You may want to sit down before you read this.
An Army historian has come out with a list of the top five movies that “accurately portray U.S. soldiers and combat operations at the time,” and there is one universally beloved title that isn’t on his list: “Saving Private Ryan.”
That’s right: The film that immersed movie-goers in a realistic depiction of the hell that U.S. soldiers faced at Omaha Beach on D-Day did not make the cut.
As if to pour lemon juice on a paper cut, the World War II infantry movie that did make the list was “The Thin Red Line.”
If you haven’t seen “The Thin Red Line,” which is based on author James Jones’ novel about the battle of Guadalcanal, here’s the gist of it: You have no idea who most of the characters are; there are long voiceovers about transcendental meditation; and a good chunk of the movie is a nature documentary.
The move list was compiled by Dave Hogan, who recently retired after 37 years at the U.S. Army Center for Military History in Washington D.C., an Army news release says.
Hogan argued that while the Omaha Beach scenes in “Saving Private Ryan” are realistic, the film felt like “a typical World War II movie.”
“I just felt that the whole premise, sending a unit deep behind enemy lines, through disputed territory to try to just notify this guy that he no longer had to serve, was just far-fetched,” Hogan said in the news release.
Point taken, but let’s not forget that “Saving Private Ryan” represented a massive leap forward in realistically depicting the violence of combat on screen. Even if movie audiences had seen dozens of previous World War II movies, they had no idea how terrifying German machine guns were until they sat through the opening scenes of Private Ryan. The MG-42 could fire up to 25 rounds per second, causing grievous damage to the human body. Earlier movies such as “The Longest Day” didn’t come close to showing how quickly the first troops to land on Omaha Beach were decimated by enemy fire.
One result of “Saving Private Ryan” spending so much time on the D-Day landings is the audiences know that this is not the type of war movie where bullets magically miss the main characters. When the squad has to assault a German machine gun position later in the film, you share the soldiers’ dread.
Let’s also not forget the scene in which Tom Hanks’ character comes back from a dangerous mission and sees soldiers in the rear echelon eating corned beef and cheese sandwiches and drinking fresh coffee — a world away from the life of frontline troops. Even for people who have never served, the look on Hanks’ face is a punch to the gut.
No movie is perfect, and “Saving Private Ryan” does have some slow moments, especially when Ted Danson shows up for his cameo. Also, Matt Damon’s teeth are a tad too clean and white for a paratrooper who has been behind enemy lines for days. That’s nothing against Damon, but the light bouncing off his teeth would give away his position every time he opened his mouth.
So, it is with the deepest amount of respect that we must agree to disagree about “Saving Private Ryan” not belonging on Hogan’s list of the top five most accurate movie portrayals of the Army.
The other movies on Hogan’s list are “Fury,” “From Here to Eternity,” “Cold Mountain,” and “Black Hawk Down.”
We commend Hogan for including “Black Hawk Down.” Not only does this movie show the courage of U.S. troops who fought in Mogadishu, Somalia in October 1993, but it also has more scenes of soldiers uttering “hooah” completely unironically than any other piece of cinema.
Hooah.
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