Saving Private Ryan: Private Stanley Mellish (Adam Goldberg)

Not to call you out, Vlad the emailer. But Pvt. Richard Reiben also survives the whole movie. he is the one that is seen earlier wanting to kill steamboat willie and then when willie is let go he threatens to leave the squad in his anger.

Also, Matt Damon's character james ryan is not brutal and cynical as he is seen in the fedal position yelling before the tank buster P-51 planes save him and Reiben. And i dont see a farm boy from iowa becoming a ganster. just my insight on the subject.

David, i agree with basically everything you said, you understand what you are saying and obviously pay close attention to detail.

As for The Waffen SS soldier that kills mellish, he is NOT the same man as they have different uniforms. Upham executes steamboat willie out of his disgust for trusting him earlier in the movie and feeling sympathy for him (radio tower), not becuase he is immoral or not a responsible soldier.

Since you (David) seem to have much knowledge about the battle, do you really think that a Wehrmacht soldier that was picked up by other Nazi's would be put into an SS division?I was just wondering about the authenticity of this.

Its a different soldier. Steamboat was in the Regular German army. The German who killed Mellish was SS. Look at the SS runes on his collar then look at Steamboat he has Wermacht infantry bars. Or just look at the faces...different guys.

No you dumbass, they are different. Look at their hairsyles, and facial creases and scars. I highly doubt he would get a haircut and a few more scars and creases in the short time between Melllish's death and Miller's death.

When caparzo hands him the knife he says "look a hitler youth knife" I think he is crying because he may have killed a kid the hitler you were 13 to 16 year old kids it must have just hit home and broke him

The first time I saw this movie I interpreted the knife death scene of Mellish as Spielberg's comment on America entering the war late. Upham simply represents America's hand wringing and delay to engage in the battle that related in the death of so many Jews. Upham isn't clearly a killing justice machine until he sees his Captain shot by Steamboat Willie. Very similar to America not getting their war effort on until after the clear provocation of Pearl Harbor. Up until that point, much of the prevaling attitude was to let the Nazis and Commies take each other out. Now that said, I don't think he's saying America could have prevented the holocaust, however, I clearly feel he is trying to portray America's isolationism and hesitation until being attacked by Japan as resulting in additional deaths. Upham somehow can't move, is paralyzed unable to bring himself to visualize the unspeakable horrors going on upstairs and his obvious ability to help someone that IMHO had the clearest motives in the entire movie - preservation and justice for his race of fellow human beings. Mellish seems to be the only one aware of the hell that the jewish population is going through, which in my opinion again is unrealistic so, is there for drama. Everybody else including Miller is a conflicted man in a position of compromise, his only reason for moving through this is to get home to his wife and he will endure anything for that, nothing more and he doubts he can even tell her what he had to do to get back. Ryan is a pure cipher. A simple stand in for us the audience as a dubious unfeeling jerk portraying at best a cringingly awkward story of his brother as a warm memory (a nice twist but, a strange message) who needs to earn what the greatest generation laid down for us so, we can go to theatres and see this today. To me the storytelling is unabashadley moralizing, admist an attempt to portray a gripping and gritty war drama. I don't like or dislike the movie because of it. It simply makes it a movie to think a lot about and I believe the discussion of who kills Mellish simply attracts people because Spielberg buried stories within stories in that one scene and they are finding they need to know something that has affected them at a deep level way beyond the simple question they are asking. On a pure battle situation, fighting men did find themselves with "buck fever" unable to pull the trigger in a pure kill shot of another man. One of the most interesting data I've read about were how many rounds of bullets were found at the Battle of the Little Bighorn where soldiers apparently shot high over their intended targets. It's another reason why the dialog between the German and Mellish is not harrowing until the pleading begins and he says, Shhh, shhh, either comforting him or mocking him. I pick the latter. I think Spielberg wants us to understand that this German suddently realizes Mellish is a Jew. To me the translation and acting supports that.

No.

While the German soldier they set free does, in fact shoot Tom Hanks, he is not the same soldier that stabs Adam Goldberg's character "Mellish".

Go back and watch movie again. Their hair-cuts and uniforms are identicle, but they are not the same soldier.

Hope you didn't have to buy your friend a steak dinner because somebody gave you the wrong answer.

Best regards,
Ernie

Anonymous User Wrote:
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> Another big historical inaccuraccy was the
> complete lack of British involvement, i know we
> werent at Omaha where it really got messy - that
> beach was like how they thought all of them would
> have being on the day, but surely we deserved a
> mention instead of slagging good old monty off
> when the opportuntity arose!

Agreed. I dislike the tendency of Hollywood to make out the Americans won the war just about single handedly.

Having visited most of the battle fields of Normandy, the landings were very different on each beach - Utah beach only sustained around 10 casualties(due to Montgommery's insistance on having a beach closer to the main target of Cherbourg), Sword & Juno were street fighting from the start.

Omah was bad because of the way the roads cut into the hillside and tactical mistakes creating ideal fields of fire for the germans. They were close to giving up at Omah during the battle at one point.

But the rest of the nasty fighting was done mostly by the Brittish and Canadians in bocage country side around Caen with a German tank division, which shielded the American forces to secure the important strategic sights. The American airborne were ineffective because they were so scattered.

The Brittish airborne are best represented in battle by Pegusus Bridge and Merville Gun Battery. Another amazing feat was the American Rangers at Point Du Hoc, having to scale a vertical cliff and assault a German Battery. PLUTO, "mulbury harbours" and "hobarts funnies" were outstanding Brittish engineering feats.

Also often overlooked is the Royal Navy, which planned and executed the largest assault in Naval warefare, with the largest fleet ever assembled of which 60% of the ships were RN, 30% USN. Easily the greatest ever amphibious assult in military history.

I agree with your assessment regarding fixed bayonets. That issue has haunted me since first witnessing Mellish's death. The minute he knew he was out of ammo he should have fixed his bayonet to his M1. He would have had the jump on the SS man who appeared at the doorway and could have incapacitated him immediately. Funny how such things in a work of fiction can become such haunting and obsessive ideas in one's mind. That is the work of Spielberg's good story telling!

My question is why the sniper had to be a part of the attack on the machine gun nest as well. With his claims of being able to nail Hitler from a mile away, couldn't he have easily taken out that machine gun crew, or at least provided very effective cover?