position with a pistol. It was then promptly bombed by a plane and the attack broken up. He became a bit of celebrity in Russia as an object of defiance.
There's another somewhat similar US Medal of Honor winner named Henry F Warner who used his pistol to kill the commander of a tank, forcing it to retreat, after his anti-tank gun jammed. I think either of these could have been the source of the scene of shooting the tank with their pistol in defiance.
It's also a homage to Spielberg's first classic Jaws where Chief Brody shoots at the approaching 'monster' then it blows up. The exact same number of shots are fired.
Shooting the pistol at the tank while you lay dying isn’t a cheap hollywoodism at all imo. Completely in character and realistic for a guy who was prepared for the end and ready to go out with his weapon in hand
i agree somewhat with that, but at the same time you have a tank coming at you with no less than 2 machineguns ... why is Miller still alive
…… what???
@@spoopy-gho5t watch the movie to understand the context
People fire small arms at armour all the time. And if you are about to be squashed by a tank why not fire your pistol at it as a fu.
And that's a hollywoodism.
I had Mr. McManus for Military History at UMR. This dude knows his stuff! So glad he got this opportunity.
Two old guys got up and left during the beach scene when I saw this. They were old enough to be WW2 vets.
The scene really got to me as my Grandfather was at Omaha Beach. He even went back and helped build the memorial.
He didn't talk about the time much, but we watched a lot of war movies.
Yes, my father was 3rd Recon 67-70 and he got up and walked out
@@BigSawCatwhat was the reason?
@@mo_musashi_284 must be hard for them to see the depiction is my guess.
My grandfather was a WW2 vet (artilleryman with the US 5th Army) and he passed well before this movie came out, but I always remember a quote from him watching WW2 movies on TV. He said, "it's not like that, with all these heroes and all that. It's just a bunch of young guys, and they're scared and don't wanna die." My father said he never really talked about the stuff he saw much, but he certainly had PTSD. He was the lone survivor of his gun blowing up and taking out his artillery team, and after he died, they found a news clipping that had a headline like "5th Army sees 365th day of straight combat at Anzio". A full year of nonstop death and trauma...I don't believe he could ever reconcile what he had to do to other people in that war for the rest of his life
The movie wasn't thát bad... (this is a joke)
By Far the best Historian to come on the Channel understanding the Hollywood Parts of movie and not judging every piece of the film, Bring him back for more Movies!!
I've tuned into these since they started and never thought I'd see a friend in one!
John is hands down one of the most knowledgeable, passionate, humble and kindest folks around.
He is extremely positive and forgiving here which is kinda refreshing.
He still fairly points out that a lot of things don’t make sense but he is all about the vibes and atmosphere and this is where the movie really succeeds
One of my favorite things about Saving Private Ryan is the cinematography. The film is shot like a documentary, which adds to the realism. The cinematographer, Janusz Kamiński, is a wizard. His work on Schindler's List is amazing, too.
I distinctly remember the first time I saw Saving Private Ryan, and how I was weeping openly during the Omaha Beach scene. It's so visceral, so brutal, so much like how intense combat really is. SPR caught the reality of that day in a way that earlier films didn't, and it changed how later war movies were made.
The trailers didn’t even hint at how brutal the combat scenes were. We had no idea what we were in for. I was working in a movie theater and we watched a private screening the night before it was released. We all had our jaws dropped at the Omaha Beach scene. Nobody made a sound.
Absolutely. That scene at Omaha beach will be remembered through the ages. 😢
My grandfather who was there had to walk out of the cinema it affected him so deeply. He would only say that it was too close for him to relive the way it was portrayed
even being brutal and "visceral".... its not even 1% of what really happened.....
taking some beaches took like 6 hours. 6 hours of germans fighting back, thousands of americans, canadians, british died.
in saving private ryan the fight was like 8 minutes????
this is why war movies will never be realistic.......... they cant show reality at it was.
I still cry when I watch the opening and closing. I'll only watch it by myself.
I absolutely HATE when people call Upham a coward. He's *meant* to not be a warrior. He's a geeky translator from the typing pool. He's never seen combat. He hasn't had the chance to be toughened by repeated combat experiences, like all the others in the search/rescue party sent after Private Ryan. And "freeze" is as much a response as "fight" or "flight". I thought it was brave of the writers to include such a scene, because it's very human and very realistic. This 100% would have happened in every war throughout history. Either a rookie, or a veteran pushed over their limit, and they just....can't.
And even people who have seen a lot of combat might freeze up as well.
He is not a grunt. That was made very clear. He is not hard. He is not experienced and suddenly, he is tossed into a firestorm.
Yeah, he froze. Most would, no matter they tell themselves
none of what you said negates that hes a coward
@@unityofvitality-5875 What unit did you serve in, He-Man?
@@devolve42 look up the dictionary definition of the word coward please
I absolutely loved the pistol tank scene, the man knew he was gonna die and he refused to quit fighting no matter how pointless it was firing a gun at a tank he just refused to give up.
It's also a homage to Spielberg's first classic Jaws where Chief Brody shoots at the approaching 'monster' then it blows up. The exact same number of shots are fired.
One of the great things about this movie is even where there are little strict inaccuracies for the most part they serve to enhance and increase the emotional and thematic accuracy of the scene. In other words no you couldn’t shoot a machine gun like that, but it certainly conveys accurately how intensely under a cone of fire the troops were. Incredible. A film worthy of portraying what those heroes did.
And how would you know, were you there???
Captain Miller was shot, at the end there. He had more than acoustic trauma, he was dying.
He also fully accepted he was going to die there. Why not draw the tanks attention, if anything? I'd imagine myself in that position (if not frozen from fear) to do the same like "well I may as well go out swinging." It can come off as some glorious last stand but I think it just speaks to the obligation he felt as a captain and a soldier.
@@littlesmallworld123 Kind of reminds me of the scene in the movie Patton where Patton shoots at the German fighter with his revolver. Unlikely to bring it down and I doubt the real Patton would have done it (also not sure it was fictious or real) but I felt it showed the type of person Patton was in terms of a soldier.
@@SEAZNDragon Might've been based on Owen J. Baggett, who allegedly shot down a Japanese plane by hitting the pilot with his sidearm. They were shooting the bomber's crew who bailed out and Bagget played dead until a KI-43 flew close to make sure.
Japanese wartime records claim no planes were lost that day. So unfortunately, we don't know if the pilot crashed, recovered and returned to base, or the whole story is made up.
@@SEAZNDragon Absolutely something Patton would have done. The guy was all about showmanship.
@@SEAZNDragonapparently, a German bomber raid actually happened just as Patton was talking to others about not having air cover. And he got mad. There were a bunch of witnesses, but the movie cut a lot of what he said afterwards for very good reason
There is a scene in this movie during the end battle where the Sergeant ends up trying to shoot a German with his pistol and ends up throwing his helmet at him, and when i asked my dad about it, he told me a story that his dad had told him about pretty much the same thing happening, except that he and the German had ended up basically going to fists, and by some event or another they ended up getting separated. Fast-forward to when my dad was stationed in Germany during the Cold War. He had granddad visit and they immediately went to get a beer. At that bar, granddad saw the guy he'd been fighting, who also recognized him. They ended up drinking and crying together and were good friends until one of them passed away. One of the crazy things about this is that my granddad was in a ton of combat during that war and fought in Korea afterward, and as you'd imagine he took a lot of lives and was in hand-to-hand combat a number of times, so instantly recognizing that one German guy at the bar, tells me that either that specific memory was important to him, or that he probably remembered a ton of people he'd fought against and maybe killed. Either way, that's just one example of the weight that soldiers carry around in their minds.
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Czech Native speaker here. The line Czech soldiers say at Omaha beach is Please do not shoot, I haven´t killed anyone.
The inclusion of non German citizens in the lesser guarded areas of German territory(Like whole Normandy coast line thanks to Enigma breakers, huge gaslighting operations from west and Hitler innate and drug fueled paranoia, also leading him to believe that D day is a ruse, and that real invasion will begin later, somewhere up the French coastline closer to Calais) was a casual procedure, to preserve the better trained and armed core armies of third Reich to the more strategically important fronts, like the eastern one for example I believe in that time.
Also the symptom of a dumb German may be super far fetched in modern media and stretched to the insanely goofy levels, possibly due to political and social engineering reasons, but the abundance of stimulant drugs Germany was fueled by officially since 1938, but possibly from the beginning of the 30s and maybe even before(methamphetamine was firstly synthesized in 1913 in Japan), which Germany suddenly lost access to due to shortage of resources, and the need to funnel them into the war effort through conventional means to at least sustain the momentary state of war(a problem which maybe also led to German downfall on the periphery of Moscow) may have left most of German troops in semi limbo state, after years of very aggressive, P2P pure efedrine based stimulants abuse, after shift lasting days even weeks, having a destructive impact on the problem solving, spatial awareness, improvisation or even basic decision making skills. A wild assumption indeed, but one that is based on very few semi believable confessions of German and Finnish troops, and sightings from todays world also.
That`s so cool. I was always wondering what are they trying to explain. Same as what is that german saying trying to kill jewish guy with a knife, it was always chilling to see and hear him talking
The German use of combat drugs has been *vastly* overstated in recent popular history
The Germans issued amphetamines in very limited numbers, primarily to rear line troops (you do *not* want to be on a come-down on the front lines), and was basically gone entirely after the initial French campaign.
The German army wasn't storming around on meth, they just weren't.
Interestingly though, many paratroopers on D-Day *would* have been. Paratroopers were issued amphetamine pills to keep them going through an extra day or two, where they would be relieved and sit out their crash behind friendly lines.
Those are excellent points you're making. Germany was fueled by meth for sure, and I can't imagine the withdrawals - especially in that insane situation. Also your point about Nazis focusing their main soldiers and commanders is true as well. I enjoyed this video, but like you I was surprised he didn't know about these facts.
✌️❤️🇨🇦
@@rednek666UGH! The scene where Mellish is stabbed by the German is absolutely horrific for me; and that's saying something in a movie filled with so much horror.
The reality was that the Germans were not particularly strong in beach defense, nor well trained. What they did have was their strongest heavy tank divisions guarding a front a 10x smaller than that found in Russia. They were confident that their tanks could contain any beach-head. People forget that Operation Badgration started 3 weeks later, and was lined up against a German army stretched over 1000 miles without their best tank divisions, as these were in the west. Over the next two months the war quickly went from defeating the Germans to saving Europe from the communists.
It must be mentioned that the Omaha Beach landing scenes showed NO ships in the background, in the Channel. A number of Navy ship captains saw what was happening on the beach, and took their vessels dangerously close to the shore in order to provide fire support for the Infantry.
Medal of Honor: Frontline got that right.
My grandfather was 82nd Airborne. He was in DDay and Battle of the Bulge.
2 purple hearts among a few of his medals were received in those 2 battles. (Hand grenade shrapnel and frostbite, respectively)
Great to hear, my great grandfather was in the 101st, 1st btn 506th PIR, also there on DDay, wounded in market garden, made it back for Bastogne and the wars end. Currahee and Geronimo!
@@qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm3937 What was his name? I always love to read up on it.
@@johanpersson6288 Paul Albert Flachbart, Able Company 506th PIR. There is a brief article on him that a local radio show did with my dad years ago but that’s about all u will find on him information wise. Sadly he never spoke of his experiences, not that he didn’t want to we just don’t think anyone bothered to ask. He did a few interviews for TV back in the 80s and 90s and also some newspaper interviews too. He was wounded attacking Germany 88s on the wilhelhemina canal on Sep 17 1944 outside Son. He caught a load of tree burst in the legs but survived. That’s the only story we really have of him during the war
My grandfather was 82nd in WWII also! He was awarded the Purple Heart as well. He was a Staff Sergeant. God bless them and their heroism.
Capt Miller did not have acoustic trauma during the ending scene. He was shot. My issue I had with that scene was that the planes were as likely to shoot Capt Miller when they started firing on that tank. Accuracy in those planes wasn't that great, where they could've pin pointed that tank with Miller only 30 yards away.
One thing is the Captain’s bars on his helmet would have been removed or covered somehow to avoid being picked off. Famously, Dick Winters used a M-1 in part to avoid being the target of German shooters.
Winters also just hated the Carbine from what I hear
@@SoupSultan almost everyone hated the carbine. Not much range and the stopping power of a BB. You got hit by a Garand round, you went down.
@@your_royal_highness My granddad was in the pacific front and absolutely hated the carbine. Pretty much for that reason, because when a suicidal japanese soldier is charging you, you want him to drop when shot.
I think that's likely so we could identify Miller easily. Patton insisted his officers not cover their rank (he said officers should risk more than the enlisted men), but not many people listened to him.
Captain Miller is just fighting to the bitter end. And as someone else mentioned, it demonstrates the futility of the entire situation. I love that part.
It's a homage to Spielberg's first classic Jaws where Chief Brody shoots at the approaching 'monster' then it blows up. The exact same number of shots are fired.
a movie that will never need a remake
Just wait, one day we'll be watching trans people rushing the beaches and females black lesbians in command, they'll call it " saving private Ryan from his white privilege"
Unless Disney gets it… next thing you know Captain Miller will be an openly homosexual African American 2 star general.
@@jordansamson6071 and you are right, lol :)
It's kind of a remake itself. After the first half hour it turns into Kelly's Heroes. Instead of gold they search for Ryan. It even has the ending in a small town fighting Tiger tanks. The only difference is that SPR has mediocre characters and script.
@@jordansamson6071😂😂😂
I served in the Canadian forces, I was told to scratch my name, service number, and blood type inside my helmet. Mostly because if you take a direct hit from an arty round, the helmet is the only thing that will, likely, survive. That way they can identify the puddle of goop that used to be a soldier
thank you for your service sir. I was brought up with nothing but love and respect for our brave soldiers
😳 Yikes. My dad was in the U.S Army for over 22 years, and I myself am about to join the Air Force. I'm nervous and scared for sure, but also simultaneously excited to see what will happen! I want to do something that is risky and a bit dangerous because it just appeals to me, and I want to do something that not many are willing to do.
What was your MOS?
I am a simple man. I see a historian analyzing Saving Private Ryan? I watch.
17:50 is not a dumb german moment. The half-track is taking rounds from it's left flank, so the first couple germans dismount and go to the right flank, putting the half-track between them and where they are taking fire. Then they get hit by Miller's squad who was hidden in the grass. No more infantry dismount to the right after that and their only other option was the left flank, hence why Miller says "take their left flank". They tried to dismount and put cover between them and where they were taking fire, there just wasn't any direction that was safe for them.
They also got hit by TWO bazooka rounds and were probably disoriented
100% agree. I dont think i agree with any of the “dumb german” moments he said. Like in the pillbox when the people ran out after a grenade was thrown in its gonna be there natural instinct to run away from it they know the grenade is gonna win that battle and they wouldnt of had time to think about who was outside so they just ran. A probably wouldve done the same.
The whole point of the pistol-tank scene is about not giving up even with zero odds. It's a beautiful scene no matter how much harm Captain Miller might actually do.
The interesting thing about Jackson's M1 thumb, is that later on in the movie when they assault the radar position, Upham gives his M1 to Jackson in exchange for his Springfield, indicating that Jackson is proficient in the use of an M1 for close combat assault maneuverers, as well as long distance sniping. This probably isn't 'common' for snipers who would be designated into teams (indeed, snipers operated in a pair and Jackson doesn't have a spotter) but for a Ranger combat unit, who were considered elite, it's reasonable to assume Jackson is proficient in both weapons/roles.
Jackson would have been trained to use a Garand during boot camp, and with the Springfield being his primary weapon might be more likely to get M1 Thumb than people who use the rifle daily. Not sure how the host missed this.
Giving what he said this is the best and most impactful movie of all time. This movie sparked the veterans affairs association to set up a hotline for veterans with PTSD to talk to somebody after watching this movie. This movie was so moving that it affected the lives of many people. Hats off to one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. We salute you Mr. Steven Spielberg.
I would argue it was both the best and worst WW2 movie of all time.
i watched this movie in theatre in South Korea when i was in active duty Army, and it gave me PTSD nearly from watching it. Knowing that could have been me in a different time in history. I am and always will be grateful to those who served before me!
@@leonqubick7716 I could only fathom what those boys went through.
Spielberg's Jaws was a more impactful movie than Saving Private Ryan and it's still part of popular culture. SPR really isn't.
9:05 Allegedly Barry Pepper confirmed that during weapons training for the film he did end up giving himself Garand Thumb.
I’ve never been early to one of these videos lol it’s always 1-5 months after😂
Same fam
Easy solution is to subscribe
Same!
Your algorithm is finally dialing in.
3:25: Guy gets blown to smithereens; Expert: "This is just sooo good"
Smithereens is extreme when he only lost his leg...
I'm going to take issue with John's non acceptance of Captain Miller shooting his pistol at the Tiger. In the context of the scene; he's concussed, the battle has turned against them, they're loosing the Alamo, he's been shot twice at this point, and Sergeant Horvath has just died in front of him. That is a lot to cope with and he knows it's over. What else are you to do? I think it's a great moment of the strength of his character.
Also, I believe the battle of Ramelle is the cookie the movie, Spielberg, and the audience deserve after making a movie this accurate, this atmospheric, and mostly restrained up to this point. Not jumping the shark immediately after the Omaha opening.
A down-to-earth and knowledgeable historian. This was a pleasure to watch.
Looks like the mg42 in the scene jams after the first burst and he goes to clear it and you can still see flashing on the end of the barrel. 1:40
Damn, I've watched this so many times and never noticed it.
I saw this in the theater when first came out , and when Ryan was walking to find Millers head stone and just breaks down crying. Yes we had no idea that it was him , but his remembering Miller and his promise he made to him. Just the reaction of seeing Miller's stone brought on a flashback of that time in June of 1944.
There's actually a clue that it's Ryan as an old man: his lapel pin is the 101st's Screaming Eagle patch. Miller would've worn a Ranger patch.
@@PolarizedMechs you don't know that when you first see the movie. He could have been going to one of his friends graves
Something I first noticed while visiting London many years ago in May: the sky. That's the exact battleground of the Battle of Britain. May 1940. Azure blue.
Later in Normandy, driving along trying to get a glimpse of Mont St Michel in the distance I caught a glimpse of red. I stopped at the next bit of red. Poppies. The First World War. Of course not fought there, but poppies, in France...
And of course we were in Normandy only May but close enough; so the fields, the brush, the leaves, the weather. Seeing Utah Beach at low tide? All that sand? Flat. No cover. So the weather, the plants, the sky, the water, are all near permanent aspects of battlefields.
Indeed, and anyone who has ever flown into Gatwick Airport from the continent and the plane does some circling getting into the queue to land is flying through the exact sky where the largest air to air battle in history occurred.
Weirdly, one thing I immediately found off-putting were haircuts on German soldiers. Spielberg decided to portray them all as 80s skinheads, as if that was some sort of standard cut in the German military. That was simply not the case. German soldiers would have all been sporting conventional 1940s haircuts, similar to Reiben's. A superficial point, but I found the plethora of skinheads a little annoying. Kinda constant reminder you were not watching a documentary of the time, but a modern movie.
Yeah totally agreed. Annoying clichés everywhere in this overrated film.
Don't make too much of the very short haircuts shown in the film. Whereas it is true that some German troops captured at Normandy had quite long hair, others wore theirs in a typical military buzzcut. Often this was by choice, i.e., long hair is hot under headgear, and also can attract insects. It can also become entangled in machinery and grabbed by an enemy soldier in hand-to-hand combat. And many commanding officers of theirs, just as on the Allied side, insisted on a spit-and-polish image even in troops headed into battle. And getting one's hair cur very short meant that you didn't have to concern yourself with styling it for a long time; one less thing to bother with while out in the field.
Having said all that, do you know for a fact that Spielberg decided positively to portray them that way? I haven't heard of that or read it, myself....
I like to think that Jackson got Garand thumb from training for the invasion, since he usually uses the Springfield he'd be less experienced with an M1. In reality, Barry Pepper just got it during their actor boot camp and they just filmed him with it.
He was mistaken here. The D-Day lands had several waves and this was the first wave. The first wave did not get beyond the beach. The tanks involved in the first wave did not make it or they were destroyed immediately. Again there were several waves that were needed to get off the beach. The landing on Omaha beech took several hours.
Also there was a backlog of soldiers on the beach and if I recall correctly there was talk of halting the landings as the beach was overcrowded with soldiers. Also I think it was around midday that the soldiers finally got off the beach.
Many tanks made it on the beach and were not destroyed, but they were in a similar situation as the rest of the first wave, with serious losses, at the wrong location, and disorganized. The 743rd battalion landed fairly intact, and was able to secure the immediate vicinity of its units, but couldn't actually leave the beach because there were anti-tank barriers blocking the draws and losses among the combat engineers meant they couldn't be removed.
The landings took the whole day basically, though there were different levels of danger for the soldiers. At some locations, the infantry were able to clear and scale the bluffs soon after the arrival of the second wave. At others, the defences were cleared but the exits were blocked and progress was blocked and the landing troops were left to suffer from artillery bombardment. At some others, the survivors of the first wave were left under direct and indirect fire from intact defences all day.
@@tomnewham1269 The backlog was mainly because engineers were only able to overcome underwater obstacles in a few areas leading to the landing zones making a long traffic jam in the choppy waters as landing craft tried to move from the transports to the beach and back. Part of the discussion of whether to halt the landings was because 5 hours into the assault the Americans were still stuck on Omaha beach due to the intelligence and logistic failures that were turning Omaha into a meat-grinder. My one complaint about how the movie depicts Omaha beach is that it fails to show the last ditch effort to avoid the Allies abandoning the assault on Omaha of the naval bombardment ships coming as close to shore as possible to provide direct artillery fire to help overcome the heavy fortifications that had been pinning the Americans down.
As big and as important a role D-Day played in WW2 it gets forgotten that aside from landing on the 5 beaches none of the other 1st day landing goals were attained due to the resistance on terrain that heavily favored the defenders. In fact originally the Normandy landings were to be aided by a second landing on the southern side of France but it was delayed due to personal and logistical losses so by the time it finally occurred in August the Allies had broken the 6 week stalemate in Normandy and the Germans were already pulling back to the western side of the country.
All of "Hobart's Funnies" modified tanks made it further at the other beach head landing sights. Omaha just ended up being such a shite show. Percy Hobart had very few issues where he was at with his tanks.
Honestly - the final act of defiance, where you have nothing left but your pistol against a tank - firing at it as your last act - it fits the character.
He has nothing else to loose, so may aswell.
To search for private Ryan, was a good way to show many aspects of battle of Normandy
So really no matter how many inaccuracies saving private has experts will still give it a pass because it’s just soo damn good lol
It is of course not a documentary. But for a Hollywood movie it is very realistic.
Well, when actual WW2 veterans say it is too realistic, it's nice to hear an "expert" who doesn't argue with them or diminish their feelings and memories.
Thank you for commenting. I'm a Marine, Nam combat vet. I disagree with this presenter on most of his statements.
@@dennisjoiner4164Why?
@@dennisjoiner4164 no disrespect but World War II was a completely different war than Vietnam.
One of the three medics, on the left, while working on the guy on the beach getting shot in the hip then proceeding to bandage himself up I think was one of the coolest subtle additions to a scene, felt that helped showed no one was safe.
Saw that movie about 20 times and noticed it about 2 years ago. At the first viewing I was also sure that the steamboat willie kills melish, and much later noticed that those are two diffrent actors (willie kills hanks, some completely other guy spares upham).
This movie so well thought out that almost every scene is a closed story about terrors of war.
Cooking the barrel is the reason why the MG42 has a quick change barrel.
I love this-- most videos just show expects talking about the opening scenes and very rarely about the others. this was such a treat of a video!
Lmao not me watching this video and seeing a professor I took a class with like 20 years ago
Really? 20 years ago?
Did he have more hair on his head back then?
Seeing the first 20 mins of this movie in the theater opening weekend literally blew me away!!
That's terrible but at least you survived. I hope you've made a full recovery and managed to successfully claim a large compensation.
I was just on Omaha Beach at the cemetery for the 80th anniversary this past June. I spent the week working my way along Omaha and Utah Beach as well Carentan, Sainte-Mère-Église, Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, Brecourt Manor and all points in between. As amazing as this movie is and Band of Brothers is, nothing can match the experience of walking the actual locations and seeing what our greatest generation fought through and endured on The Day of Days.
I was very surprised how different Omaha beach looked in real life and kinda surprised he didn’t address it.
Great movie and probably quite authentic but the real battlefield was so much larger and more complex (but the battle also took hours and the movie couldn’t just focus on one battle)
This movie got as close as possible to how combat feels. I'm a combat vet & you dont know how it feels until you go through it. Movies & video games can't replicate it because they can't make you feel anger, fear & doubt hitting you all at once. Sometimes you can actually feel peaceful while getting shot at. And sometimes you have the dumbest thoughts possible.
Thank you for your service
100%
It' not realistic at all... americans who don't do warcrimes? Unrealistic af.
Can I ask respectfully, what were some of the dumb thoughts? Feel free not to answer =)
@@DasLicht2907 shaddup.
John has been such a great addition to We Have Ways for the USA episodes, love seeing him getting more exposure
Prof M’s Normandy books - as with all his work - are must reads. The depth of his research and the ‘readability’ of his books are superb. And his recurring visits to the ‘We Have Ways’ podcast is definitely worth your time.
I also love the detail- from the crashed glider scene, the D-day +3 scene and the barrage balloons, pouring the plain black coffee... totally 1944. Also- the Upham on the stairs scene- notice how Steamboat Willie's face is also in shock as he comes down. He is seriously affected too.
Two years ago I finally went to Normandy to sightsee these places. The fact that there are so many living museums and ruins still there is amazing. It brought tears to my eyes. If you haven't been, you should go.
Steamboat Willie isn't the German soldier that walks past Upham on the stairs. I used to think he was too because they look pretty similar and was surprised when I realised he wasn't... after watching it for about the 20th time 😆
How do you want your PTSD real enough?
Director: yes
Very valid and honest review. Saving Private Ryan is one of only three movies I paid to see 5 times in the theaters, 5 being most! That's how awesome it is!
I'd be interested in seeing this guy break down Band of Brothers.
Yeah, there are a ton of mistakes and twists in this show that are done for the sake of drama. But despite that, I really like BOB, especially episodes 5, 7, and 8.
Episode 4 is terribly inaccurate.
Dr.McManus was my professor in college! Super nice man and extremely knowledgeable of Us Army History. He was just as passionate and enthusiastic instructing as it is displayed in the video. I enjoyed every second of his classes!
This guy is phenomenal. Bring him back for more WWII breakdowns.
9:00 all the actors in the movie (except Matt Damon) basically went to bootcamp together (and presumably trained with the weapons), so the actor probably had actual Garand Thumb!
The thing II always notice about the P-51 tankbusters in that scene is where is the armament to take out a tank on the planes? There were no rocket tubes on the wings.
they made almost like the P51 did a dive bomb or something lol.
Good observation. That scene has always bugged me too. Before SPV I'd never heard Mustangs called "tank busters" and there's no way the '51 could blow up a tank in that manner. 51's could only strafe tanks with its six .50 cals, (or drop a fuel tank) but if that happened in the movie Capt. Miller would've been swiss cheese. The P-47 Thunderbolt was more suited with eight .50 cals & *5-inch rockets* but mostly, German tanks were killed by artillery.
@crashburn3292 part of that reason may have been the lack of airworthy P-47s, especially available in the UK at the time. The Old Flying Machine Company did that scene I believe, likely flown by one or both of Mark and Ray Hanna. It certainly looked like their flying, they were absolutely amazing at proper low level displays that are still breathtaking to watch 25+ years later.
I don't know what the team flew at the time, but likely a P-51, Spitfire, and the HA-1112 that Mark later died flying. So the Mustang was likely the only available sort-of-suitable American aircraft.
It is poetic license with a little glorious last stand cliche but I think we give it a pass because Miller still succumbs to his wounds albeit offscreen which motivates the entire rest of Ryan's life.
@@DayTheBanksCollapse So, you don't know for sure whether it was Ray and Mark Hanna flying as stunt pilots in the movie, (which can be learned with a quick Google search) but you believe it was "likely" one or both of them, based on the 2 seconds the planes were shown flying in the movie. Wow.
14:40 why they don't fire at the tower is, because as far as I remember they initially dont know where they were shot from.
I'm so glad this movie was made before CGI took the realism out of everything.
There’s more CGI in the movie than you’d think (like the underwater bullets), but Spielberg used it sparingly to fill in gaps.
@@erakfishfishfish which is how it should be used, but it has gotten better over the years and can be done right if the effects house has the time and money both of which can be in short supply at times so they are forced to rush things out that look good but not WOW
Most of us, when we're watching a movie, do it for the story, not to watch frame by frame and try to pick apart the effects. Much more entertaining that way.
@@erakfishfishfish That's a good point. I break immersion from a movie when they use it too much. You'd think CGI would have advanced more but it still looks like a cartoon to me.
CGI was already very common in 1998.
I always love to just listen to tom hanks during combat scenes and imagine woody and the rest of andys toys are fighting for their life in a war
I think the biggest miss on the final battle is the idea that air cover couldve had an impact outside of moral, we know it took roughly 10 aircraft to destroy one tank, and in that close of quarters they had just as good a chance of killing friendlies
I think the scholarship at that time was pretty limited on aircraft kills of tanks...all armies were very bad documenting kills, especially on tanks, especially from an aircraft going 500 miles an hour. A lot of scholarship just trusted battle reports and it was conceivable, specially because modern equipment certain was able to destroy tanks from many kms. Only recently has the narrative changed. But there are so many inaccuracies in favor of story and entertainment that who knows.
@@notiowegian that's a very real possibility, this movie came out in what? '98 and I hadn't found research showing how poor aircraft were against tanks or most vehicles until a handful of years ago 🤷
the on scene in the movie to me that should have gotten Hanks the Oscar is is breakdown scene after the medic is killed. How it comes upon him, how he can't control initially, then how he gathers himself. a master class in acting.
Yep. Completely agree !
I mean it's Miller's story.
Everyone else is an incidental character, yet he reveals so little of himself because he's trying to keep all these unruly, scared kids in line while on a fools errand !
I had a teacher in high school. Whose father was a WWII sniper and she told us he said this was the only movie that did WWII justice and captured what they went through.
This guy needs to keep doing these. This was so informative and well done! Ill give him a 10 out of 10
That 20 mm scene turn them guys into hamburger meat. When I first saw that I was kind of devastated.
Fantastic. I so enjoyed this review. I love that he looks at historical inaccuracies but in a big picture context. Incredible job.
One thing the people have often wondered, and I myself did in the past is why does media always seem to focus on Omaha Beach when there were four other beaches that also were having operations taken place on them.
And the simple answer is that Omaha was the one beach out of the five where just about everything went wrong.
Now, then, of course, doesn’t mean that the other beaches had zero difficulty. It’s just that Omaha was the one where pretty much every part of the intricate planning didn’t really pan out. Like he mentioned the majority of the armor you know didn’t make it a sure, but a few of them obviously did. And the number of other things. One thing, though that I’m surprised he didn’t mention was the fact that the Rangers were in regular Higgins boats. If I remember correctly, and I could be wrong, but if I remember correctly, the Rangers were actually in basically the British equivalent of the Higgins boats because they were originally meant to assist the other Rangers in the operation to capture Point Du Hoc.
But after word wasn’t sent that the initial landing, Rangers needed the back up. The men were then diverted to the actual beach. Now again, I could be wrong, but I know for a fact that the second Rangers did have that mission.
Also, three beaches had Brits and Canadians, so the two American beaches get Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, although there could still be more Utah Beach stuff with 4th Infantry and so on. maybe someday we'll get a good Juno Beach movie.
@@hockeyhacker5 That would be awesome
@@ultrajd I'm heading over there in a couple of weeks. 🙂
It is a real shame that no one - here in the 'States or in the U.K. - has done a "British 'Saving Private Ryan'" - because the stories of the men at Sword, Gold and Juno Beaches are just as compelling and deserving of being remembered as what happened at Utah and Omaha Beaches. The story of Omaha Beach was told because it went wrong in so many ways, but also simply because the film was an American film, intended for an American audience. The production might not have been green-lighted and funded in the first place, if it had been about one of the British-Canadian beaches. Sad but that is how Hollywood works.
But having said that, I wish someone would make a film honoring the men of the other four landings, one American and three British-CW.
Call of Duty 2 has an amazing Utah landing mission.
I'm so grateful to have seen this movie when I was a young teenager. It showed me the "realism" of weapons I never really knew at hte time. Especially grenades. Being a teen in the 90's, I had no idea grenades exploded that way. I always thought they were big fireballs of explosions. Same with artillery fire and a lot of the weapons in WW2.
This movie is aging like a fine wine, and it was a catalyst for many movies, even games, to try "get it right". Even 20+ years later, the movie still feels gritty, still hits the emotions when certain members of the unit fall, and still captures how it probably really was to be in the middle of these combat situations.
According to the vets that were there, Saving Private Ryan IS the most accurate war movie ever made and it still wasn’t close.
There is no other famous movie about Normandy though…
Ever hear of “The Longest Day”? At least a couple of people in the movie were AT Normandy on D-Day!
Dunkerque also
It's inaccurate after the first half hour. The rest is as accurate as Kelly's Heroes, but not half as enjoyable.
I think the reason why the Germans in the armoured vehicle at 20:38 didn't jump out but hunkered down was to conceal the fact that they were wearing fire-resistant material which also covered their faces. If you look at the scene where they jump out of the vehicle once they've been set alight you can actually see the fire-resistant masks they have on.
"[Criticism ... problem ... inacuracy ... plot contrivance] ... ehhh, I'll give it a 9."
Say what now? :D
Authenticity vs accuracy
this is one of those movies/video where viewers will go on to something else if you're not rating every scene 9 or higher
how popular is that guy rating Tombstone a solid 6
I saw this movie in theaters back in 1998 and I remember the part where Upham let's the guy go down the stairs, somebody in the front row yelled out "Shoot him a$$hole!" Nobody laughed but it was obvious to me how impactful that part was because of the reaction of somebody who was willing to voice his opinion during the film.
Now do Band of Brothers and the Pacific.
Yes
Masters of the Air while we’re at it.
@@erakfishfishfish Yeah, people need to be made aware of how crappy the air combat involving fighters is there.
@@ukasz-zm9qc after watching the series, I looked up the real history and was downright horrified by the casualty rate.
Episode 4 of Band of Brothers is bullshit.
I have no military experience and my father was not a veteran, so I was really impressed with how a scene of raw combat was presented. I was old enough to have seen the 1960s movie, the Longest Day and that one looked like a walk in the park.
More typically called “Garand Thumb”
As a tank nerd, the thing that got me the most was the T34/85 tank that was 'dressed up' as a Tiger Tank. I remember seeing it for the first time and thinking, "That isn't a Tiger! Why doesn't it have interwoven wheels?" A dead giveaway if you're into tanks as much as I am.
But I get it, there is only 1 operational Tiger Tank left in the world and its a museum piece. I don't think the guys at the tank museum, Bovington UK would appreciate the punishment it would take being on set. If you munch its gear box, its game over for filming and possibly for the tank ever running again!
Fury used the Bovington Tiger, but that took a *lot* of negotiating to use it.
@@PolarizedMechs True, but it basically drove around a field and that was about it.
John, talk about how inaccurate the entire layout and German defenses of Omaha Beach are in the movie.
And how they are broken within minutes, not an entire day as was the case...and how German defenses were this thick because the US Navy's initial bombardment was off target.
@@aaropajari7058 Its a movie, they aren't going waste screen time on a very small detail.
@steveablet4041 The failure of the bombardment is not a small detail (but it is one which shows the US War machine in a bad light), and it is easy to display the passage of time without making the movie progress in real time.
Im really glad this man is overall postive about the accuracy of Saving Private Ryan and that he always looks to the story or reality behind something if it isnt interally accurate or not happening during that time or scene.
I always loved history with ww2 as my favourite chapter and with so many movies, books and documentaries, Saving Private Ryan is my favourite movie of all time (BoB close second). When he started about Ramelle i kept the reviews of Nicholas Moran (Tank expert episode) in my mind like; Back Scratching from the 20 mm, the blindness of the tank crews during battle and what could have bin possible to use for a movie to make a movie more realistic.
Example; i personally would be fine with if they used German Panzers like a Panzer lV or maybe a Panther tank because they were more common to encounter on the battlefields of Normandy because they were in higher numbers than the Tiger, but as Nicholas said; A Tiger is totally fine for a movie and on the other hand, it also tells about the status of the Tiger and how much it was feared by the allies because it was still hard to kill by armor and armament.
I hope to see more of this. Excellent work!
I’ll never get tired of watching experts review this video or the BoB series
Really fascinating and informative. I saw the film in the theater and back then, there wasn't much pre-release hype. I didn't know what to expect. The opening invasion scene was one of the most intense experiences I've ever had in a movie theater. One element that wasn't mentioned in the review was the sounds. From the bullets whizzing by to the tanks and other vehicles, the exceptional sound made it all the more real. I've wondered how accurate it was. For example: the difference in the .30cal vs. the MG42 Really seemed accurate. Certainly, the historical accuracy is important so we can properly honor the brave heros of this particular battle and help our youngsters stay interested in learning about how they are free today so we never forget the sacrifice of thousands. Thanks for a great video.
I think Mythbusters pretty much proved the fallacy of bullets travelling so far underwater.
Any police procedural shows this fallacy, when they test the bullet striations of a firearm by aiming it into a tub of water. If the bullet traveled like this, it would come out the other side.
lol @ Mythbusters.
That's an entertainment show, bud.
Working as a journalist in the UK at the time, my newspaper took a handful of elderly gentlemen, who had fought on D-Day more than 50 years earlier, to see the new film when it was released. Afterwards, they all agreed the first 10 minutes were by far the most realistic movie interpretation of 'action' they'd seen.
As for the guys getting hit when they are pretty deep in the water, I don't buy it. Myth busters did an episode where they fired various rounds into water with high speed cameras and even .50 cal didn't go far before it was really slowed down and broken up. I'm talking maybe three feet, and it's done.
I agree with you on the taking of the machine gun at the defunct radar station. Use the sniper, you have a great one. But before you said that, I always thought, man there's a lot of ground around there, why not flank the sobs, you don't have to charge from the front, but, it's a movie.
I'm sort of surprised you didn't mention the massive bunker in the opening scene. Those just weren't there at that beach, I've seen photos of the bunkers and they didn't look anything like that and typically, they fired down the beach not towards the water.
Yeah the bunker should really have been mentioned. There were real ones with that shape on the Normandy coast, but they were small observation bunkers, not for machine guns. I think there is some interview with spielberg were he explicitly says he used them in the film because they looked more imposing.
I was stunned with this movie. It look so realistic. Very intense. My grandpa was a war hero who fought for the US in the Philippines during the war, so I can relate to stories like these from what my grandpa was telling when he was still alive.
The Americans are hiding in the tall grass, so I'm gonna have to give this scene a 10/10.
There was waaaay more to it than that.
What's amazing is I have rewatched that scene and I don't see the guys in the grass until they stand up.
😂😂😂
Professor, please correct me if I'm wrong.
00:37
Entirely accurate; yes and no. I believe most American troops landing at Omaha came ashore from British landing craft that were considerably larger than the LCVPs shown.
The Rangers did land in the smaller LCVPs, but I think they were not in the first wave as shown; those landing at Omaha were diverted from the assault at Pointe du Hoc. So I don't think anyone in the first wave hit the beach in LCVPs.
01:40
For filming purposes it would not have been practical to show this, but due to the low tide the troops had several hundred yards to advance after exiting the landing craft. I think it would be improbable that they would get mowed down so effectively at that range by mg fire as soon as the ramps dropped. As you said, mg fire was not the biggest initial threat.
Next: ghost rates horror movies for Realism
I remember watching this movie in the theater. I immediately thought to myself "war movies will never be the same again". The realism was so overwhelming you almost left the theater with PTSD. I grew up watching so many war movies in the 60's and 70's and they always made it look much more sanitary. They didn't have the means back then to give these movies the realism they deserve. I still watch this about once a year or so, it's that good.
Aside from the fact most of the landing craft used on Omaha were British LCAs piloted by Royal Navy sailors rather than Higgins Boats...but yeah, sure, give it a 9/10 because the beach obstacles are the wrong way around...
Came here to say this, no need now! 😂
And also, yeah the machine gun nest is wrong, the dumb germans, the flame thrower, the wrong nationality for foreign Wehrmacht soldiers, the suizid sniper run, ballistics in the water, yeah 9/10.
Completely wrong unit in town, dumb germans, who let the americans shoot first, when the wall collapses, the lone sniper in the church tower, no tactical maneuvering to safe the wounded, yeah 9/10.
etc
Small details that eill never diminish this movie's greatness.