ha ha! limbs

I loved it... extremely jaded, cynical and misses the point of the movie completely with the attempt to be overly-snotty and oh-so witty. Yet, I laughed my balls off. Really, they're in a cup now, I don't know what to do with them.

Thanks, Rod, you're one funny Fock.

I wonder if John could enlighten us on what exactly the point of the movie is that this script "missed completely" ... aren't "war is hell" and "people died to protect your freedom" the primary points concerned?

Rod, love the script, especially the comments regarding Spielberg's obvious deep-rooted issues with the Germans. This is just a friendly proofread, but in the final paragraph of the script, the word "solutes" rather than "salutes" makes it seem a little like the old man is dissolving the grave in acid. Amazing script otherwise... isn't it just easier to feel patriotic when a director is crapping flags all over you?

Great work. Loved the par about the evil, faceless germans. Anyone who thinks that german soldiers were really like that is a naive fool, dumbed down by propaganda.

If they weren't the human embodiment of pure evil then why did they kill people then, huh?

What about the scene when they find the first (and wrong) Private Ryan, who promptly blubbers all over Mayday Malone while a battle-weary and filthy Norm, Cliff, Frazier, and Woody look on in disgust?

DIRECTOR STEVEN SPIELBERG

I do NOT have issues, damn it.

Gerard: Actually, a good part of the German army itself weren't nazi's, but simply scared. Some Nazi's even, didn't necessarily believe in killing the Jews, but were also either scared or, well, mindless sheep. And from there, the majority, actually, of the axis millitary didn't believe in Hitler's motivations, but for the most part were prisoners. Were many of these people perhaps cowards, or even selfish? Yes and yes, but then most human beings are. They certainly weren't evil. The small portion that were Nazi's and did believe in Hitler were quite the bastards, however.

@Scott: I agree completely.

Em...anyone want to point out the pointless plot of the movie?

General 1
Let's rescue one guy, sacrificing many others.

General 2
Why?

General 1
Let me read you a letter from Abe Lincoln that tells you about a mother that lost all her children fighting in the civil war.

General 2
That doesn't explain anything

Steven Spielberg
That's enough for me AND should do for the audience! Bring the limbs and fake blood!!

I liked the movie though.

Amazing, a great script!!!

very good. I laughed. I lifed.

Icarin Says:
Em…anyone want to point out the pointless plot of the movie?

Yeah, doesn't make much sense from a movie point of view, but it is (closely) based on a true story.

@Gerard: so what keeps the americans or the rest of the allies (or anyone else in world war 2 or any conflict for that matter) from being the pure embodiment of evil if all that is required is that they "kill people"?

95% were just regular guys. conscripted to fight 4 their country. It was only the government and certain organisations like the SA and SS that were evil. The only reason why the Nazis even took control was because they took advantage of the Great Depression in Germany which was emphasised because of the Treaty of Versailles (created by the allies) which took away the majority of their agricultural and industrial potential. There was heaps of unemployment, and Hitler promised to restore full employment and regain the lost territory. He made them feel good after a horrific decade. Cant blame them. Coulda happened 2 anyone.

You guys realize Gerard was joking, right?

But I do think there is a fair share done in making some of the German soldiers look human. In the scene near the end of the D-Day sequence, where three German soldiers surrender, two American soldiers just shoot them, and they laugh about it. Or where three of them were in a trench and as they got up to surrender one of them was shot.

For the most part, I loved this. However, I have to disagree with the evil Germans part. Yes, it's true that the majority of the Germans were not Nazis. However you have to take into account the point of view that the story is being told from. From the perspective of American soldiers, the Germans were the bad guys.

And there are parts of the story (such as with the German POW) that do not treat the Germans as evil.

Should've added the part where the Jewish soldier (after they take the beach) points out how he's a Jew to the German soldiers. Americans had JUST gotten into the war, and the death camps would have not been known to the soldiers by then.

I think the Fake Private Ryan scene deserved a nod.

FAKE PRIVATE RYAN is CAPTAIN MAL from FIREFLY, which is AWESOME.

Yeah. We did TOTAL TWO ENTIRE COUNTRIES after a pair of commerce buildings were destroyed, didn't me?

Right you are Fergo. That's the cold fact of the matter.

Perhaps because they were soldiers at war. Just maybe.

Yeah, those brave concentration camp guards, saving the world from Jewish folk.

In war whoever wins writes history in their favor, if german won WWII you can bet all the history in your text book might have a whole different point of view.

lol Diskothek, good observation!

Calm down, buttercup. Rod makes fun of ALL movies. It's just what he does.

If you'd bother to look at the actual RATING he gave the movie, you'd see he actually gave it five stars.

But you got one thing right: He IS funny as fuck.

im not trying to fall into stereotypes... but read about almost any SS division and you will realize there were real Nazis and they were evil motherfuckers, whether they had faces or not... i dont know

Actually is was well known that Germany had anti-Jewish policies as Jews were escaping Germany and bordering countries in their droves, many to America. Things like Kristalnacht, violence against Jews and the Hilter regieme's anti-Semitic sentiment was very well known outside of Germany. The revelation of concentration camps was only a surprise because it wan't known exactly how bad it all was.

[...] Fuck it, I’m making Wolverine 2. Black Swan: The Abridged Script | The Editing Room http://www.the-editing-room.com/savingprivateryan.html EXT. BEACH – DAY Hundreds upon hundreds of SOLDIERS storm onto the beach. Evil GERMANS [...]

Really just a bunch of minor bitching with nothing funny going for it.

Uhm no, showing soldiers being shot in cold blood is not humanizing them. It might also be pointed out that the laughing GI's shooting surrendering Germans  are just random soldiers because none of the main cast was to be tarnished with such behavior. 

Uhm no, showing soldiers being shot in cold blood is not humanizing them. It might also be pointed out that the laughing GI's shooting surrendering Germans  are just random soldiers because none of the main cast was to be tarnished with such behavior. 

The point of view isn't relevant if you claim to be making a historical movie that was to show "how things were". So you can't taut the realism of your movie and then give it the same caricatures of German soldiers you used in Indiana Jones.

Also, the whole thing with the "steamboat willie" German who is spared and then ends up shooting Cpt. Miller in the end is purely a director's choice, nothing to do with any viewpoint, just to show you shouldn't let a German live, prisoner or otherwise.

The point of view isn't relevant if you claim to be making a historical movie that was to show "how things were". So you can't taut the realism of your movie and then give it the same caricatures of German soldiers you used in Indiana Jones.

Also, the whole thing with the "steamboat willie" German who is spared and then ends up shooting Cpt. Miller in the end is purely a director's choice, nothing to do with any viewpoint, just to show you shouldn't let a German live, prisoner or otherwise.

Although most of the Germans were just serving their country and were not technically "evil," they still fought and killed for an intensely evil cause. The Germans killed millions and would have enslaved half of Europe if they could have. Therefore anyone participating in that is "evil" by association simply because they working towards an ultimately evil goal.

Besides, not showing the Germans is an effective directing technique. By only seeing them as a faceless enemy, the audience can more easily identify with the heroes, and we are far more emotionally involved in their story. How scary would "Jaws" have been if we got to watch the shark swimming around starving, maybe his family is killed by a fisherman, or stepped on by a swimmer, thus causing him to dedicate his life to revenge against humanity.  

Really? If any movie fixed the "faceless Nazi villain" cliche, it's this one. Or did you skip the half hour where you're supposed to sympathize with the Nazi? Ya know, "Steamboat Willie, toot toot"?

You thought it was pointless but you liked it? It's not exactly a light-hearted romp.

@Rex So you're suggesting that the Germans didn't actually kill anyone? That's one hell of a conspiracy to keep under wraps.

If you actually fought in World War II, the Germans would seem evil to you. Because you're their enemy.

Sounds like you're not smart enough to watch movies. You see, it was a publicity stunt because the mother had lost all her children, so they wanted to keep the other one alive in a way of making the war (and thus the government) poor popular with the people.

He doesn't. If you were there in World War II, these guys would seem evil to you. Because they've been trained to see you as the enemy and kill you!

Well, yeah. I mean, it's not like we didn't kill plenty of them.

No. But they were soldiers at war. American soldiers have killed billions of people, as well.

Why wouldn't they be like that? We were their enemy. Why would they be kind to us?

@Kirk.  Er... why do you simply re-state "Confuzzed's" original point here, instead of addressing the counter-argument?  A bit of a waste of time, surely?

I do.....

Who's Gerard?

I think it's wrong to state that everyone who was in the German army during a time when the Nazi party was in power was evil. Not all Germans were supportive of the Nazis or their cause. Many Germans fought for their country and for their people. Remember that Germany had just come out of a disastrous depression, and the war industry propelled them back to wealth. The same thing happened for the Americans. In fact, many of the Germans in the army didn't specifically support Hitler, despite being forced to take an oath for him. 

Besides, I think that this movie is unique and interesting because soldiers on both sides are so palpable, whether because of the graphic nature of their deaths or because of their obvious fear, they are certainly identifiable as humans.

I disagree. I think that it does humanize them by showing that both sides are dehumanized by war. Showing the Americans burning the Germans alive and shooting them when they have surrendered is just as graphic as the final holdout scenes where many Americans are killed.

And you're also saying that the Americans were seeking to wipe out an entire race of people.