Question: When Caparzo hands Melish the knife, why did he get upset?
lionhead
21st Mar 2022
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
8th Feb 2018
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Question: In the radar site scene, after Miller lets Steamboat Willie free, Reiben wants to leave the mission, and Horvath is holding his gun on him, Jackson also pulls his gun on Horvath, his superior. Nobody seems to care about it. Doesn't it count as a serious violation of military law or something?
Answer: It certainly does, not only on Reiben's part but also Horvath's. However, Capt. Miller was in no place to arrest or write up anybody as they were behind enemy lines and thus, no Allied Military Police to place anybody in custody, he even offered Reiben the option to put in for transfer. Miller understood the men's frustration with the mission and the loss of Wade and Caparzo, so instead of citing orders like he did after Caparzo was killed, decided to defuse the situation by inquiring about the men's pool on what he did as a civilian, then telling them. It worked, as Horvath and Reiben lowered their weapons and calmed the other men.
What about the fact that the soldiers in the movie are shown cursing a lot. Wouldn't that also be in violation of military law?
Maybe in the ultra-PC world of today, but certainly not WW2. I separated from service nearly 20 years ago, but can definitely say it was almost against regs NOT to swear.
What is the ultra PC world?
PC means Political Correct.
Read UCMJ article 134.
No. Swearing is fine in the US Military. It's very common. When I was in there I heard at least 1 F Bomb almost every 2 minutes.
17th Mar 2020
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Question: Rather than sending an army into enemy territory to save a single soldier, wouldn't it have made more sense to put the word out among troops to try find Private Ryan as they found each other? It would have been awfully risky to send an army unit into enemy territory to save a single soldier.
Answer: It's only a squad of soldiers, definitely not an entire army. Word wouldn't spread fast around France during the early stages of an invasion. All original communications were cut and the infrastructure is hell, they had to use pigeons to contact England for a reason. If you want to send word out or find someone you have to send men.
It wouldn't have just been dangerous to a squad into enemy territory to save one man at the time which the movie takes place. They would have had to spend what could be many days to trying to locate him since they didn't know what Ryan looked like.
13th Dec 2017
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
11th Nov 2017
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Question: What kind of explosive were they putting in the socks when making the sticky bomb?
Answer: They say they have enough Composition-B (RDX and TNT) to blow the bridge twice, but when they take the explosives to put into the socks the crates say TNT. So its either Comp-B or TNT that they use.
10th Nov 2017
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Question: Could you really use tracer rounds in the type of machine guns the Germans were firing during the Normandy scene at the beginning of the movie, as seems to be the case?
Answer: Absolutely. There were tracer rounds in ammo belts for the MG42.
Could you fire incendiary rounds as well?
Yes, an MG42 can fire incendiary rounds.
31st Oct 2017
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Question: Would making a sticky bomb using the method shown in the movie be possible in real life?
Answer: Yes, they could be possible. But making bombs like that are very dangerous to use so I wouldn't try it out. It's doubtful anything of the sorts were used during WWII, there already were pre-made sticky bombs around that worked a lot better.
31st Oct 2017
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Question: How accurate is the Normandy invasion scene? Was the real battle as dramatic as shown in the movie?
Answer: Definitely, the scene was praised for its historical accuracy by veterans and WWII experts. Even the landing crafts were real. Not on all beaches this kind of resistance was happening though, like Utah beach.
Answer: The scene was no doubt mostly accurate and was praised as one of the most accurate depictions of World War II ever and even traumatised some veterans. However, there were some changes and some slight inaccuracies (most of it due to filming reasons). For instance the 'Dog One' exit is portrayed as a footpath whereas it was an actual road in reality. The beach in the film is much narrower beach than the real Omaha beach, this was because the real Omaha had the US cemetery and the surrounding area had changed significantly since the war. In any case filming permission on the beach itself was denied by French authorities (although filming in the cemetery was granted), so a similar looking beach in Ireland had to be used. The bunkers were also primarily used as observations posts and not machine gun nests as depicted. However, despite this, the depiction of the landing on Omaha is mostly accurate, and most of the errors mentioned were very minor.
25th Sep 2017
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Question: Why did Upham tell the soldiers to drop their weapons instead of shooting them? Why did they surrender instead of shooting him? And why did he then let them go?
Answer: Upham was not a hardened war vet like the men in his squad. He seen Steam boat Willie shoot Miller which made him furious because of how desperately he tried to save Willies life at the Radar tower so he felt betrayed and guilty for not listening to his squad so he finished the job he didn't have the heart to do before by killing Willie. He let the others go because he didn't have a problem with them. The surrendering Germans knew the Americans were inbound after tank was destroyed so they gave up immediately.
Chosen answer: He was alone and probably couldn't have shot them all before being shot himself. However, he was in a perfect position to make them surrender as none of them wanted to be the one to get shot for aiming their rifle at him. He didn't let them go, he told them to start walking in one direction as his prisoners.
25th Sep 2017
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Question: Why didn't they just shoot Steamboat Willie on sight? And once they decided not to kill him, why couldn't they call a chopper to come take him? Also, why were they so intent on committing a war crime by killing him once he'd surrendered? I know he killed Wade, but that's just what happens in war.
Chosen answer: Rules of war are when someone surrenders you take him prisoner and are not allowed to kill him, they followed the rules of war. They are all very emotional from the battle and losing a friend and fellow soldier though and they wanted a scapegoat. They were behind enemy lines so nobody could come to pick up the prisoner, as the lieutenant explained, and helicopters weren't really around in WW2.
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Answer: The situation from before, an intense firefight, got to him, the stress and anxiety taking over for a moment. It's likely this is his first moment of rest and reflection since landing on the beach. Plus, it's a Hitler Youth knife, revealing they just killed a bunch of minors.
lionhead