Movies you like that everyone else hates.

[alanschu]

I have heard that there is actually some truth to the idea of removing a soldier that lost many siblings from active combat.

 

 

Though the idea that they'd send a platoon of soliders to go and do it seems far fetched.

[metadigital]

It's based on a story from President Lincoln and the US Civil War, I believe.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

It was a movie that evoked so much emotion in me....it's probably the only movie where scenes choked me up to the point where I was almost actually in tears.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I think we've discussed this point in a similar thread in the past, as I remember agreeing with you (or you agreeing with me, whichever came first). I was watching it with people next to me and was trying to contain my emotions because I felt the same way.

[alanschu]

Didn't I recommend it to you?

 

Or was that Band of Brothers?

[Baley]

The Only War Movie You'll Ever Need Watch!

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Didn't I recommend it to you?

 

Or was that Band of Brothers?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

No, we talked about Saving Private Ryan and recommended Band of Brothers which unfortunately I have yet to see; but rest assured I won't forget to check it out

[Laozi]

I have heard that there is actually some truth to the idea of removing a soldier that lost many siblings from active combat.

 

 

Though the idea that they'd send a platoon of soliders to go and do it seems far fetched.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Logistically it sounds like something only the Russians would have tried.

[alanschu]

Ideologically though, it's something the Soviets would never have tried.

 

 

From a logistics perspective though, I don't know why it'd be so difficult for the US to do that. Why would you think only the Soviets would do it, logistically speaking?

[Laozi]

To endanger that many lives for the sake of one person

Edited March 3, 2006 by Laozi

[alanschu]

Not sure how that's logistical. But anyways.

 

I would actually wager that the Soviets would be much less likely to actually do that for a common soldier than any of the allied nations. Maybe for a higher ranked person.

 

Saving Private Ryan does depict a scene though, where plate steel was welded to the bottom of a plane because there was a General inside, which cost the lives of the people inside (including the General). Stuff like this did happen on all sides.

[Laozi]

I was saying it would be a poor logistical decision to send several men out for the sake of one person in war, and in it being a poor decision it mirrors those made by the Russians in WW2. I agree with you that of all the allies the Russians would probaly be the least likely to pull that kind of "stunt".

 

As to it being based on something that happened in the Civil War, I actually would have been very interested in seeing something like that.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Good publicity is important to a democracy during wartime.

 

Oh that Gigli thing that Volourn keeps on about is on at 01.20 on one of the sky channels, if anyone feels so inclined.

[alanschu]

Propaganda is also important in an authoritarian government.

 

 

Logistics

[metadigital]

As to it being based on something that happened in the Civil War, I actually would have been very interested in seeing something like that.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not sure how reliable the wiki is in this case, but here is what they have to say:

Historical background

 

The real "Ryan" was Sgt. Frederick (Fritz) Niland who, with some other members of the 101st, was inadvertently dropped too far inland. They eventually made their own way back to their unit at Carentan, where the Chaplain, Lt. Col. Father Francis Sampson, told Niland about the death of his three brothers, two at Normandy and one in the Far East. Under the US War Department's Sole Survivor Policy, brought about following the death of five Sullivan brothers serving on the same ship, Fr. Sampson arranged passage back to Britain and thereafter to his parents, Augusta and Michael Niland, in Tonawanda, New York. There was no behind-the-lines rescue mission, his mother was not a widow, although it is believed that she did receive all the telegrams at the same time (Ambrose, Stephen E. 'D-Day',Simon & Schuster, 1997). Additionally, the brother believed to be killed in the Far East turned out to have been captured and later returned home. Fr. Francis Sampson wrote about Niland and the story of the 101st, in his 1958 book, Look Out Below123 (ISBN 1877702005).

 

I remember watching a doco where they quoted the civil war stuff I spouted previously. Maybe gogling might provide some more answers? (Read: I can't be arsed right now.)

 

:D

[WITHTEETH]

I find the Chronicals of Riddick entertaining, does anyone else? :ph34r:

[metadigital]

Actually, as high-camp Space Opera goes, I quite like it. I like Crematoria the best (the mumbo-jumbo about "holy-half-dead" is a bit much; in fact, any of the dialogue doesn't stand up to much scrutiny so it's probably best not to listen to it).

[WITHTEETH]

Actually, as high-camp Space Opera goes, I quite like it. I like Crematoria the best (the mumbo-jumbo about "holy-half-dead" is a bit much; in fact, any of the dialogue doesn't stand up to much scrutiny so it's probably best not to listen to it).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Mullet of the 3rd antagonist was killing me, and his girlfriend also had the worste lines in the movie, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it. I played the game before I saw the movie also, great game.

[metadigital]

I bought the game to play at the same time, and I still haven't installed it yet, even though I heard it was pretty good (and pretty resource-intensive, too); Thandie Newton is the wife (wasn't the third antagonist the Kiwi dude from the last two LotR films?) and not even Sir Laurence Olivier could have made that dialogue work ...

[WITHTEETH]

I bought the game to play at the same time, and I still haven't installed it yet, even though I heard it was pretty good (and pretty resource-intensive, too); Thandie Newton is the wife (wasn't the third antagonist the Kiwi dude from the last two LotR films?) and not even Sir Laurence Olivier could have made that dialogue work ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I didn't consider Riddick a protagonist since he really isn't a hero, he is still a villain, just with a itsy bitsy soft side. I'm talking about that guy who was in doom3, and The Bourne Identity who had the glorious mullet in The Chronicals of Riddick.

[Baley]

Anti-Hero

Oh and it sucked rat-ass

Edited March 4, 2006 by Baley

[alanschu]

The movie focuses around Riddick, therefore he's the protagonist.

 

Protagonists don't have to be good guys. Dracula is the protagonist of the Dracula movies.

[metadigital]

Is he? I thought Van Helsing was the protagonist in the Dracula films ... Dracula was the bad guy.

 

But you're right (and so is Baley) anti-heroes are just as valid.

[Jediphile]

I bought the game to play at the same time, and I still haven't installed it yet, even though I heard it was pretty good (and pretty resource-intensive, too); Thandie Newton is the wife (wasn't the third antagonist the Kiwi dude from the last two LotR films?) and not even Sir Laurence Olivier could have made that dialogue work ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yep, the "third antagonist" was Karl Urban, whom you've seen as Eomer in LOTR (and as the assassin in the Bourne Supremacy).

 

I actually liked the setting of the Chronicles of Riddick - there were some cool planets to explore. Too bad they were used so horribly by the severely mediocre plot...

 

Still there were a few good one-liners in the script:

 

"Damn it, I hate it when I'm not the bad guys!"

 

"I'm going to kill you with my tea cup..."

[Dark_Raven]

Is he? I thought Van Helsing was the protagonist in the Dracula films ... Dracula was the bad guy.

 

But you're right (and so is Baley) anti-heroes are just as valid.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Depends on how you look at it. Dracula is doing what is natural for him, to survive, what is bad about that? Van Helsing antagonizes Dracula because of his faulty belief that Dracula is evil, even though Dracula is only doing what comes natureal to him.

 

Van Helsing is the protagonist here.

[alanschu]

From what I remember, it seemed to me like the story's main character was Dracula, not Van Helsing.

 

I'm not sure where people get the idea that the protagonist is the good guy though.

 

 

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/...i/lit_term.html

 

The protagonist is the main character, who is not necessarily a hero or a heroine