Comments on: Saving Private Ryan https://habitablezone.com/2011/08/26/saving-private-ryan/ Sat, 25 Apr 2026 01:00:29 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Eri https://habitablezone.com/2011/08/26/saving-private-ryan/#comment-5113 Eri Fri, 26 Aug 2011 17:12:34 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=3280#comment-5113 The opening segment of that movie is so real and so poignant as to be painful in the horror that it depicts. For the first time, you understood from a movie that this was not just "movie magic" but that thousands of young men were killed in just such a way. I've watched the movie a couple of times since I first saw it but I skip that opening segment. It's just too painful. The opening segment of that movie is so real and so poignant as to be painful in the horror that it depicts. For the first time, you understood from a movie that this was not just “movie magic” but that thousands of young men were killed in just such a way. I’ve watched the movie a couple of times since I first saw it but I skip that opening segment. It’s just too painful.

]]> By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2011/08/26/saving-private-ryan/#comment-5111 ER Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:35:04 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=3280#comment-5111 I know nothing about war. I was technically in one, but never fired my weapons, came under enemy fire, or felt in personal danger (or even physical discomfort) at any time. But one incident brought it all back home to me. On Thanksgiving Day, 1968, I was sitting on the fantail of my destroyer eating a delicious turkey and all the fixin's holiday dinner off a paper plate. My buddy sat on the deck next to me and pointed at the unseen shore, twenty miles to our west. "You know, Charlie's out there, squatting in the bush right now, eating a bowl of rice." I know nothing about war. I was technically in one, but never fired my weapons, came under enemy fire, or felt in personal danger (or even physical discomfort) at any time. But one incident brought it all back home to me.

On Thanksgiving Day, 1968, I was sitting on the fantail of my destroyer eating a delicious turkey and all the fixin’s holiday dinner off a paper plate. My buddy sat on the deck next to me and pointed at the unseen shore, twenty miles to our west.

“You know, Charlie’s out there, squatting in the bush right now, eating a bowl of rice.”

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