Saving Private Ryan

[MGKrebs]

Presumably most of you are aware that some TV network affiliates are not showing Saving Private Ryan tonight because they are afraid of being fined (or worse) due to the foul language in the movie.

So my question is: What kind of ethic is it that says it's OK to show someone getting killed, but it's not OK to hear the person cursing while dying?

I would also like to take this moment to thank any Vets out there for their service, and for making it possible for us to have these discussions. I hope that my exercising of the rights you may have fought to protect is a small repayment for your contribution. That, and my warm best wishes and a beer or a cup of coffee if I ever get to meet you. Thanks.

 

[SmallTown]

A lot of movies are edited for TV, why wasn't this one?

 

[Ken King]

Good point, you can show death but I'll be damned if you can curse. It is kind of hypocritical especially when you look at other apsects of broadcast TV where you almost have the sexual act demonstrated but you can't say that you were f###ing.

And as a vet I thank you for your kind words of appreciation.

 

[MGKrebs]

I remember years ago watching the animated movie "Heavy Metal" shown at midnight on TBS here in Atlanta. They showed all of the animated gore, the swordfights and severed limbs, but cut out the animated nudity. That struck me as hilarious.

Smalltown- I don't know the answer to that. I heard a story on NPR this afternoon that seemed to be trying to say that too many bleeps or too many blanks would ruin it, but it didn't sound very convincing. I mean, what about the COMMERCIAL INTERRUPTIONS for crying out loud.

 

[czygvtwkr]

It wasnt edited because the owners of the movie signed an agreement with ABC that said they cannot edit it in any way.

 

[Larry Gude]

My opinion...

So my question is: What kind of ethic is it that says it's OK to show someone getting killed, but it's not OK to hear the person cursing while dying?

...is that it is not an ethic, it is a relatively arbitrary rule based on perceptions of taste, appropriateness and percieved community standard. We are a nations of law as and rules and therefore, the rule has to say something.

And, thanks to our vets we can then have these types of arguments or discusions over what they should be changed to.

Speed limit 55? Why not 60? or 50?

'Damn' on TV? How about 'hell'?

Show a boob? When do we get to see something more?

Murder on TV? How real can you make it look?

I'm glad you looked upon the Heavy Metal thing with humor because, at the end of the day, no ones quality of life or civil rights are threatened if Leave it to Beaver is on the tube.

"Ryan" was intended to be the 'real thing' and many combat vets including some who were there, Omaha Beach, left the theatre shortly after it started, emotionally unhinged and physically hurting because the movie was more real than they'd choose to sit through.

It's not hard to understand how, on the one hand, a combat vet typically never talks about it except to other vets and they often share a desire that no one need know EXACTLY what they went through; Full detail brutality, how they spoke, hygiene, etc.

There is also an argument that it serves the greater good for us to really know what they did for us all, what they went through. Lest we forget.

Jack Valenti is a WWII vet and he was asked about this yesterday and he said that 'Everyone should watch 'Ryan' just as it is. Get your kids, say 13 and older and sit with them and share what it means to fight, bleed, die and survive for nothing more than an idea; the ideas we live today thanks soley to their sacrifice."

The Ryan character who falls to his knees, as an old man, in front of Tom Hanks characters grave reduces me to a puddle because the idea of trying to live a good life, to 'earn this' as Hanks character puts it, to be decent and kind and caring and to work for a better tomorrow in honor of those who fell resontes with me and has the power, the possibility, the dream, to prevent war, to prevent ones own children having to face death on a battlefied.

To 'earn' this.

So, did 'earn this' also include becoming Marylyn Manson?

 

[aps45819]

Presumably most of you are aware that some TV network affiliates are not showing Saving Private Ryan tonight because they are afraid of being fined (or worse) due to the foul language in the movie.

So my question is: What kind of ethic is it that says it's OK to show someone getting killed, but it's not OK to hear the person cursing while dying?.

The problem lies with a bureaucracy that is willing to make decisions that will pander to a vocal minority in order to shut them up. If nobody's complaining, we must be doing a good job.

 

[Voter2002]

I agree with Larry that all should watch this movie is it's full graphic glory/gory. Way too many people these days dismiss vets and what they go through. They make comments such as "hey...they VOLUNTEERED to go fight a war..." and crap like that. They just don't get what it takes to preserve their "freedom of speech" and every other liberty we continue to enjoy today. Some politely make comments such as "thanks for your service" without really knowing what service they actually did or how it affected that vet. This movie lays it all out and shows what these vets did for our country's freedom.


The FCC isn't in the business of monitoring what gets broadcast...they are a reactionary bureaucracy that only responds to complaints. Yes...there was swearing and gory scenes in the movie. But there were enough warnings broadcast that this was coming up.

Even though I own this movie on DVD, I still watched it last night and the tears still flowed just like I saw it for the first time. I'm a vet, but didn't go through anything even remotely close to what was portrayed in the movie and what our real vets went through back then. I don't march in Veterans Day parades...I stand on the side and applaude those who went through hell alot worse than I ever experienced.

 

[justhangn]

I liked Mad TV's "Saving Ryan's Privates" almost as much as the movie.

 

[2ndAmendment]

...is that it is not an ethic, it is a relatively arbitrary rule based on perceptions of taste, appropriateness and percieved community standard. We are a nations of law as and rules and therefore, the rule has to say something.

And, thanks to our vets we can then have these types of arguments or discusions over what they should be changed to.

Speed limit 55? Why not 60? or 50?

'Damn' on TV? How about 'hell'?

Show a boob? When do we get to see something more?

Murder on TV? How real can you make it look?

I'm glad you looked upon the Heavy Metal thing with humor because, at the end of the day, no ones quality of life or civil rights are threatened if Leave it to Beaver is on the tube.

"Ryan" was intended to be the 'real thing' and many combat vets including some who were there, Omaha Beach, left the theatre shortly after it started, emotionally unhinged and physically hurting because the movie was more real than they'd choose to sit through.

It's not hard to understand how, on the one hand, a combat vet typically never talks about it except to other vets and they often share a desire that no one need know EXACTLY what they went through; Full detail brutality, how they spoke, hygiene, etc.

There is also an argument that it serves the greater good for us to really know what they did for us all, what they went through. Lest we forget.

Jack Valenti is a WWII vet and he was asked about this yesterday and he said that 'Everyone should watch 'Ryan' just as it is. Get your kids, say 13 and older and sit with them and share what it means to fight, bleed, die and survive for nothing more than an idea; the ideas we live today thanks soley to their sacrifice."

The Ryan character who falls to his knees, as an old man, in front of Tom Hanks characters grave reduces me to a puddle because the idea of trying to live a good life, to 'earn this' as Hanks character puts it, to be decent and kind and caring and to work for a better tomorrow in honor of those who fell resontes with me and has the power, the possibility, the dream, to prevent war, to prevent ones own children having to face death on a battlefied.

To 'earn' this.

So, did 'earn this' also include becoming Marylyn Manson?

Well said.

 

[justhangn]

To the unsigned red karma over the MAD TV post.....

if you saw the satire, you would have laughed too.

 

[Nickel]

Just like when they showed Schindler's List, unedited and commercial free, on network TV a few years ago, it would be a disgrace to the film and to the people who experience things the film depicts to edit it. Would there be anything to see if it were edited? Everyone and their mother knows it's a violent movie, and from what I heard, after every commercial break they had a disclaimer letting you know what you were getting into should you choose to watch it. I don't have a problem with it being on TV. Would I watch it? No, I can't stomach things like that, not only b/c it's gory, but also because I have family that goes through similar things in Iraq, and emotionally I can't handle it.

 

[Steve]

Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan were both serious cinematic undertakings. To edit either for commercial broadcast would be to take away what made them the movies they are. Ample warning was given before both television broadcasts, so no base exists for anyone to complain. Moronity is not an excuse.

BTW, this is the second year that "Saving Private Ryan" has been broadcast, but the first time was pre-"Janet Jackson Half-Time Breast", and the subsequent fallout thereof during an election year, so awareness is heightened this year.

 

[MGKrebs]

Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan were both serious cinematic undertakings. To edit either for commercial broadcast would be to take away what made them the movies they are. Ample warning was given before both television broadcasts, so no base exists for anyone to complain. Moronity is not an excuse.

BTW, this is the second year that "Saving Private Ryan" has been broadcast, but the first time was pre-"Janet Jackson Half-Time Breast", and the subsequent fallout thereof during an election year, so awareness is heightened this year.

And now the flap over Monday Night Football intro! And it wasn't even nudity! it was just SUGGESTED nudity!

What's next, witch trials???