re: Was Saving Private Ryan the last truly great war movie?

Fury is up there for me

Fury
Hurt locker

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no it wasn't any where near a great movie, it wasn't even a good movie.

it was an ok movie at best and wasn't a waste of time but that's the best I can say about it

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Talk about a shitty take.

That would've been the worst burden to live with for the rest of your life.

There are many stories of "survivor guilt" ala tragedies like Airplane crashes and they feel like they're pieces of shite and constantly ask why was I spared?

And that's just surviving and not 6 guys giving their lives to save your arse.

He could've been the most amazing human being and still felt like a worthless piece of shite the rest of his life.

You just can't live up to that sacrifice. Honestly, it was unfair to him in reality. To use so many men to save him. He was put in an unwinnable psychological situation for the rest of his life.

We Were Soldiers came after, so no.

Not saying all these were great but I really enjoyed these that I haven't seen mentioned

The Great Raid

13 Hours

Letters from Iwo Jima

Flag of our Fathers

American Sniper

Although Pearl Harbor wasn't a great all around movie the bombing of Pearl Harbor sequence was fantastically done

Only one mention of Flags of Our Fathers That and Letters From Iwo Jima are awesome movie in that it's basically the 2 perspectives from the same battle made into 2 separate movies. I thought Eastwood did a great job on them.

And while not fiction, any fan of war films should be required to see They Shall Not Grow Old. Insane watching experience. Might be my favorite documentary ever.

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I believe that would be Audie Murphy.

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To Hell and Back was required viewing for me. My father made sure that I watched and knew what Murphy had achieved.

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Pandy Fackler

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We watched a different movie.

I saw Miller's last words not as burdening Ryan with guilt over the sacrifices made to help rescue him but as dying man's acknowledgement that Ryan was the recipient of a gift. That Miller didn't want to lose his life to provide Ryan with the gift, and that Ryan didn't ask for the gift was irrelevant - he had received it.

The gift? A chance at a life that Miller and so many other soldiers were being deprived of in the war. Miller simply encouraged Ryan not to waste the gift.

The last scene, with Ryan and his family, showed that Ryan did what Miller had encouraged him to do. He lived a fine and full life and raised a loving family. He took advantage of the gift he received and, over the years and in how he lived his life, he wanted to believe that he "earned" that gift.

Ryan weeping at Miller's grave never made me feel he was pathetic. Ryan was simply returning to Omaha Beach at the end of his life to acknowledge the sacrifice of the man who, decades earlier, gave him a chance at a full life. Ryan was also there, with his full family, to hopefully reassure Miller that he didn't waste his life.

I thought it was an incredibly powerful scene. It demonstrated many things about war and life - not the least of which is how random war can be in terms of who survives and gets a chance at a life and who doesn't.

I also thought it illustrated the strength of the "greatest generation." You'll remember that Ryan's wife didn't even know who Capt. Miller was. Ryan, in all his years with his wife, never told her about Miller. To me, this vividly symbolized what so many WWII combat veterans who survived the war did... they just went home and went to work to rebuild their lives and our nation.

That final scene conveyed to me that Ryan was a strong man, not a pathetic one.