This is TOTALLY off subject for this board. Maybe it’s the wrong place to for it; I don’t know. I thought about it for a while before I decided to post it, and finally I felt I had to. So if any of you feel it’s out of place, I apologize, but it’s something that’s been weighing on my mind and I felt I had to get it off of my chest.
Wtth the Memorial Day weekend upon us, I’ve spent the last couple of days watching a lot of the war movies on TCM, AMC, etc. - The Longest Day, The Bridges of Toko-Ri, Syonara… Lots of great films. Some of them jingoistic pro-war movies made during WW II, some of them anti-war movies like M*A*S*H made in the 60’s that reflected the attitude of the nation during the Vietnam Conflict. As a whole, pro or con, some fine movies and great entertainment.
But there are two movies that to my mind stand miles above the rest. They go beyond simple entertainment and to me are a fitting a tribute to the American Soldier and what it means to be a true Patriot.
The first is Saving Private Ryan, a fictional story set shortly after the invasion of Normandy, and the second movie, (and what may be the most overlooked film about the Vietnam war), We Were Soldiers starring Mel Gibson. It’s the true story about the first actual military engagement between 400 American troops vs. over 2000 Vietnamese in 1965, when it was still being called a “police action”. God, if any of you can watch either of these movies without breaking down, you have no soul.
What sets both of these films apart is their non-biased and non-judgmental glorification of the human spirit. They show the dedication of men not only to God and Country but to each other, and their willingness to put themselves in harms way in horrifying situations that most of us, thank God, will never have to experience, often for a cause they themselves don’t fully understand.
So tomorrow when you’re off work and having a bar-b-que or picnic, take a moment to think about our sons and daughters who are thousand of miles away in Iraq and Afghanistan, putting themselves in the line of fire for us. Whether you believe in this war or not, never forget that it’s somebody’s child who is making the ultimate sacrifice for the rest of us back home.
I spent two tours in VietNam as a Pathfinder with the First Air Cavalry Division 1968-69-70 and was wounded at Tay Ninh. Eddie the thought of you thinking about me on Memorial Day, just makes me giddy with anticipation.
Could not say it any better. People who have served for our country, present or past, deserve our deepest respect. They are better than me and most of us.
I have had the privilege of going to Caen and traveling to the Normandie beaches and the Peace Museum in Caen. It's a requirement for all French children to go before they finish high school. To see actual film footage both from the Allied and German perspective, you gain an appreciation of the sacrifices made by our troops.
So to all our veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice, and to those that put it on the line every day...THANK YOU!!!
Very classy and appropiate Eddie. If the people on this board don't like your posting, then they need to mature.
A good friend of yours and mine hopefully, has traditionally expresed her setiments regarding this holiday. In fact if those here have not taken the time to visit her group, I'll post a link. You'll find that if you search the messages, there is a history of respect, and check out her photos of Pearl Harbor.
Kathy is the only PS that I know, that has expressed her views.
And God bless the families of those in the service. Their joy is more than anyone's when their loved one returns from a tour of duty. Their sorrow is deeper than anyone's when their loved one does not. I'll offer a moment of silence for them also.
No, I don't break down watching either of those ridiculous movies, and no, there's no such thing as a soul or god or angels or devils. I'm especially apalled by Mel Gibson's decision to shoot his film on the exact same stretch of North Carolina which the Duke used to represent South Vietnam in the Green Berets. At least John Wayne had the nerve to give his movie a message ("Little Man, you're what this is all about".) By the way, Col. Kirby doesn't walk off into the sunset with Hamchunk as many of the film's detractors foolishly posit. They're clearly walking into the SUNRISE (Sgt. Petersen got tiger-trapped at the first crack of dawn) for both symbolic and geographic reasons.
And as for Saving Private Ryan, WHAT THE FUCK WAS DOWN WITH THAT FAG UPHAM? The only Nazi he has the nerve to snuff was the guy who'd surrendered twice -- UNARMED! The reality with cowardice in the field is not that the GI fails to shoot -- it's that he can't stop shooting. He shoots anything that moves or looks like it's going to move. Nothing I've ever seen in a movie has irritated more that Jeremy Davies as Cpl. Upham except seeing him trying to simultaneously fuck and strangle his mother as Raymond in SPANKING THE MONKEY.
Thanks fasteddie51 for the post. I am a veteran of the first conflict in Irag and a so call relief effort in Somalia. I can tell you by experience that soldiers overseas felt good that fellow Americans were enjoying there families and gave us hope for our own reunions. Peace
What a coincidence... I always thought your posts bore an uncanny resemblance to a movie review by Gene Shallot.
As for Saving Private Ryan, I never said it was one of the great war films... it just happened to be two of the movies I watched over the holiday weekend and made me thing about our troops in Iraq. BUT; the first 25 minutes of Ryan IS one of the most intense scenes ever put on film.
As for you list, I agree with all of them; and I would add The Big Red One, Gallipoli, Breaker Morant, Das Boot and the German film Westfront 1918 to your list.
I am reminded of last night's 60 Minutes, and if any of you watched it, you'll know what is meant by this. At the end of an emotional hour of examining the stories of, and talking to, a number of Iraq War Wounded, and their remarkable stories of coming back after suffering catastrophic injuries, Andy Rooney wrapped his segment with this poignant observation. Please rememeber, on this day, that those who died fighting for this country, did not "give" their lives, they had them "taken from them." God Bless Them.
Here's a recommendation for another excellent war movie, Gardens of Stone. This one is Francis Coppola's "other" Vietnam movie about the impact of the war on families and friends on the home front. Stars James Caan and James Earl Jones, highly recommended.
Everything about the US Army in January 1991 was a scam. Recruitment was/is a scam. Promotions are a scam, duty assignmentments are a scam, military appropriations are a scam everything about the entire system is morally bankrupt. If the US loses in Iraq (and she will) or Afghanistan (and she will) it's because the entire US military tradition has become self-delusional about its place in the shaping of world history.
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