Discussion Film / SavingPrivateRyan

Is Jackson actually left-handed? He kills with his left hand, but as far as I've been able to see the sniper uses his right for everything else. Which would say a lot about his character.

A few years ago, Patachou slapped this trope onto the page:

26th Jun '14 7:08:17 AM Patachou

Added line(s) 78,79 (click to see context) :

* America Wins the War: The focus is entirely on the American troops, ignoring the fact that Britons, Canadians and Australians also fought on the Allied side. The one time the British are mentioned, when a rescue mission to save Ryan is established at the beach, it is mostly in derogatory terms.

I really despise the choice of wording for this example. Patachou makes it sound like Spielberg intentionally whitewashed the other Allies out of the picture. Perhaps it's just poor wording on his part, but the example smacks heavily of an attempt to frame the cast and crew of Saving Private Ryan as Boorish Eaglelanders.

The reason I say that is because his edit was introduced long after information in the Artistic License History section noted production issues that led to certain historical inaccuracies (like unavailability of working replica/actual British landing craft for the Omaha beach scene). Maybe Patachou just didn't see those at the time he wrote the example, but I heavily doubt it, as he's added other gems like this:

26th Jun '14 7:08:17 AM Patachou

Added DiffLines:

** Yet, despite showing all the horrors of war, Spielberg still seems to suggest that the actions of the American soldiers were noble and justified. Even when American soldiers in this movie commit ethically questioning deeds it's done in such a fashion that the audience feels they're in their right. For instance, at Omaha Beach some German soldiers try to surrender, but are shot by American soldiers who jokingly act as if they can't understand them. Not only does this scene come across as being comical: after witnessing the hardship of all of the American soldiers dying on the beach the audience may feel as if this act of revenge is justified. When Upham shoots an unarmed German soldier who has already surrendered but of whom he knows he killed his friends the same dubious message is suggested.

In addition to this and some other conversational edits he introduced, it looks like Patachou really wants everyone to share his view of America the Boorish. A few other folks have already removed some of Patachou's edits: Triglavjim removed Patachou's massive "Grr! Spielberg is trying to make da 'Merican pig-dogs look good!" rant I quoted, and gallium did add more to the America Wins World War II entry noting that it's mostly justified due to the scope of the movie focusing only on areas where American forces operated. For my part, I've removed the bit where Patachou said the film ignores the other Allies.

"A notable fact was that Steven Spielberg won the award for Best Director, but the film itself lost to Shakespeare in Love, making Ryan one of the few films in the modern history of the Awards to do so."

...to do what? Lose to Shakespeare in Love?