American Kid
17th July 2002, 05:32
Hey everyone.
Vox put a link onto one of his posts. It brought me to a review of "Saving Private Ryan", my favorite movie, sorry, "film", of all time.
"Private Ryan" means a lot to me. I could get into it, and be on the computer until two in the morning, but I'll state simply that I truly adore and hold dear every frame. And I consider my first viewing of it, a few years ago when it first came out, to be one of the penultimate moments of my maturation into adulthood. Yes, the Kid knows big words. It opened me up to what would become one of the true passions of my life, WW2, and left me determined to go back and trace my grandfather's own combat duty during his time as a paratrooper in Europe, particularly during the Battle of the Bulge.
Vox's review was written by a gentleman named Howard Zinn. A hardcore, welfare endorsing right-winger myself, I'd never heard of him before. And I take from it that he's a vet himself. The review was well-written, the punctuation and grammar were impeccable, becoming of any reputable critique (my "Fight Club" review from "chit chat" being an example of the other side of this how-to equation). But it's content (or *ahem* therum, if you will) however, left me shaking my head.
He condemns war. Which is understandable. I've never been in combat. I've hardly ever been in a fistfight. I'm a hemopheliac, I try to avoid conflict at all costs (maybe why I'm so quick with my words, eh?). But his condemnation of the film, and suggestion that it brings up topics and discussions best left swept under the rug and never spoken about again is OUTRAGEOUS.
"I watched the movie's extreordanarily photographed battle scenes, and I was thoroughly taken in. But when the movie was over, I realized that it was exactly that- I had been taken in."
I was taken in also. And, more significantly, I was also scared shitless. Steven Spielberg, through cinema alone, achieved what scientists probably will not for thousands of years, if ever: time travel. This film is not fucking entertainment. It is graphic, and stomach-churning, and disturbing and terrible and I describe my first viewing of it to people as being like being trapped in a nightmare. And that's what he aimed for. It is truly a miraculous pair of sequences, the beginning and ending. Just by staring at a screen, whether it's TV or canvas, you are placed back fifty years in history. Of course, no one, save the poor boys, German and American, who were there, could ever REALLY know what it was like, but after watching it through Spielberg's lense, you understand enough. You understand through the quickening of your pulse, the sweat in your palms, and squirming in your seat. You come away, and thank God it's over. That's the magic of cinema.
"Some viewers have asked, how can anyone want to go to war after seeing such horror? But knowing the horrors of war has never been an obstacle to a quick build-up of war spirit by patriotic political speeches and an obsequious press."
So what does Zinn suggest we do? Burn all the negatives? Send storm troopers in formation to ransack every Blockbuster video nationwide for copies of this counterrevolutionary propaganda thereby saving the youth of this country from being seduced into joining the military by it's images of limbs being blown off and young men dying in the arms of their friends, deleriously beckoning their mother.....?
Obviously not. But it's a rediculous, pointless whine nonetheless. This was actually the most disturbing snippet of the review for me. How dare he play thought police. He thinks us youth are so dumb that we're going to be lured into the glory of death and mass murder- that is war- by watching this movie. And it couldn't be farther from the truth. I've never spoken to anyone who saw the movie and heard them say: "Private Ryan? Dude, that's why I joined the army." Everyone, EVERYONE I've ever spoken to who's seen that movie says the same thing: "It made me never want to go to war...." That's the truth, Vox. I'm a catholic, and I'll swear on a bible.
This is also one of the reasons I was so insulted by you suggesting I get kicked out of here. By doing that, you would SUCCEED in doing what exactly it is Zinn here is suggesting is for the better: silencing the opposition. I can't believe it, but Zinn is actually saying this film is better off never having been made. That it's a fucking larf, proof of how dumb the "vulgar masses" are, and how paramount it is their puny, impressionable minds are protected from such nonsense.
"Our culture is in deep trouble when a film like "Saving Private Ryan" can pass by, like a military parade, with nothing but a shower of confetti and hurrahs for it's color and grandeur."
No, but seriously I hate being condescended. Firstly, I've no idea what confetti or hurrahs he's talking about. Perhaps he mistook this for the celebration that was going on his head as he wrote this, basking in the glory of his own self-serving fashionable counter-culture pessimism. Watching Private Ryan is never a party, and when it was out in theatres, people weren't out partying at the bar down the street afterwards, giddy and warm with nationalistic pride, toasting to uncle sam, filled with vigor and high-spirits. Personally I remember my friends and I didn't speak the whole ride home afterwards. We were all sort of in a state of shock. When I got home I couldn't sleep. The next day I called my friends and we talked about it for hours. We weren't high-fiving each other- we were mournful. The conversations were probably more remeniscent of things you'd hear after a wake, as opposed to after watching a 300 million dollar- grossing Hollywood movie.
I have the DVD and these days, when I watch it, I make sure I won't be interrupted. I turn the fucking ringer off. I sit there in the dark, and I too, like Mr. Zinn, let the movie take me. But when it's over, I don't jump up and cheer and feel great about the world. Usually I'm pretty choked up and sometimes I end up crying.
"Saving Private Ryan" is an important film. It changed my life, and many other people's too. Howard Zinn's review of it is mind-boggling. It makes sense to me, though, Vox, why you're such a big fan of his. I now see where you draw your inspiration to knee-jerk react and attempt to sweep things under the rug, when you don't agree with them. How far does Zinn expect his beliefs to be implemented, practically-speaking, in this world, I wonder? If Zinn had his way, would someone like Spielberg be allowed, legally, to make this sort of film. Or would he be "silenced" I wonder......Well, we all know what would happen to me, if you had your way.
But I'm still here.
-American Kid
(Edited by American Kid at 6:14 am on July 17, 2002)
Vox put a link onto one of his posts. It brought me to a review of "Saving Private Ryan", my favorite movie, sorry, "film", of all time.
"Private Ryan" means a lot to me. I could get into it, and be on the computer until two in the morning, but I'll state simply that I truly adore and hold dear every frame. And I consider my first viewing of it, a few years ago when it first came out, to be one of the penultimate moments of my maturation into adulthood. Yes, the Kid knows big words. It opened me up to what would become one of the true passions of my life, WW2, and left me determined to go back and trace my grandfather's own combat duty during his time as a paratrooper in Europe, particularly during the Battle of the Bulge.
Vox's review was written by a gentleman named Howard Zinn. A hardcore, welfare endorsing right-winger myself, I'd never heard of him before. And I take from it that he's a vet himself. The review was well-written, the punctuation and grammar were impeccable, becoming of any reputable critique (my "Fight Club" review from "chit chat" being an example of the other side of this how-to equation). But it's content (or *ahem* therum, if you will) however, left me shaking my head.
He condemns war. Which is understandable. I've never been in combat. I've hardly ever been in a fistfight. I'm a hemopheliac, I try to avoid conflict at all costs (maybe why I'm so quick with my words, eh?). But his condemnation of the film, and suggestion that it brings up topics and discussions best left swept under the rug and never spoken about again is OUTRAGEOUS.
"I watched the movie's extreordanarily photographed battle scenes, and I was thoroughly taken in. But when the movie was over, I realized that it was exactly that- I had been taken in."
I was taken in also. And, more significantly, I was also scared shitless. Steven Spielberg, through cinema alone, achieved what scientists probably will not for thousands of years, if ever: time travel. This film is not fucking entertainment. It is graphic, and stomach-churning, and disturbing and terrible and I describe my first viewing of it to people as being like being trapped in a nightmare. And that's what he aimed for. It is truly a miraculous pair of sequences, the beginning and ending. Just by staring at a screen, whether it's TV or canvas, you are placed back fifty years in history. Of course, no one, save the poor boys, German and American, who were there, could ever REALLY know what it was like, but after watching it through Spielberg's lense, you understand enough. You understand through the quickening of your pulse, the sweat in your palms, and squirming in your seat. You come away, and thank God it's over. That's the magic of cinema.
"Some viewers have asked, how can anyone want to go to war after seeing such horror? But knowing the horrors of war has never been an obstacle to a quick build-up of war spirit by patriotic political speeches and an obsequious press."
So what does Zinn suggest we do? Burn all the negatives? Send storm troopers in formation to ransack every Blockbuster video nationwide for copies of this counterrevolutionary propaganda thereby saving the youth of this country from being seduced into joining the military by it's images of limbs being blown off and young men dying in the arms of their friends, deleriously beckoning their mother.....?
Obviously not. But it's a rediculous, pointless whine nonetheless. This was actually the most disturbing snippet of the review for me. How dare he play thought police. He thinks us youth are so dumb that we're going to be lured into the glory of death and mass murder- that is war- by watching this movie. And it couldn't be farther from the truth. I've never spoken to anyone who saw the movie and heard them say: "Private Ryan? Dude, that's why I joined the army." Everyone, EVERYONE I've ever spoken to who's seen that movie says the same thing: "It made me never want to go to war...." That's the truth, Vox. I'm a catholic, and I'll swear on a bible.
This is also one of the reasons I was so insulted by you suggesting I get kicked out of here. By doing that, you would SUCCEED in doing what exactly it is Zinn here is suggesting is for the better: silencing the opposition. I can't believe it, but Zinn is actually saying this film is better off never having been made. That it's a fucking larf, proof of how dumb the "vulgar masses" are, and how paramount it is their puny, impressionable minds are protected from such nonsense.
"Our culture is in deep trouble when a film like "Saving Private Ryan" can pass by, like a military parade, with nothing but a shower of confetti and hurrahs for it's color and grandeur."
No, but seriously I hate being condescended. Firstly, I've no idea what confetti or hurrahs he's talking about. Perhaps he mistook this for the celebration that was going on his head as he wrote this, basking in the glory of his own self-serving fashionable counter-culture pessimism. Watching Private Ryan is never a party, and when it was out in theatres, people weren't out partying at the bar down the street afterwards, giddy and warm with nationalistic pride, toasting to uncle sam, filled with vigor and high-spirits. Personally I remember my friends and I didn't speak the whole ride home afterwards. We were all sort of in a state of shock. When I got home I couldn't sleep. The next day I called my friends and we talked about it for hours. We weren't high-fiving each other- we were mournful. The conversations were probably more remeniscent of things you'd hear after a wake, as opposed to after watching a 300 million dollar- grossing Hollywood movie.
I have the DVD and these days, when I watch it, I make sure I won't be interrupted. I turn the fucking ringer off. I sit there in the dark, and I too, like Mr. Zinn, let the movie take me. But when it's over, I don't jump up and cheer and feel great about the world. Usually I'm pretty choked up and sometimes I end up crying.
"Saving Private Ryan" is an important film. It changed my life, and many other people's too. Howard Zinn's review of it is mind-boggling. It makes sense to me, though, Vox, why you're such a big fan of his. I now see where you draw your inspiration to knee-jerk react and attempt to sweep things under the rug, when you don't agree with them. How far does Zinn expect his beliefs to be implemented, practically-speaking, in this world, I wonder? If Zinn had his way, would someone like Spielberg be allowed, legally, to make this sort of film. Or would he be "silenced" I wonder......Well, we all know what would happen to me, if you had your way.
But I'm still here.
-American Kid
(Edited by American Kid at 6:14 am on July 17, 2002)