Stupid question about the movie "Saving Private Ryan"

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XMan

XMan

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
12,513
49
91
Possible spoiler for those who haven't seen it . . .

About halfway through the movie, Tom Hanks' squad encounters a bombed-out German radar site with a machine gun nest set up for ambush. They assault, lose on of their men to a stomach wound (Giovonni Ribisi), and kill all of the Germans except for one.

They blindfold the German and have him wake away. Some of the troops think he should be killed, but the young private attached to the squad as a linguist argues that he's a POW and they can't kill him . . . anywayz, the guy leaves.

At the conclusion of the movie, the same private (Unther? something like that) freezes, and the machine gun the American squad has set up runs out of ammo. Ond of the machine gunner is killed, and the other one (some Italian guy) gets into a knife fight with a German, who eventually kills him. Thr German walks downstairs, Unther is on the steps, scared out of his mind, and the German soldier walks right past him. In the finale, Unther shoots the same German soldier with an M1.

It's the same guy, right? (The German soldier.)

 
XMan

XMan

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
12,513
49
91
Bober,

My dad was in the Marines and my grandpa was in the Army . . . I've heard much worse than FUBAR. ;)
 
S

Stark

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2000
7,735
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I thought the german they let go shot hanks, but wasn't the same guy in the knife fight. I'll have to watch it again.
 
thebestMAX

thebestMAX

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2000
7,501
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The guy that they let go was on the line firing. Think he killed Hanks character. And the lesson is................
 
A

Antisocial Virge

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 1999
6,578
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0
I thought the german they let go shot hanks, but wasn't the same guy in the knife fight. I'll have to watch it again

I agree. I don't think the knife fight guy is the same one.
 
F

Farbio

Diamond Member
Apr 9, 2000
3,855
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the guy in the knife fight and the one at the radar sight are two different guys, the one that shoots hanks is the one from the radar sight
 
T

The Dancing Peacock

Diamond Member
Dec 22, 1999
3,385
0
0
They were all the same. The guy they let go, then kills the Jewish guy with the knife, and he's the one who shoots Tom Hanks.

Remember Oppam is on the stairs frozen as he knifes the Jewish guy, whose name I can't remember. Then the German walks down the stairs and sees Oppam there, and doesn't kill him, cuz Oppam was nice to him. After Oppam sees the guy shoot Tom Hanks, he grows a sac and climbs over the hill.


late.


TDP
 
A

atom

Diamond Member
Oct 18, 1999
4,722
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0
The guy in the knife fight is definitely the guy they let go, why else would he not have killed Oppam?
 
NFS4

NFS4

No Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
72,636
47
91
The dude that shot "same guy" pissed me off sooooooooooo bad. His little pansy ass let his platoon-mates die up there in that tower :|:|
 
D

Doomguy

Platinum Member
May 28, 2000
2,389
1
81
SPR isnt even a really good war movie compared to others out there. "The Longest Day" is the best D-Day movie. "The Battle of the Bulge" kicked SPR's ass as did "A Bridge Too Far" and "Patton". SPR is a stupid dramatized war movie.
 

The dude who kills the Jewish guy is not the guy they let go. The guy they let go shoots Tom Hanks.

The big German does not kill the translator guy on the stairwell because he has a gun and about 1000 rounds of ammunition.
 
R

Rankor

Golden Member
Jul 10, 2000
1,667
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76
And I thought you were going to ask about the 'Stangs at the end of the movie being tank busters.

They should have used P-38 Lightnings or P-47 Jugs.
 
T

Tominator

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
9,559
1
0
Yes, I wondered about those 'Stangs'. You will see nothing under their wings after their run. Any weapon that could take out a Tiger, or any tank for that matter, would have destroyed anything within 50 yards....and destroyed the bridge as well!
I asked my Wife and she thinks they German soldiers were different as well.

Very few P-38 Lightings saw service in the european theatre. The P47 Thunderbolt/Jug was not a viable fighter/bomber at this stage of the war. About this time, a redesign of the propeller made it a very very good fighter bomber! before the redisgn, it was slowwww! Could not climb worth a wit. A variable pitch prop solved this and it went on to be one of the best long range fighters of the war.
 
E

etech

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
10,597
0
0
"A variable pitch prop" I think it was a new design of the blade to the so-called paddle blade props, the P47 already had variable pitch props. One main advantage of the P-47 for ground ops was that it had an air-cooled radial engine which was less prone to damage then the water-cooled mustangs and lightnings.
P-38s were used in the earlier days of the European theater but were pulled in favor of the Mustang and Thunderbolt. One problem was the Allison enginge which could not handle the colder air temps.
The Mustangs were probably using the underwing rail mounted rockets. I don't think the "Christmas tree" launcer had been introduced by D-Day, I'm not sure of the exact dates on that though.
Mustang trivia, the Mustang was actually designed for a low altitude fighter for the British. The British wanted more P40s. North American
said they could design a better plane in 90? days. They produced the Mustang but with an Allison engine that had no performance at high altitude. It wasn't until it was mated with the Rolls Royce Merlin that it became one of the great fighter planes of WWII.

Ok, my stupid question about SPR, Why didn't they just sit on the far side of the bridge and see who got there first. If the Germans came, blow up the bridge.
 
T

Tominator

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
9,559
1
0
The Thunderbolt, as it was introduced to combat had a very real problem with the propeller. Later designs were to majke it the legend it became. Yes, they were all epuipped with variable pitch, but the current design left it a very poor fighter. After a redesign it became the 'King of the Skies' over Germany. If you can find it read 'Thunderbolt!' Not sure the author...

After shooting down three German aircraft and with damage that only allowed flat and level flight, a German Ace in an ME109 fighter put in excess of 80 machinegun rounds and 10 20mm cannon rounds into the Thunderbolt. The German ran out of ammo. He then pulled alongside the Thunderbolt, saluted the pilot and returned to wherever he came from.

They don't build'em like that anymore!
 
P

Pacfanweb

Lifer
Jan 2, 2000
13,155
59
91
The German they let go is the same one who kills the American soldier Mellish (sp?) in the knife fight. He then walks down the stairs past the little scared guy. My guess is the reason he didn't kill him is because of their interaction at the radar site while they made the German dig graves.
It is definitely the same guy though.
 
Y

yakko

Lifer
Apr 18, 2000
25,455
2
0
I thougt you were going to ask why they didn't just use the radio to save Ryan's privates.
 
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