Saving You with Distraction

The world right now is complex and unnerving. I'm shifting the focus of my Podcast take your mind off it for a few minutes. So let's talk about a movie!

Is Saving Private Ryan one of the greatest war movies ever made? Absolutely. Is it historically perfect? No. This week, we’re diving into the inaccuracies of a cinematic masterpiece. 

There have been so many videos created about this movie already. This is the short version of my "favourite' issues with one of the best war movies of all time. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:16

I have got a new uh toy here to help uh me produce some more content. Uh normally I'm recording uh I guess it's uh more like uh gee, I don't know, once a week. And it's been a couple weeks even since I recorded anything. So I thought uh I, you know, for this episode, there's a couple of things I'm trying to do. Number one, try to figure out how to use this uh this piece of equipment here, and um also um I'm just thinking about uh changing the theme around a bit with the podcast. I know that the first run of the podcast I did was fairly uh uh it was more political and I had more of a potty mouth and stuff, and I'm trying not to to do that now. Um I just find that there's there's so much going on in the world that I can't keep up. I I think like a lot of people out there, um it's very difficult to uh to even keep up with the sheer volume of of horror uh that's going on in the world. And um so with that in mind, I mean this incarnation of this podcast is uh I feel like it's gonna be more uh designed to uh distract people from from that. So um I'm gonna talk about a little bit uh more about things that I want to talk about because to be honest with you, it's not like I ever really wanted to to be that uh political all the time. Um so anyways, we'll keep that in mind going forward here. Try to keep it uh a little lighter and and uh you know, stuff that is uh stuff to make you think about uh rather than um scary scare people, which is never was never my goal in the first place. But uh yeah, so I mean in the summertime I I talk a lot about CFL, like I have a separate podcast for that. Um big tired guy fan, and and I love being able to talk about uh uh them uh during those months, but uh during the season that is. Um but when I when I come back to this main podcast, I just found it's been a little more difficult to come up with content that's uh positive. I don't I don't even know. Uh yeah, it's it's tough. It's tough out there. So keep in mind that's what we're doing here. We're trying to distract and we're trying to uh uh uh get people more engaged. Don't get some more comments and positive things to say and just get a conversation going to keep your mind off of uh stuff, uh bad things that are happening, right? So um I've always wanted to do a brief and this is gonna be brief, okay? There's there's other ones on the internet that are uh uh a lot longer about this particular movie that I'm gonna talk about. Um and of course, you know, the other theme is I'm learning how to use this new uh uh aid here, uh podcast aid. So anyways, um I always want to talk about one of my favorite movies, and it's uh Save Private Ryan. And it's there's there's uh I mean it's not a totally negative con uh conversation, uh, but I do want to point out some of the things that uh I always thought of that um are inaccuracies and and things that are uh I mean they're just kind of not right. I mean, I'm not trying, like I said, not trying to take away from what a great movie it is. I mean, I got a big poster on my wall in my house because I love this movie so much. It really changed how overnight changed how war movies are made, uh changed the kind of content that can be shown to an audience, and uh it obviously had a huge effect because a lot of veterans, right? Um I don't know whether anyone who was alive then, but you remember a lot of the veterans that went to go watch this movie because it came out in 1998, so a lot of them are still alive, um, they uh they had to leave. Yeah, you know, for the first uh bit of the movie. They had to leave. And of course, if you if if you are if you have never seen it, um yeah, I guess there's a couple of spoilers in here. Uh not too much that it'll totally take away from the movie, but uh just be aware that I'm gonna talk about some stuff that may take away from plot things. Um so now here's some of the things that had uh uh bothered me over time. And I did write some of this stuff down because I wouldn't remember, um, I don't want to forget things. So now you see in the opening part of the movie they have uh, and I'm not gonna use clips and stuff because I don't want to run into trouble with copyright stuff, right? Um if you've seen the movie, then you know what I'm talking about. But at the beginning of the movie, when uh it it's it looks neat and everything, but when when people are underwater and the bullets are going underwater um and they're striking soldiers, um I mean that's it's physically impossible. I'm not a physics major, uh, but I actually watched a video of somebody who was and uh basically debunked all that and said that it's not possible. There's no way that could ever happen. So um keep that in mind when you watch it. Um although it looks neat, uh, it could never happen. It's not uh physically possible. Um the other big thing that a lot of other people on the internet here have pointed out is that the uh the obstacles, their hedgehogs, that's what they're called, um, they're facing the wrong way. So when the when the Higgins boats that are carrying the soldiers are coming in uh to to uh to let them out, um the the whole point of these obstacles, like when you look in the movie, they're they're facing up like this. They're supposed to be going that way, and that's because the the the boats are supposed to get caught on them and start going up them and then toppling over either side or or becoming stuck somehow. When you have them pointing straight at the it's I mean, it's just you just drive around them, you know. So that you know it's it's awesome that they're there. You know, it's great that they showed them in the movie because they were thousands and thousands of them uh to to get in the way of the landing craft, but they were just they were facing the wrong way. Um now the the mega bunkers. So in the movie, um they have this massive what looks to be a massive um uh bunker complex. Um there were bunkers, there there were smaller, um um fixed positions like that, uh, but there was nothing nothing like that. Um that's really um it's it's a little over-the-top um uh like like a over-the-top fortification. So and certainly not an Omaha Beach. Like I've read a few books, obviously, about uh D-Day, and there wasn't anything like that about uh on Omaha, but that I'm not trying to at all. Um uh for if there's any US uh listeners here, uh not not trying to take away from the horror that Omaha was. Um it wasn't from bunkers like that, it was more of machine gun nests and and smaller uh gun emplacements and stuff, but they did horrible damage to those brave uh American soldiers coming in uh on Omaha. So yeah, as much as uh I I mean, and obviously like the movie, it's it's a movie. It's dramatized, it's condensed, it's you know, instead of having these multiple positions, I think they just wanted to show it with one oh I'm gonna hit my microphone there. Sorry about that. Um, with one big um um you know uh fortified thing, and uh that's not really the way uh the way it was, but um again, all things that you can really overlook because it's a masterpiece of a of a movie. Um so there's some other things. Uh I mean, these are really nitpicky, silly little things. Um, but um now in the opening scene, it has to do with the Higgins boats themselves. Um on the opening wave, so on Omaha, um, they all should have been British. Um it was the Royal Navy that was ferrying um the first wave. Uh I don't know about Utah, but I know with Omaha it was it was British. Um, it should have been British crews and British um uh Higgins boats that were bringing the uh the soldiers in. Um again, really nitpicky. Uh there's a great uh um the History Buffs guy. I love that guy's podcast. Um very awesome videos. This the work this guy puts into these things, it's incredible. Um, but uh he had mentioned that on his too, and it is it's true. Like they they should um and even even if the uh Higgins boats were American made, um it was all Royal Navy uh for the first wave, right? It was all Royal Navy crews that were bringing the soldiers in. So it's the guy at the beginning where he was like, you know, clear the ramp, 30 seconds, that guy should have been British. Um that's all. Um now what else is there? Oh, yeah. This is I mean, this I to me, after watching things like Band of Brothers and and of course reading all kinds of, and please, I'm here to tell you too. Um please don't get all your history from these movies. Uh it really bothers me. Read a few books. If you want to know about the war, uh read read books because that's where you get the real stuff, right? The movies, like I said, dramatized dramatized. They've taken characters and merged them together. Um, you listen to Tom Hanks and and uh Steven Spielberg talk about that kind of stuff all the time, where they've you know they've had to take certain narratives and merge them together and and have one character do the things that three did because it's a movie or a miniseries and they don't have time to flesh everybody out, right? Anyways, with that disclaimer, um it's it's the boots that when they show the paratroopers, the 101st and and various 82nd uh paratroop uh American paratroopers, they're wearing black boots. And you know, you you can you can get over that a little bit with the mayhem that battle was. I mean, there were airborne troops that lost all their equipment in the jump and lost their uh, you know, well, could they could have lost their boots and they had taken boots off of a German soldier or off of um a fallen uh comrade American soldier and if they were infantry, then yeah, okay, fine. But all of them were, you know what I mean? So it was just kind of an afterthought. They should have been wearing their their uh burgundy red or whatever they are, though not red, but you know what I mean, their um the the jump boots, and then they weren't wearing them in the in saving private ride. Um what else did I have here? Yeah, and and this one here I I find uh again it's really nitpicky, but but the grooming uh on the German soldiers, um a lot of them were um um they had hair that was um too long. It says too long here. Um they were they were really strict, the Germans were really strict, so about their um deportment and stuff. So you you wouldn't have seen that. Um again, it's not you know, whatever. And what are you gonna say? Like these are when the battle started going. Um I I think okay, put it this way, I think it would be more realistic to show the German soldiers uh with light beards and and uh you know starting to have longer hair if you were doing a movie a couple of weeks into the Battle of Normandy, um, because that's when it really got intense with the Bokaj fighting and that sort of stuff. So maybe it'd be more realistic to see that then. Again, super nitpicky. Like I don't even know why I'm bringing it up, honestly. But but it's true though. I mean, they would they wouldn't they were resting and refitting a lot of those uh soldiers, um, and a lot of them were from rear units that had come back from Russia, so I don't think that they would be that unkept, anyways. That's just it is what it is. So there's some historical inaccuracies too. Um one of them was uh um it this one's kind of a big one for me, just because I'm Canadian. But the the SS troops depicted in Saving Pirate Ryan, and again, I know it's I know it's totally fictionalized, the Battle of Ramel. There is no Ramel, you know, no such town. Um, but in in the more historically um accurate parts before the story pans out into the actual story, of course. Uh the movie, I mean, pans out into the actual story. You have um the SS Das Reich. Um, they were shown fighting in Normandy, and uh like on the day, like obviously the day of the landings, June 6th. Um they weren't anywhere close to there. Um they were actually still in reserve, and they ended up fighting the British and Canadians at Conn. So that's the first time they saw action against the Allies. Um, and again, I'm nitpicking about it just because I'm Canadian. Um, they shouldn't have been shown um uh really no SS unit should have been shown that close. I mean I know because it's the shock value because it's the SS, and everyone who's super not familiar perhaps with uh World War II and that, you'd see that you'd at least know what that symbol is, what the SS means and and all that. And so I think there was just again for shock value to drop SS troops in there. I'm you know, correct me if I'm wrong in the comments, but I I think the bulk of I'm pretty sure the bulk of the SS troops were held in reserve uh while Hitler was asleep and he wouldn't release them until the next day um to go down and start counter uh the counterattacks. But anyways, again, nitpicky stuff, but uh for me as a Canadian, um uh it was the Canadians and the British that ground them down at Conn and pushed them back through falaise. So I think that um they shouldn't have been shown there. Um so what else do we have here? Um uh uh the age. So that this is this is this is a really big thing for me. For or I can't I did it again, sorry guys. Um for a lot of war movies. Um, and this one's no exception. The characters are all too old, they're just they're too old. Um, Captain Miller, Tom Hanks' character. Um, he's talking about being married, which a lot of junior officers were married and stuff, but he looks like he's in his 30s, right? Um and uh that's just no, he he he's an old man. Um, you know, he'd be like a a major lieutenant colonel or something like that if he was that age. So and and with all the experience fighting that he had, so they they they talked about Captain Miller being, you know, he landed, you know, you hear Sergeant Harvath, the character, talking about the fact that they had been fighting together since Kasserine Pass, which was in Africa, which is the first deployment of American troops. So if he fought his way all the way across Africa, now he's landing in Normandy, and including doing some other special operations, which it sounds like his character had done, he'd be at least a major. I mean, at the bare minimum, he'd be a major. Uh, he'd be running a battalion or or higher than that, even, with all the combat experience he would have had. And I know that they depicted uh Captain Miller's character as you know having the shakes and he's obviously suffering horribly from post-traumatic stress. Um and I it's great that they include well, not great, you know what I mean. It's it's it's good that they showed what the war did to people, but when you look at the amount, like he he should have been a lot worse, is what I'm saying, uh, with the amount of experience and and terrible things he would have seen. Um, so again, I was talking about age, of course. Um, all the characters, the privates, corporals, whatever, they're just they're just too old. I mean, there's 17-year-old kids that were storming the beach in Normandy. Not you know, if you were 23 years old, you're an old old person if you're in uh infantry. Um, I know that are rangers and the the training is typically longer to be a ranger. That's fine. Um, but they would be uh a heck of a lot younger, that's for sure. Um now what else? I'm just trying to think of I have age on there. There's a whole pile of things that uh well well and let's just continue. I tiny a little bit with the age thing. Um, all the series are like that. Like when you look at Band of Brothers, um, they're all too old, you know. You have a new kid in a block in there, way too old. Um you have um uh The Pacific, which to me, and this is an this is a different podcast episode, but I want to uh talk about the Pacific and and how much uh I like that better than Band of Brothers. I mean I love Band of Brothers, okay? I love them all. But the Pacific for me is the crown jewel of the three series that are out. I think I thought it was the best one. Um a lot of people will disagree with me. Um, but I th I thought the Pacific was uh was very well done, and I'll get into that in another episode. The only one who got it right, the only miniseries that they did that really got it right was uh Masters of the Air. Because you look at those those actors, and even though they are older, they managed to make them look like they were a lot younger. Um the uh Bucky and uh his friend there were um um I mean they were in their 20s, but they were majors, right? Um they had a lot of training experience and they were helping train people in the United States and they had combat experience. They were they were leading the groups, the bomber groups in that series. They were major um or captain or whatever. That's totally, totally realistic. I think that's one of the only series um that uh got it right. I mean, I'm and I'm talking about all war movies, and when you have like John Wayne strutting around as a captain or something, you know, like it's just it's weird, you know. If you wanted to be realistic, they need to be uh actually, you know what? Another one off the top of my head, just just thinking about it right now, the age thing. Um uh what was the uh um Dunkirk? Some of the soldiers on that, they got they got some of that right too. They were really young, and the pilots too, the RAF pilots. They should I I you know I think that was pretty accurate. Anyways, I could go on about uh stuff like this for a long time, and this is really just serving as an introduction to um some of the other content that I want to talk about, but there's no taking away and there's no denying that uh Saving Pride Ryan was um it changed the way uh war movies got made. We know that it's a great movie. Um I absolutely uh I'm not ashamed to say that every time I watch Captain Miller die, um, I I gush. And there's several other parts of that movie that that are very uh it it's difficult to watch. The one thing that movie, the point of that movie I find is to convey what war is like to people who will never have any idea what it's like. And uh for that it does a great job, and I'm never ever gonna think that any of my nitpicking or anyone else is on the internet because there's lots of videos out there that pan the whole story and say it's stupid and whatever. And we know it's loosely based on um the Nihilin brothers, if you've watched any of the behind behind-the-scenes stuff. Um, but uh, I thought I I still think it's it's a fantastic movie, and it really did uh spawn several other um great war movies, um, if you want to put it that way. I don't think you can should think of war movies as being great, but anyways, that's all I got today. Um a couple of my little little nitpicky things about one of my favorite movies of all time. And uh, you know, look forward to uh uh some other content about uh music. I have some ideas about I really want to uh I'm gonna test the waters a bit and see if I can um play some songs and talk about them. People do it all the time on the internet and uh they don't get copyright strikes. It's uh fair use, right? Right? Fair use. And it's uh, you know, if I'm pointing out something about the song, I should be able to do it. Of course I won't make any money off it, but that's not what I'm here for. So, anyways, uh we'll leave it there. This is Dave here, podcast of a normal guy. Enjoy your night, and we'll talk to you again soon. Right bye.