Spielberg's WW2 Trilogy Review

[00:00:00] This podcast is a production of Unfiltered Studios. If you would like to know more about joining Unfiltered Studios, please visit our website at unfpod.com for more information. I like taking people into a dark theater with a thousand strangers and giving them an experience they'll never forget. Steven Spielberg is recognized worldwide as probably the greatest filmmaker in our contemporary history.

[00:00:25] I don't think he makes a bad film. He's the consummate storyteller and what fascinates me about the way he does it is that he's not locked into any specific style. There's no Spielberg brand other than excellence. In 1994, Spielberg earned his first Best Director Academy Award for Schindler's List and used profits from the film to set up the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. Schindler's List was a terribly important movie to Steven Spielberg.

[00:00:55] He first bought the rights to the book by Leopold Page, a survivor, in 1983, but it took him 10 years, he said, to feel ready to make the film. Saving Private Ryan was epic in the amount of things and people, sets, props, weapons, and it was very difficult often for me to keep track of all of that.

[00:01:17] Steven doesn't think in those terms, though. He thinks of what he needs to tell the story because he's seeing shots and scenes and sequences long before we've ever gotten to them. Here for another big Spielberg overview. We're examining what we like to call his World War II trilogy. He did, in 1987, Empire of the Sun. Then he really got taken really seriously with 1993's Schindler's List.

[00:01:43] And then he closes out with 1998's Saving Private Ryan. So enjoy, gang, because we get into all kinds of themes that get very overlooked, very less talked about, and they really shouldn't. It's some key, key stuff. So enjoy. You really will get something out of these chats. Reloaded it.

[00:02:12] Re-edited it. Sometimes we get so deep into conversation that we have separate segments worthy of their own place in the sun. A reshuffled mini-episode.

[00:02:33] You want these people?

[00:03:14] My people, I want my people. Who are you, Moses? The man saved the lives of thousands. The movie touched the hearts of millions. The winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Schindler's List. Presented with limited interruptions by Snap.com. NBC Sunday in two weeks. This film contains prolonged depictions of graphic, realistic World War II violence, as well as intense adult language. The original content of the film has not been altered for this television broadcast.

[00:03:45] Parental and viewer discretion is strongly advised. And risking their lives for a mother's last surviving son. That's my mission. Tom Sizemore, Vin Diesel, Edward Burns, Oscar winners Matt Damon and Tom Hanks. You're going home. Winner of five Academy Awards. And now, Saving Private Ryan. But yeah, no. It's cool that he's made movies for every kind of audience.

[00:04:13] You know, and Empire of the Sun was kind of his first venture back into World War II again, other than Indiana Jones. And that one blew me away right away. Yes. Aviation, too. There you go. And once you get over Christian Bale being a whiny bitch. That movie alone, I think, started my love affair with the P-51. Right. And doesn't it make a cameo near the end of Private Ryan during the village bombing? I don't know. It saves them, I believe.

[00:04:43] Yeah. Right. And I remember some of the historians. The Cadillac of the Sky. Yep. Cadillac of the Sky. But yeah, I remember, yeah, best movie where Vin Diesel is actually tolerable. True. I remember some trivia guys going so far as to say that bomber would rarely, you know, go in for that kind of a bombing raid. And it's just like, fuck you. You don't know what kind of bombing is. It's a bomber. It's what the model they used in men. Yeah.

[00:05:13] Another thing that is worth mentioning with Spielberg, just, you know, just looking at his list of films. How good is he with child actors as well? Yes. Yeah. He is the man. He doesn't. It was brilliant when I found out he improvises everything. Well, no wonder it's good. You always forget as well. Speaking of child Empire, the Sun with Christine Bale, don't you? Yes. Yeah. Empire, the Sun. Drew Barrymore is a bit different because isn't he?

[00:05:41] He's a godfather as well, isn't he? Drew Barrymore. Think so, yeah. Yeah. But I mean, Empire of the Sun was neat just going back because, you know, when I saw that in the 2000s, you know, Christian Bale's his stars rising. And then you go back and you're like, oh, man, this is what the 80s generation knew is like. It'd be interesting if he went back to Christian method actor Bale now. You know, it's like, hey, it's like, how do I repay you? How do I get an even different kind of role from him?

[00:06:10] It would be interesting is like this is not the young kid who I mentored growing up, you know, and without that. Definitely. I don't think I absolutely don't think that Christian gets anything like new sees or, you know, swing kids. I'm glad you're bringing up all the different kid actors, because like even if you find them still annoying, you can't tell me they're not giving a better performance than they would otherwise.

[00:06:34] Like, like that's some dedication to just make everybody be comfortable on set. And I think it says so much about your character than it does getting it done on time. It's more than just you want to do a good job. You want to also have the audience feel something. And it's kind of also a shame that other than doing reshoots of the opening of Revenge of the Sith, he's never comfortable with starting on something already pre set up.

[00:07:02] So like both him and Ron Howard turned down directing a Star Wars movie on their own selves. It's like, well, I think the prequels or even the new movies would have been so much better had you guys gotten involved. Just take the money. You got this money to spend from Disney. And it's it's so funny, though, like he he hasn't really messed with Disney much. And he's kind of stayed firmly with Universal and Warner Brothers and the like.

[00:07:28] And anything that time that it hasn't done well, he's just had so many successes. It's very hard for them to say, hey, by the way, you're never going to work in this town. It's like he could do it on his own money. I think he's one of those few directors that would never fail to get whatever project he's working on up and running. Mainly because half the time his own company funds him because DreamWorks must be one of the biggest plays in town, mustn't it? Do you know what I mean? It has to be at this point.

[00:07:55] I mean, and with all the reshaping of that company. That's the Shrek money alone. That's the Shrek money for sure. I was just looking before at some of the earnings he made over his film. And it's so funny because in the 90s, he was like 250 million he made from Jurassic Park. And then after that, he went and did Shinder's List, which he refused to take a payment for. Didn't he donate a lot of the proceeds as well?

[00:08:25] Yes, he did. To the charities, didn't he? Yep. Yeah, so he's got an estimated fortune of 2.8 billion and is one of the richest people in Hollywood. Oh, and he's still keeping careful watch of his kids. You're going to be damned if you hear about him being an asshole to women or anything. I mean, he's been happily married to the same actress. So it's like Kit Katja for years. So it's like, yeah, he's played his cards pretty well.

[00:08:55] And anybody who he's worked with, it's not just that he gets money back for them on time. He's just patient. It's just he worked on himself and then he worked with other people. And it's like so many other people would just be a nervous wreck or losing their shit. And so it's still to this day in every film studies college course, they need to just say, hey, remember, this is the same guy who could have lost his shit. But he was patient on the set of jaws when everything was going wrong.

[00:09:23] You know, that is something to congratulate. You know, that that didn't he didn't just luck out. There was some luck, but it was also just in a lesser hands. He would have been talking shit, getting high, you know, coming to set late. And he didn't do that. This little stat says, it's what you're saying here, Cam, is he's directed 17 actors in Oscar nominated performances. 17 actors. So he gets performances out of actors.

[00:09:53] And one of the names on this is Liam Neeson, by the way. Before his various troubles and issues. But yeah, he gets everybody like out of their comfort zone in a normal way, kind of, instead of just the pressures on. That's the other thing, too. Like and if he doesn't like you, it's nothing personal. He also doesn't make that well known. He concentrates on what he needs to get done. It's just so wild.

[00:10:23] It's just going to be one of those directors that, you know, long after we're gone and the next generation and the next generation and the next generation. After that, people will be picking his films up forever, really, won't they? Yeah. I think I need to go back and start re-watching a load of his films. We might have to do a Spielberg box set, Liam, I think. Yeah, I think so, man. Ben Stiller. The thing that gets me is like, I remember seeing him in Empire of the Sun.

[00:10:49] And he's one of the guys that Lithgow's with. Wait, you mean not much? Yeah. I'm sorry, I won't think of Big Mouth. Different John. The thing I love about that scene is just, hey, kid, you want a Hershey bar? He goes, yeah. He says, I want one, too. Right, right, right. That one, he says, it's just like, hey, that kid looks very familiar, you know?

[00:11:16] I'm like, holy shit, it was Ben Stiller the whole fucking part. Yeah, and Ben said he was a huge Spielberg fan, and they have this long take going on. It says, he said it goes on for like four minutes, everybody needs to do everything perfect. And then they get, the camera gets to him, and he screwed up his line. And he said, you know, he was just so nervous, and he's apologizing. I'm trying to remember Empire of the Sun. That's not the one that has the. Christian Bale. That is the one. When he was a kid. He's one of the prisoners, yeah.

[00:11:46] Yeah, he's the rich kid, he gets taken in by the Japanese internment camp. Japanese internment camp. But yeah, him and Joey Pants are all like just brutal to everybody, bullies. Don't you see Hiroshima get hit way in the background? Yeah, there's one part where he's, it's like God taking a photograph. Right.

[00:12:06] And when they come back, the kid he made friends with is going to be a, the war's over, and he's going to be a kamikaze pilot. And he's just, he gives a piece of fruit to Christian Bale, and he raises his, he raises his sword to cut it. And John Malkovich shoots the kid thinking he was going to kill Christian Bale. And then he says that racial slur, he was just another GAP. I'm like, Jesus.

[00:12:32] You just scarred that kid for life with not only your bigotry at the time, but then, yeah. Shooting a potential, yeah. It's even funnier looking at reviews from any time, and how many of them are just people who are whiny and hate any kind of critique, versus we're never going to hear it anyway just because, oh, I'm part of the problem, I hate how that belittles me. Or it's like, they're not even talking to you. They're talking, they're opening a dialogue.

[00:12:57] You can't say, you know, it's like, I don't want to watch every depressing thing either, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. You know, it's just, it's interesting how. I've only seen, I've only seen Schindler's List once. And you know what? That movie still sits with me. Yeah. And it's not, it's not even, it's like, man, I, look, I only need once on it. And I think that was back in high school. You're still thinking about it. I still. That's a good movie. Still, man. And it's like, that is the, I got the, I could, one more. Like, I could have saved one more.

[00:13:26] Like, God damn, man. Yeah. It just, fuck it. It passes the script writing contest too, because like, you know, you have to be reminded. He's not necessarily a likable guy, but. Yeah. He did the unthinkable, which was. He tried. Yes. Something. He tried. Something is, something is better than nothing. It's even funnier looking at reviews from any time and how many of them are just people who are whiny and hate any kind of critique versus we're never going to hear it anyway,

[00:13:56] just because, oh, I'm part of the problem. I hate how that belittles me. Or it's like, they're not even talking to you. They're talking, they're opening a dialogue. You can't say, you know, it's like, I don't want to watch every depressing thing either, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. You know, it's just. Right. It's interesting. I've only seen. I've only seen Schindler's List once. And you know what? That movie still sits with me. Yeah. And it's not. It's a great movie. It's like, man, I look, I only need once on it. And I think that was back in high school. And I still think. I still.

[00:14:26] That's a good movie. Still, man. And it's like that is. I got the. I could one more. I could have saved one more. God damn, man. Yeah. It just fucking. It passes the script writing contest, too, because like. You know, you have to be reminded. He's not necessarily a likable guy, but. Yeah. He did the unthinkable, which was. He tried. Yes. Something. He tried. Something is. Something is better than nothing.

[00:14:54] And I want to thank Warren Littlefield and Donald Meyer of NBC for devoting their schedule tonight to bring this film to the largest audience it will ever have. But first, I want you and especially parents to know that Schindler's List is more explicit and more graphic than anything you may have seen before on network television. I made the film for this and future generations so that they would know and never forget that

[00:15:20] six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and that history could not be denied. I could not be honest to that history or to the memories of its victims without depictions of violence and suffering. So while every parent should make a judgment for their own family, I do not personally believe this is a film for the very young. My younger children, for example, of elementary school age have still not seen Schindler's List. If they were of high school age, I would want them to.

[00:15:50] When the film was released, there was overwhelming support that it should be seen by high schools. And it was shown in theaters free to nearly two million students through the cooperation of this nation's governors. So tonight in your homes, you will experience the story of Oscar Schindler, a German businessman, a member of the Nazi party, a womanizer and a war profiteer who saved the lives of more than eleven hundred Jews.

[00:16:19] It took me years to finally see Schindler's List. Like I knew it was a good movie. I knew it was heavy. I couldn't convince any of my folks to let me see it. They're like, it's good. You'll remember for years. And but this is also interesting, like this starts Spielberg actually putting down his foot. So just like how there were movie studios that would edit movies to make a more family friendly, much like Steven Soderbergh, he let NBC air Schindler's List, but only on cut.

[00:16:47] And same thing with Saving Private Ryan ever since Veterans Day in 2001. You can air it, but only on cut. Now, since I've seen Schindler's List air on USA Network and they still modify some of the sex. It's so funny how well, it's not really funny. It's ridiculous how we're OK with showing you the horrific violence, but we're still afraid of someone, you know, getting under by oh, my God, I saw a boob. And same thing with Saving Private Ryan. I will see AMC or TNT air it mostly on cut. But every once in a while, they'll modify the language.

[00:17:15] I'm like, oh, it's not the same without the foobar scene. So, yeah, it you take and choose what you can. But I think this is what earns him so much respect. And this is without this, you don't get some of the more serious Tom Hanks dramedies. You definitely don't get even even his movies that he's producing on the side. You don't get Philadelphia. You definitely don't get Philadelphia. Well, that's yeah, that was a game. That's true. Ninety three is a big, very underrated year.

[00:17:44] But like you don't even get in 05, you got both War of the Worlds and Munich. And he is those are his answers to the recent War on Terror events. And so it's just so interesting how Chandler's List is pretty much his answer to him being of Jewish descent. And I didn't even know that. Yeah. Saving Private Ryan is pretty much I'll mix in some Indiana Jones Nazi killing action, but then I'm going to mix it in with classic war movies.

[00:18:11] And it's so funny how people have tried to reinterpret the stance on it when it's pretty much just he kept it simple. It's an anti-war movie. War sucks. Yeah, for real. Here's why it sucked. And I but yeah, Chandler's List, it's kind of one of those. It is very much like 12 Years a Slave. I watched it once. I got it all. If I'm going to rewatch something, I might watch the beginning and the end. I don't think I can stand for the whole thing. It is good. But it will wipe you out. Yeah. Yeah. Like I was that way recently with the deer hunter.

[00:18:40] I hadn't seen it since pre senior year of high school. I saw it again over two days. I was like, now I got it. Now I'm good for the rest of my life. It really is engaging. There's pros, there's cons. But after that, that's all I need. And Christopher Walken spitting in De Niro's face was really scripted by the director. And he didn't know that. And De Niro was so pissed. I bet he was.

[00:19:06] But it's so wild how those guys opened up the door and Spielberg is kind of doing what you expect from other filmmakers like that. Chimino, Coppola, people who are. It's so funny how we associate De Palma with gory epics and tells. And he was afraid to do that most of the time just because it was time and money and you had to get it right. And Spielberg, it seems like he just leaps into it. He shows you the details. You don't feel like they're gratuitous.

[00:19:36] You feel like they're realistic. And you're just like, oh, my God, someone just got set on fire. How are they going to take this beach? And so what other people who should be dead are still alive. I it's wild how Schindler's List, though, I was fortunate enough to see a 2017 airing because they were promoting like an anniversary Blu-ray release of it. And you saw more of what Spielberg did when the movie first aired on NBC, where he talked about the Jewish history museums that the movie helped fund.

[00:20:03] So when people call Schindler's List and an Oscar grab, that's where I go. No, no, no, no. See, you can't call it that. Yes. Yeah. Yes. It got awards, but he did. That was a personal movie. That was one he did for his own heritage. Like, and yet, don't get me wrong. I would love to see the sequel Schindler's List 2.

[00:20:28] That's a reference to the robot chicken sketch where they make Liam Neeson be more like his taken persona. Schindler's List 2. Schindler's Pissed. There's a reason he will always be remembered as Oscar Schindler. Like, he did that role so well. Now, the watershed moment for that Schindler's List was, I could have done more. I could have done more. And I just, I lost it in the theater.

[00:20:58] I just, I busted out balling. Yeah. And I was so mad. I love Seinfeld, but they did a parody of that with Judge Reinhold. Yes. With Jerry's parents. And it's one of the few times I got pissed off. Schindler's List kind of starts the whole Janice Kaminsky relationship. Spielberg's used him as his main cinematographer since then. It's a hard film, man. It is hard. But I see other people trying to say they downplay how Schindler was a douche in real life. I'm like, well, see, we still know that he's not much.

[00:21:28] He's selfish in the first scene saying, oh, take what you need. Just don't close down my shop. We see him being an adulterer. So I don't feel like we need to know anymore. He needs sex to get through it and commit it. Yeah. I didn't know that we needed to see much of anything else. So it's just kind of like, I feel like audiences want something more blunt, but still get depressed. It's another one where I see people saying, I did not care for that. And I'm like, interesting. Okay.

[00:21:52] My only issue with Schindler's List is that I pretty much blame Schindler's List for killing any potential Indiana Jones sequels. He said he could never do the Nazis as a joke anymore. He couldn't have Indy fighting Nazis. Of course, Indy Dial of Destiny. It's revisiting the Nazis. And I'm pretty sure that's why Spielberg didn't want to do Indy 5. If that was going to be the screenplay thing. Was that all five or six?

[00:22:21] There's been five of them? Yes. It's five. Okay. But that's why it took a while to do the fourth one. Then, yeah, part five, he's like, I'll hand it to James Mangold. Now, James Mangold, in all fairness, very similar. He did a great job. Yeah, I did. I thought so, too. But he's a very similar like Spielberg in that he likes mixing a neo-Western look and feel with dad movie kind of quality, as well as mixing in just, again, troubled hero. And people like to just call him the franchise guy.

[00:22:50] It's like, well, guys, there's a reason he's gone back and done when he started out doing, which was biopics and crime thrillers. It's like, I don't know what you want when that's kind of what he's known for doing. So, yeah. Back to Schindler's list, though. Yeah. The I mean, it's funny when you consider that Spielberg up until that point was considered basically Mr. Popcorn Movie Guy. Had no respect by the Academy. Yeah. How many films that he did? Did they do that? Never. Everyone said, oh, he should win an Oscar for this.

[00:23:20] He should win an Oscar for this. Hollywood loves him. Not even a sniff, not even nominations. And then it never got a best director nomination. And then Schindler's list comes along. And now suddenly, oh, he's Mr. Oscar. Excuse me. He's Mr. Oscar, just like Martin Scorsese. Remember Martin Scorsese had that same issue. And Scorsese didn't know Keaton, too. Keaton, yes. And many of our actors, like. Nazis are horrible. Yes.

[00:23:49] Schindler's list is a great film. That's a good one. The end. The end. The end. We'll return after these messages. Hi, folks. How's that here? We got a 90-minute weekly shack stop. It's growing all over the world. Find it at 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern time on Mondays. Then 3 p.m. on Wednesdays. Then 7 p.m. on Thursdays.

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[00:25:17] Do you ever find yourself thinking about who would win in a fight between Goku and Superman? Hi, I'm James Gavsey, and on the Who Would Win Show, me and my co-host Ray ignore anything important happening in the outside world and debate fictional battles between characters from comics, movies, and video games. We got a new show every week, and almost always am I the winner. Yeah, not true, Ray. In the past, we've discussed such matches as Captain America vs. Darth Vader. Solid Snake vs. the Iron Giant. Classic matchups like Robocop vs. Terminator.

[00:25:47] And even the Muppets vs. Sesame Street. That one was crazy. So if you're a fan of geek culture and love a spirited debate, check out the Who Would Win Show wherever you get your podcasts. Or check us out at whowouldwinshow.com. Sometimes the perception of movies is different than what it really is. I still meet people who will not see Schindler's List because they don't think they can take it. A lot of times they're women. And I don't mean that it's a sexist comment, but they are. They just don't think they can take it.

[00:26:14] And yet the perception of Schindler's, the reality is it's about saving 2,000 people and not killing them. And sometimes the perception of this film, although I think it is a little tougher in some ways. It is. But that's what's important about it because it doesn't patronize the audience and it tells the truth about combat. Yeah. Yeah. I could have played it really safe and told just another World War II story filled with thrills, spills, and action and adventure. That would have been very easy for me.

[00:26:40] I did that once called Raiders of the Lost Ark where the enemy was the Nazis and another one called Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where yet again the enemy was World War II. And I couldn't do that in this case. I had too many people who fought that war wanting me personally to tell this story the way they experienced the war, not the way Hollywood has told us or informed us what combat was like. There have been very few films that have really been about combat. One of them was Platoon.

[00:27:10] And another one in a strange way was the early Lewis Milestone film All Quiet in the Western Front. Now in between those two movies there have been other examples of moments in Battleground are amazing, moments in Walk in the Sun, moments in They Were Expendable. But for the most part war was meant to glorify. Therefore by glamorizing combat you glorify the heroes that fought those wars. And that was done for a reason back in the 1940s.

[00:27:39] And that was basically done to make people at home feel that the boys who were dying, your sons who were dying, were dying for a very great, important, necessary cause. And that was a noble thing to do. That was a noble thing to do then. It served its purpose. Those were propaganda films. But they started a trend of World War II movies and very few films, except for films like the story of G.I. Joe or Steel Helmet, that veered off course and told their own truths about that war.

[00:28:05] Most of the pictures used the war as a commercial springboard to make money to profit from that war and other wars. That was not my intention or our intention when we made Proud of Ryan. Was your intention to show it as close as you could to how it really was, especially in the opening 23 minutes of this film?

[00:28:26] I think if I showed this movie, if I actually shot this movie as close to how it actually was, I could not have released the movie. I would not have found theaters that would have accepted the movie and I would have gotten an X rating. Forget an NC-17 or an R, it would have been an X rating. What it really was like was an X rated war. All war, Vietnam, Korea, World War II, every war is an X rated war. I did have a line that I drew in the sand, so to speak, of Omaha Beach that I didn't cross.

[00:28:56] I got up to the line, I never crossed it. People may see the film and say, well, he crossed the line for me. And that's fine in their judgment. In my own judgment, which is why I can live with myself, I didn't really put on film all that I could have put on film about war. But it is pretty damn close. How do you honor veterans? Do you honor them by telling the truth or by glamorizing or romanticizing or just by showing the way it was, showing the way it is?

[00:29:25] I just think, just in all honesty, you show all the honesty. And the honesty meaning that death comes quick and when it doesn't, you suffer and you lose your best friends. And then you make new ones and you lose them. And then you're going on a mission that you don't think is right, that you think is immoral, that you don't think is a fair thing to be asked to do.

[00:29:49] At the heart of this story really is the morality play of, is it right to save Private Ryan, who has a mother to return home to? But these eight guys might not be around to return home to their moms because the War Department has decided to do something humane. Maybe it's a public relations mission they're on. But they all argue about it. The larger context of this movie is World War II and the Normandy invasion.

[00:30:15] But the story and what really made me tell it, want to tell it, was that those moral questions. Have any of you ever had a bickering match about people who find Saving Private Ryan overrated and they're just like, the story's not much there? And I think it just helps that I had veterans in my family and they were like, yeah, the whole Preserve the Bloodline is an actual thing. And it was actually based on an actual. It's so funny how without that, you don't get Band of Brothers.

[00:30:43] And that's the same or the Pacific or even the recent one for Apple that was really good with Austin Butler, Masters of the Air. Same thing. You don't get that air battalion and Private Ryan's kind of historical fiction, if you will. And without fail, I will see people trying to massacre it. They're like, oh, look in that shot. You can see that's not really a real tank or they wouldn't go in for a bombing just for one guy. I'm like, you're missing the point. Look at the gas chariots and gladiators.

[00:31:13] Yeah, I don't see you complaining about Ben-Hur being awesome or four hours long. So what's the problem? What's the problem? But now, I mean, go ahead. I lived next door to a World War II vet for a few years and he liked, like is a funny word, but he appreciated Saving Private Ryan. Did you hear the story about Scotty from Star Trek actor James Duhon?

[00:31:40] He was like in the Canadian brigade that, you know, was drafted into World War II. And he said that like when he saw that opening night, he felt like he had just gotten shot in the ass again. That's how convincing the fool he was. And unfortunately, I have seen even people be offended by the violence. I'm like, do you not know what you're in for? You are seeing a realistic, horrific blockbuster.

[00:32:06] And I've even seen people who have seen the other imitators like Black Hawk Down, but I've still not seen Saving Private Ryan. I'm like, seriously? Whatever. I'm not saying you got to like it, but what is happening? There's a little detail in there. Not so little, but when they're underwater and the convention is all they're safe. And then they were getting shot. The bullets were hitting them underwater. Remember that? Yeah. Yeah. The passage of time. I don't think I'd ever seen that in a movie before. Oh, definitely. It's the old thing too.

[00:32:34] You can jump 500 feet in the water and you're fine. Yeah. It's just baloney. I feel like a lot of audiences, they want to restrict themselves. It's like they don't want to see something depressing unless it's like a Ken Burns documentary or a coming of age movie. It's like you can have both. Yes, you're going to be excited and then you're going to be horrified. Then you have time to calm down. Like it's literally a repeat.

[00:33:01] Like first terrified, then excited because then they're retaliating against the barbarians at the gate. And then back to square one, like we're recouping. We have to eat, but we're not hungry. We're just we feel like crap. We just got a new briefing. I mean, that's like the Harry Potter films because they altered. They change different things in them, but it was still the same. Yeah. People were still mad about that shit. Now they're mad about the new series coming out. I'm like, it's like you can't have it all, guys.

[00:33:31] I know. It's like you're a fucking chance. People associate Nathan Field on as, oh, yeah, the Firefly Castle rookie guy. I will always know him as the wrong Ryan. I know I do associate him with Firefly, but I also associate him as Al Jordan. I cannot I can't see him as Guy Gardner. Like it's just too fucking dumb. It doesn't work. Not for me. That was like his first movie he ever did.

[00:34:00] My grandfather, bless him to be 93. He saw the movie, really enjoyed it. And the only thing he thought was a little Hollywoodized was Tom Sizemore's character showing disrespect to Tom Hanks. He's like, yeah, he would have been on the next plane out for showing that much disrespect. But it works for me dramatically just because I have it even in my notes here. Like, I love how he is like legit, like, yeah, there's still suspense.

[00:34:27] You don't know who he is or why he does what he does is like they are not everyone is not who they truly are on the surface level. That's what I take away. Everyone takes away the realistic stuff. I like how he simply says I'm a schoolteacher. I have no business being down here in the Pacific. That's what made Band of Brothers in the Pacific so good because you had the actual and you had the actual soldiers being interviewed and that awareness to D-Day. Exactly. And it was back and forth.

[00:34:57] It was the show. By the way, not excited to be on a day. Oh, boy. It's known for bloodshed, you know, and many heroes being lost and get you a bomb cake. Because like there's pros and cons to I mean, in fact, without that, you don't get plenty of these woods, Iwo Jima double feature. And I'm kind of on the bandwagon. I didn't care for the American side, even though it does address stuff about everyone being a poster boy. I do love the Japanese side of it because that is definitely in line with Saving Private Ryan.

[00:35:26] Everybody's slowly being converted into animals, killing machines. So I feel like it's his full metal jacket, but a little more dramatically gripping. I mean, I love how behind the scenes, I'm sure you guys heard about the tale, how everybody else was working out. And Spielberg said, except for Matt Damon, you I'm going to make them despise you. Acting wise, you didn't go to boot camp. They had to work their ass off.

[00:35:56] I love how this is probably one of the few times like Spielberg's pretty much gone along with everybody except Julia Roberts on hook. That was like the only time he said that was a mistake. We did not see eye to eye. We just argued it wasn't enjoyable. One of the few other times he flat out on this one, the only person he had to restrain was Tom Sizemore. He's like, hey, you're a good actor. I've heard about your drug troubles. No, I know. You're like to set one day you show up not knowing your lines. You're getting the fuck out of here.

[00:36:26] Like he laid it on him, which is so unlike Spielberg. Usually he's like, oh, I work with everybody. So I feel like this is where he's kind of showing even more restraint while he's also it's wild how he does kind of a tough love without even going that far. Like he just says, I'm not going to make you a threat. I'm going to make you a promise. Like, you know, if you goof up, I'm not going to defend you here. We're going to make this work. You're an actor. So show up on time. Yeah. Speak.

[00:36:53] He's like one of the best TV producers who everybody does everything on time in two takes. He just somehow everybody believes him without him having to be an asshole. It's so rare because everyone else you hear about them being outspoken or being a jerk to get things done. And he somehow kept it in line. I mean, he has indie favorite Edward Burns. You go the whole movie kind of finding I don't find him annoying, but I'm like, man, he's so anal about his commanding officer.

[00:37:21] And then when he finds out the truth, he's like, OK, I'll stop being an asshole. I'm surrounded by assholes. Did you hear how he had troubles working with Vin Diesel? And that's why he killed his character off first. Yeah. No. Yeah. Wait, when was this even private Ryan? 98. He had already done the. Vin did a pretty good movie called Strays, where he's a bouncer hustling. So he was filming Pitch Black around that time. Yeah.

[00:37:51] And so he already had. And Fast and Furious. Right. And so I already had to wrap him. And he was like, but it's so funny. Like, he is so unrecognizable in that movie as a guy who's just not only not used to following orders, but just stupidly goes to say a villager's daughter and just gets himself killed by being out in the line of fire. So it is interesting how you see all these pitfalls. And everybody likes to act like the story is not really there. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I've talked way too long.

[00:38:20] But if any of you guys have a take on it, I just don't. I don't understand why it's on the overrated list now. I've seen so many people who I think would like it. And because there's so many war epics. I mean, we could do a whole podcast on every war epic that was popular and guaranteed Saving Private Ryan would be like top of everybody's list. That's the problem. I guess so. It goes back to Amistad. I can like both Thin Red Line and I can like Saving Private Ryan.

[00:38:49] Why does it have to be a versus every time? I like Mad TV's spoof on the ship, but better. Saving Ryan's private. Well, fair enough. Somebody had to do it. Elliot, did you ever have the chance to see this in theater? No, I did. So you saved a private right in the theater. And I remember being... It's one of those movies. I've watched it once. I can't go back and watch it. No, it's fair. I had someone else do it that same way. It's too much. It's rough.

[00:39:16] Yeah, that bit at the end where the soldiers are having that confrontation up at the top of the tower. And the tower, yeah. And the two are... I hate that scene and it gets me. The German and the American. And he's got the knife and he's just putting it into the American soldier's chest. And the medic is so cowardly the whole movie and he finally redeems himself, but it's too little, too late. Yeah.

[00:39:45] I don't even know if he does redeem himself. He doesn't fully redeem himself, but he at least kills the war criminal. Like, they should have never let Steamboat Willie get away. And they clearly said, he's going to kill you guys later. He's going to alert his buddies in the village over. That's right. Yeah. Like you say, it does get under your skin. You're like, oh, so easily avoidable. But it was Spielberg subverting all the tropes of the World War II movie. There were cowardly soldiers in that time.

[00:40:15] There were compassionate Germans. It wasn't always black and white. It was all, you know, there was there was on both sides. There were there was you there. You could say there was humanity on both sides. No, that's true, because remember how the D-Day sequence ends is then you see Barry Pepper's sniper going in. And you can tell like they cut away.

[00:40:43] It's like, yeah, they're flat out not even reading anybody or taking a prisoner. They're flat out gunning them all down with their pistol. Jackson and company. And we don't have to even though he's religious and acts like that makes it all better. It's like, yeah, you committed just as many atrocities. And yeah, Valkyrie even touched on the German side of it, too. That was a good movie. I thought personally, some I love that. I know a movie that Spielberg has cited as an influence. And when you finally see it, you'll totally see a lot of similar stuff.

[00:41:12] It's the Soviet anti-war tragedy come and see from 1985. And same kind of stuff. You're just seeing all this hypertension and point of views. And again, you can't look away from the horrifying violence. So it is. But it is one of those I can only see once because it is just so morbid. What's the pool on me up to right now? What's it up to? Wait, what is it? $300? Is that it? $300? I'm a school teacher.

[00:41:42] I teach English composition. It's a little town called Adley, Pennsylvania. It's the last 11 years. I've been at Thomas Alva Edison High School. I coached the baseball team in the springtime.

[00:42:09] Back home and I tell people what I do for a living. They think, well, that figures. But over here, it's, uh, so I guess I've changed. Sometimes I wonder if I've changed so much. My wife is even going to recognize me whenever it is I get back to her.

[00:42:41] I'll ever be able to tell her about days like today. Ryan, I don't know anything about Ryan. I don't care. Man means nothing to me. It's just a name.

[00:43:00] But if, you know, if going to Rommel and finding him so he can go home, if that earns me the right to get back to my wife, well, then that's my mission. You want to leave? You want to go off and fight the war? All right. I won't stop you.

[00:43:29] I'll even put in the paperwork. I just know that every man I kill, the farther away from home I feel. So we entertained your listener's ears with Superbigger's World War II trilogy. It really was a very personal undertaking. And just the themes, again, just especially on how not everyone is who they are on the surface. It's like that's what really made it a big difference.

[00:43:57] And yeah, very important movies that I really hope just get taught in school.

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