Saving Private Ryan

Strap in, fellow geeks, as Anthony, along with Dakota—the internet's 3rd favorite chronologist with a knack for making history hilarious—take you on a time-traveling escapade across the realms of pop culture and poignant narratives. From the nostalgic corridors of Dragon Ball's legacy to our days as kids drawing characters from the beloved anime/manga, we cover ground that's as expansive as it is thrilling. This episode isn't just a trip down memory lane; it's a full-blown expedition into the stories that have shaped us, complete with a light review of Netflix's 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' adaptation, which may or may not have hit the mark. Our next episode will be covering it more in-depth.

Get ready to salute the legendary Akira Toriyama, as we honor his indelible impact on anime and its crossover into Western culture with Dragon Ball. We share personal tales of anime obsessions and the lengths we went to in the pre-streaming era to get our fix. Then, shifting sands bring us to 'Dune Part Two's' resounding success, showing us that some adaptations really can do justice to their original masterpieces. Our discussion moves to the trenches of 'Saving Private Ryan', a war movie that's much more than just a cinematic achievement; it's a visceral insight into the human condition amidst the chaos of war.

Finally, we let the raw emotions flow as we dissect 'Saving Private Ryan' in greater detail. We explore the moral quagmires that Spielberg masterfully weaves through the narrative, particularly examining the troubles of war and the evolution of the character Upam. This isn't just film critique; it's a deep dive into the moral complexities of war, the transformation of characters under duress, and the everlasting burden of impossible choices. Join us as we navigate these cinematic battlefields and unearth the profound messages nestled within Spielberg's directorial finesse.

Twitter handles:
Project Geekology: https://twitter.com/pgeekology
Anthony's Twitter: https://twitter.com/odysseyswow
Dakota's Twitter: https://twitter.com/geekritique_dak

Instagram:
https://instagram.com/projectgeekology?igshid=1v0sits7ipq9y

Geekritique (Dakota):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBwciIqOoHwIx_uXtYTSEbA


Twitch (Anthony):
https://www.twitch.tv/odysseywow

Music:
Eric Godlow Beats: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRpkcYps82PdSo0tK5rEIPA

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Thank you for joining us for episode 73 of Project Geekology. I am one of your hosts, anthony, and joining me, as always, is Dakota, everyone's third favorite fictional chronologist. Is it third? Are you sure it's not first or second? At least first with MCU right.

Speaker 2: 0:18

Actually you'd be surprised. I'm actually not. Some people don't like my timelines. There are people out there who are just like Geek-a-teek. His father is just so coat-like. Yeah, you get a lot of that in the deep depths of the MCU forums out there. But I will say I started calling myself the third favorite fictional chronologist just as a way to see how people react when I started.

Speaker 2: 0:43

Funny enough, I just finished writing my monster-verse timeline. It's the longest stupid thing I've ever written 11,000 plus words and it took me two hours to record it. That's what I was working on right before this that I had to keep pushing the start of this recording back and back and back. So hopefully it'll come out to about a 50-minute long video, but I'm really proud of it. But yeah, in that video that I inaugurate everyone's third favorite fictional chronologist, there we go.

Speaker 1: 1:11

Nice. I know that we usually start with what I've been up to, so what have you been up to in this period of time? I know that you've been kind of out and about. You had spent some time traveling. We talked about that a little bit in the last podcast episode. But what have you been up to since then?

Speaker 2: 1:29

In terms of yeah, hold on, let's retract a little bit. This will all be still on the podcast, but we are covering a great film today, a Steven Spielberg movie, saving Private Ryan. That's going to be the crux of our discussion today.

Speaker 1: 1:43

Yeah, how did I not mention that? That's crazy.

Speaker 2: 1:46

It's OK. It's certainly not a forgettable film, even though we forgot to mention it in our intro. But we'll get back to Saving Private Ryan and all the incredible filmmaking stuff that went into it in a little bit. What I've been up to not a whole lot since we were last on the show. Like I said, I finished writing and recording my monsterverse timeline. Now the goal is to release that before March 29th, which is when the new movie comes out, Godzilla X, Kong the New Empire or I just found out it was supposed to be pronounced Godzilla Kong the New Empire. Like the X is supposed to be silent, which kind of bothers me, Like it looks and sounds odd.

Speaker 1: 2:23

Right, there's a lot of stuff out there that's the same way Like.

Speaker 2: 2:27

Hunter Hunter.

Speaker 1: 2:28

Hunter Hunter. That was like my initial thought. Like Spy Family.

Speaker 2: 2:33

Yeah, it's a pretty common staple in like anime, but using that common commonality in a title for a Hollywood movie is kind of weird for me, so it took a while to adjust to that. But yeah, so that's been the big thing that I've been working on and I've been talking about it for weeks now. You guys are probably sick of hearing me talk about monsterverse stuff, but yeah, this is a huge project for me. I'm really really excited about it. Now it's just like a race to the finish line to get it all edited before that movie comes up, because the way the script is built is that it's like a primer for the new movie. You know like it's supposed to be watched before the new movie. It's like everything a history of the monsterverse leading into Godzilla Kong, the New Empire, but yeah, so other than that, I watched the Netflix Avatar the Last Airbender series, which has been getting mixed reviews. Some people really like it, some people really don't. I'm in the camp that it's mostly good.

Speaker 1: 3:29

Yeah, I've seen it and I will say that overall, I like it a lot more than the movie. The movie was just absolutely terrible yeah yeah, I mean they.

Speaker 2: 3:39

Clearly, when it comes to this show, you can tell that everyone behind the camera really loved the lore and everyone in front of the camera knew their characters very well. So that was.

Speaker 1: 3:49

So I have a little bit of a problem with that because there is quite a bit that has changed. As far as the lore, of course, yeah, and that was a big problem for me. I would say that while a lot of it looked great, I liked that it dove a little bit deeper in what happened with the airbenders and for me there was a little bit of some weirdness. There's some weird casting choices.

Speaker 2: 4:15

For me, I feel like certain characters yeah, there were some weird casting choices Like Ozai's Angels, the Azula Mei and Tylee. I feel like they were miscast a little bit. Tylee kind of looks like her cartoon counterpart, but the other two don't.

Speaker 1: 4:33

Right, so that is my issue. Saka is a little off-putting, and it's not so much with the acting it's just, he just looks so much older than he should.

Speaker 2: 4:45

Okay, I mean Saka was supposed to be the older of the three.

Speaker 1: 4:49

Yeah, so Saka is the older of the three, but not by much.

Speaker 2: 4:56

Maybe like a couple years older than.

Speaker 1: 4:58

Katara, but he looks well over that. He looks like he's in his early 20s.

Speaker 2: 5:04

Okay, all right, that's a solid piece of it, katara looks like her age.

Speaker 1: 5:07

Aang looks like his age. Yeah actually, I think that they did pretty well. I'm not a fan of the lack of oh my gosh, what is this name? Roku?

Speaker 2: 5:17

Yeah, they do have Roku in it. Have you finished watching?

Speaker 1: 5:19

Yes, yes, yes, no no so they do have Roku in it. I feel like there's a lot that was lacking as far as that, because I mean, we know what the story of Avatar, the Last Airbender is and Roku is actually such a huge, crucial individual for that Hard of imperative, yeah I mean it is because Aang is essentially cleaning up the mess that was left behind. You know.

Speaker 2: 5:44

Yeah, no, I 100% agree with that. Anthony. Would you want to cover that next on our next podcast, because I really think that we have different opinions about this in like an interesting way. Now I don't think I'm like I don't think anything that I say is going to make you angry or anything you say is going to make me angry, but I think our differences in terms of our opinions are worth discussing on a like on its own podcast. Do you want to like rewatch it and then come back fresh and just, you know, do a podcast on that, right.

Speaker 1: 6:14

I think I do need to give it a rewatch because maybe some of my views will be a little bit lighter. Overall, I will say that I'm actually surprised that you have, like, such a positive outlook on it.

Speaker 2: 6:28

I mean you are actually pretty.

Speaker 1: 6:30

When it comes to reviewing, you're a little bit harsher than I am.

Speaker 2: 6:33

Here's the thing I have friends who are in like the review circle, basically like they get all the shows early, they watch it and you know, every now and then, if it's a show that I'm really interested, I'll ask like dude, how is this? And the first thing that I heard about this was that it was abysmal. Like it was just, it was the worst thing since sliced bread.

Speaker 1: 6:51

Yeah, no See, I don't feel like it was abysmal.

Speaker 2: 6:54

It was. I feel like it was enjoyable.

Speaker 1: 6:56

Yeah, absolutely, it is enjoyable. It's a lot better than a movie and it is fun. It is fun to watch. But there was so much that was changed to me, especially with certain characters, that honestly I felt more disappointment than joy from watching this.

Speaker 2: 7:14

That's fair. I think we should table this discussion.

Speaker 1: 7:17

Absolutely. Yeah, you get deeper into this.

Speaker 2: 7:19

It's still fresh to me. I could very easily just talk about Avatar for the rest of this podcast, but I think that it deserves its own show. We need to talk about the Dragon Ball sized elephant in the room, the mangaka.

Speaker 1: 7:33

Well, that's kind of small. I mean, Dragon Balls are a little bit smaller.

Speaker 2: 7:37

The Shenron sized dragon in the room. How about that?

Speaker 1: 7:41

Yes.

Speaker 2: 7:43

The mangaka Akira Toriyama who is? Most famous for his work on Dragon Ball, dragon Ball Z and Super, as well as a number of other stuff, dr Slump.

Speaker 1: 7:54

Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest, a lot of stuff.

Speaker 2: 7:57

He has passed away. Yeah, he's passed away, sadly, At 68 or 69, it's a very young age for someone you know. For anyone today, that's too young, right?

Speaker 1: 8:08

I think it was a cute subdural hematoma.

Speaker 2: 8:10

Which, yeah, it's scary, it's like a pulling the brain like the skull yeah. So sadly he passed away and it kind of took the whole world by surprise. You know it's one of those things that you're never expecting to hear. The creator of Dragon Ball died Not that like anyone of us has any, you know, super close ties to him, but if you really think about like the impact that Dragon.

Speaker 2: 8:36

Ball had on pop culture, on our lives, you know, there'd be no one piece. There'd be no Naruto, no my Hero Academia, no Bleach, none of that would exist if Dragon Ball wasn't a thing.

Speaker 1: 8:51

Shonen is what it is today because of Dragon Ball Z, you know 100%. And something that I was telling you that you know. The Dragon Ball series will always have a place in my heart.

Speaker 2: 9:05

It will always stick with me because of what it did it introduced me to the world of anime and it made anime really like big in the West man, at least for the United States, because, oh, for sure, for sure, I totally agree with that when, like in the early 2000s I believe it is when Toonami began and they started syndicating these Japanese cartoons for American audiences, you know, in the wake of, like the popularity of shows like Pokemon, you know, and they started syndicating Dragon Ball Z, dragon Ball itself, sailor Moon, yu-yu Hakusho, all of these, like you know, completely foreign shows to American audiences but super developed in Japan, that kind of changed the face of American pop culture as well. And not only that, but, like you know, I didn't even realize, like the impact it had on different countries. I'm looking, you know, like I've been like tuned into, like the online discussion about, like people of different races and how they were touched by Dragon Ball. Apparently, dragon Ball Z is huge in black communities.

Speaker 1: 10:11

Oh, absolutely. And yeah, like you know, some of my like you know African American friends, they really really like hit by this. Yeah, I would say like another one that would probably stun them is if the creator of Naruto passes away.

Speaker 2: 10:27

Another crazy thing that happened is in Mexico. Mexico, apparently, that's like one of the biggest things in Mexico in terms of pop culture is Dragon Ball Z. So Mexican culture has been hit like crazy. Like if you look up Akira Toriyama, mexico, you'll see like parades in the streets of like people in sane costumes, just like dancing in like rural areas, just like you know, in his, in his memory, apparently like a bunch of the cartels called a ceasefire when, like on his death, like that's the level of insanity that Dragon Ball Z meant to these people and you know what Respect to that you always hear stories about like how crime went down when the Beatles played on the Ed Sullivan show, and that's obviously a myth, but this is actually something that's causing crime to go down. That's like actually crazy.

Speaker 1: 11:18

That this something that you can actually gauge.

Speaker 2: 11:21

Yeah, no man, this is like a newsworthy headline yeah.

Speaker 1: 11:24

It's definitely a huge loss. You know, and he was still working on projects. There's another show that he was working on and just a ton of other projects.

Speaker 2: 11:34

Yeah, what was the new show called? It was called Dragon Ball.

Speaker 1: 11:37

I think it started with a G, maybe.

Speaker 2: 11:40

Daima, daima.

Speaker 1: 11:41

Daima. Okay, there's one. Yes, that's right.

Speaker 2: 11:44

I don't know if, yeah, just October of 2023, akira Toriyama is coming back for a new Dragon Ball series, dragon Ball Daima, and I think it was a straight to anime show.

Speaker 2: 11:54

I don't think it was being written as a manga, but I could be incorrect there. He's well known for his manga stuff and I've gone back and I started reading or rereading, like the Dragon Ball manga that I have. And man, he's got such, you know, even like in his earliest stories of, like Goku and Bulma and Oolong Yamcha Pu-R, like all these characters are so unique and the art style is so crisp and clear. I'd say it's like much more easy to follow, reading wise, than like a one-piece manga, just because the style is so much more easy to follow. But, man, just a huge, huge loss for the anime, the modern community and pop culture in general. I would put his influence on the wider pop culture world on the same level as Walt Disney or Stan Lee in their respective mediums. You know, like Walt Disney is the pioneer of cartoon films, you know, and we see dozens of cartoon films come out every year nowadays.

Speaker 2: 12:56

You know that's an obvious influence from Walt Disney. We, you know, you have Stan Lee, who created most of the biggest pop culture characters in cinemas these days.

Speaker 1: 13:07

You know or had something, and while manga and anime existed before, dbz and comics existed before, Mark and cartoons existed before Disney.

Speaker 1: 13:19

All these respected people did things to really revolutionize and bring in a golden era for comics, for cartoons, and I would say that the 90s was really jam packed with anime and manga that a lot of people love. And yeah, man, like I said, the biggest reason why I had watched stuff like you know, because I did watch a bit of Sailor Moon when I was younger but that was because I was like, oh, this is kind of like the same you know art style as Dragon Ball Z, the same thing with Yu-Yu Hakusho and Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop. I kind of noticed that it was like, okay, it's a different type of cartoon, you just don't know how to name it. I thought that's how I saw them was cartoons. I didn't know that it was called an anime, I didn't really realize that it was Japanese, I just saw it as a cartoon.

Speaker 2: 14:17

Yeah, yeah, I totally I mean the same boat as you. I feel that you know when you're being introduced to that stuff as a kid it did have a different level of maturity and I think that's what these cartoons kind of brought to America in a way. You know stuff like the Last Airbender couldn't exist without Dragon Ball Z, or you know just anime in general and the shape of anime that was born out of that shonen style.

Speaker 1: 14:42

Right, like it doesn't treat its audience as unintelligent people.

Speaker 2: 14:47

Yeah, and I think that it's a lot more common in Japan for adults to watch anime than it is for adults to watch cartoons in America. I think it's just a much more common thing because, you know, anime being like one of Japan's biggest exports in terms of entertainment, probably their biggest export it's built not just for kids, it's meant to be enjoyed by a wider range, and that's kind of the draw of the Dragon Ball franchise.

Speaker 1: 15:16

And anime in general, because I could see why it's easier to watch that in Japan as opposed to an adult watching cartoons here, like for me. There's no issue with watching cartoons. You like what you like, but a lot of the anime has, you know, it's more mature, it's more developed and a lot of the cartoons is more geared for children, except for, I mean, if you get shows like the Bad Batch Clone Wars. It started off maybe a little bit on the childish side but it really matures with the audience. Rebels is another. I know I'm naming just Star Wars, but honestly, avatar, the Last Airbender, I think what really grabbed me so much was that while it was a cartoon and while it had childish moments, the story was so amazing that I can easily call it probably my favorite cartoon. Like original IP that exists outside of that, it's its own universe, that's not a part of anything else, it's its own thing.

Speaker 2: 16:20

With Avatar, and I think we've talked about this in the past. Well, I know we have in a couple shows, but with Avatar, what's special is that I think it is actually geared towards children, but it doesn't shy away from hard-hitting stuff like freedom fighters actually being terrorists or Genocide. Yeah, it doesn't shy away from that. It doesn't shy away from being the last of your kind, which is just the worst possible thing that anybody could ever experience.

Speaker 1: 16:52

I'm just touching the surface, but there's so much it doesn't shy away from being emotional too, because there's a lot of moments that really hit you deep.

Speaker 2: 17:00

I think some people come into Avatar the Last Airbender expecting a show geared towards adults, but it isn't. It's a show geared towards children. So if you're watching it with the idea that it's a show geared towards adults in mind, you might not like it as much as someone who is just trying to appreciate what's being presented what was allowed to be presented on Nickelodeon in the early 2000s. Right, it's something that changed the way kids think, and that all stems back to the Dragon Ball manga you know, and so go on any further.

Speaker 1: 17:33

Which I think that we should cover that at some point too. I'm Dragon Ball Z because, honestly, let's be real, Dragon Ball Z was definitely something that solidified our friendship too. That Harry Potter, maybe Final Fantasy, a lot of these things, really a star wars.

Speaker 2: 17:52

Obviously Remember in elementary school, anthony, when kids would come with like folders full of like printed pictures of Dragon Ball Z, oh yeah, or like Dragon Ball GT, and it was just like stuff that hadn't aired in the US yet and it was just like. It was crazy, like looking at those images as, like you know, and they would draw them in class. Yes, everybody used the models of Dragon Ball characters as inspiration to draw. I did it, dude, I'm sure you did it. Oh, dude, come on.

Speaker 1: 18:19

I was one of those kids with the printed pictures drawing.

Speaker 2: 18:23

Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on, that is real. Yeah, I was there too, I had my folder too, but anyway, yeah, so yeah, we should definitely cover it.

Speaker 1: 18:32

Dragon Ball Z.

Speaker 2: 18:33

There was sites back in the day where they would have like just pictures of Dragon Ball Z. It was just like a site dedicated to random pictures of Dragon Ball Z characters blah, blah, blah that everyone would use to download the stuff when. How hard it was to like to find that stuff, oh my god, it's crazy Like I can look up anything on my computer now and get it.

Speaker 1: 18:54

On your phone. Dude, like I mean there's so many ways to find it. There's thousands of apps now Like.

Speaker 2: 19:01

I think it was called something like BlueAngelcom or something like that. I have a memory of like, even like, the layout of it. Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent, I think we should.

Speaker 1: 19:10

This podcast is a tangent. Let's be real.

Speaker 2: 19:13

Yeah, really quickly. I know like you've kind of talked about what you've been up to as well, but anything else that you want to add before we jump into our discussion today?

Speaker 1: 19:22

Dune part dose. I saw it yesterday. Oh, dune part dose, dune part dose.

Speaker 2: 19:26

Okay, tell me, tell me.

Speaker 1: 19:28

Dude, so good, so good man. Let me tell you the IMAX and, like those speakers, like I felt like I was going to shake like right out of my seat, like it was so powerful man, like how's that scene?

Speaker 2: 19:40

How's that scene when he first gets on onto the sandworm and he's just like trying to, he's like going through the sand and everything. Dude, it's such a good movie.

Speaker 1: 19:49

It's so cool and it makes so much sense, because the old one, the sandworms, are like on top of the sand. Yeah, yeah, I know.

Speaker 2: 19:57

Yeah, but this one, they're literally like surfing through water.

Speaker 1: 20:02

Right, it makes sense for them to be swimming through the sand.

Speaker 2: 20:05

Yes, it's so cool. That's another thing that we need to cover very soon.

Speaker 1: 20:09

Yes, yes, the first two parts, and so, yeah, you're correct. So I do see a third part coming out, but they pretty much covered that like for like the original, at least the original movie. I don't know about the book, but those first two parts covered the whole movie.

Speaker 2: 20:24

Yeah, so it's the first book that they covered and that's what the first move that the 1984 covered as well. Let me look this up. Private Ryan, you ready to jump into our discussion?

Speaker 1: 20:34

But yeah, yeah, that's the biggest thing. Yeah, let's hop into some saving Private Ryan. I know that you were probably intrigued that I decided to cover this movie.

Speaker 2: 20:44

Yeah, talk to me a little bit about, like, what drew you, because I haven't seen saving Private Ryan since I was a kid, maybe in the early 2000s.

Speaker 1: 20:53

So I was going to bring that up. I'm actually so surprised that you have not seen that movie since, considering the fact that you enjoy Band of Brothers so much.

Speaker 2: 21:01

I know, and what's the funny thing about this? Actually I wanted to bring it up in my head whenever something was happening on screen. I had the Band of Brothers theme song in my head, Like it was stuck, even though, like there was like other music playing in the movie for whatever reason, Like as I'm thinking. So I went for a run earlier today, just you know, because I'm trying to get into shape a little bit and in my head I'm thinking about what I'm going to say for saving Private Ryan on the show today, and in my head the theme song for Band of Brothers comes on. I'm just like I cannot shake that stupid theme song and it's a good piece of music. But yeah, the two are very connected.

Speaker 1: 21:38

Oh, I mean, even though Band of Brothers is based off of a book which is obviously older and a true story.

Speaker 2: 21:45

It's right on a true story.

Speaker 1: 21:47

Exactly Save a Private Ryan walks so that Band of Brothers could run.

Speaker 2: 21:51

That's a good way to put it. Yeah, because Band of Brothers was after right.

Speaker 1: 21:55

Yes.

Speaker 2: 21:56

A few years ago. Save a Private.

Speaker 1: 21:57

Ryan is 1998.

Speaker 2: 21:59

And Band of Brothers, I think was it's 01, 2001, 2001. You know your war movies, my dude and war media.

Speaker 1: 22:07

So well, I wanted to cover this because Save Private Ryan is, it's so. It's such a powerful movie, man. You know, even with it, if it's not a true story, and even obviously some things were shot in a specific way to to make it more interesting than you know things were, let me tell you the opening for that Omaha Beach.

Speaker 2: 22:28

Oh, it kills me, man. It's such a hard thing to watch because it's like 20, 30 minutes of just people being slaughtered, and we know that's how it was. We know D-Day was one of the bloodiest battles ever.

Speaker 1: 22:39

Right, you know, and I actually looked it up. I was super intrigued because I'm pretty sure that Band of Brothers takes place in D-Day also, but it's the airborne instead of the Rangers.

Speaker 2: 22:49

But yes, yeah, so Band of Brothers was the airborne versus. You know these guys coming in through the scene.

Speaker 1: 22:55

Right. What was the worst of the fighting on D-Day? And Omaha Beach was by far the worst.

Speaker 1: 23:02

Oh yeah, it was a slaughter, you know, and that wasn't the only beachhead that they landed there, a few other beachheads where they actually invaded at, but Omaha Beach was the worst because it was the most fortified. And I mean just you think about it, man, like they're already getting shot at while they're in the boats. You know the landers, they're already getting shot at by mortars and artillery and then as soon as they hit, like it's automatic machine gun fire, mortar fire, artillery fire. There was just no help from any tanks because there were barriers that were in the way. That's what those X's on the beach are. That's pretty much prevent tanks from getting on the beach.

Speaker 2: 23:41

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:41

And yeah, man, it's just, it's so powerful. But I love that the film doesn't start right off the rip with that. It starts off with an elder gentleman that we don't know.

Speaker 2: 23:51

You know hypothetically, we don't know who it is, and you assume, through watching it for the first time, that it's actually this Tom Hanks character that you're following.

Speaker 1: 23:59

Right, absolutely, and there's even like similar.

Speaker 2: 24:04

There's similar shots throughout the movie. You have the. It zooms in on this other man's face to the point where you're looking at its eyes and like later, maybe 10 minutes later, there's a shot of Tom Hanks character, captain Miller, with that same camera lens.

Speaker 1: 24:20

Yes.

Speaker 2: 24:20

So, and you're like looking at close into his eyes, you're like, oh, okay, so this is probably the same guy. It's the classic Steven Spielberg stare, yeah, yeah, and to the middle distance.

Speaker 1: 24:31

But it's just it's so. It's insane that a movie that was made in 1998, and obviously they've done stuff to make it look good If you would have told me that this movie came out in the 2000s, I would have believed you. Maybe, like it could have come out at some point after that time and I would have believed it because it was shot so well, man, and like the cinematography was done so well and the acting was really really good, and you and I were talking about how this film we got a lot of actors like pre, whatever it was that made them popular.

Speaker 2: 25:09

Yeah, really quickly. Before we jump into that, I just want to comment a little bit about, like the Omaha Beach thing, just because of how crazy that scene is, that first, like when they first dropped the ramp and the machine gun like takes out literally almost everyone inside of that vehicle transport. Holy crap, man, it's like the Germans created the most perfect like turret defense game, you know. Like they set up their base in a way that, for honestly, I'm surprised anyone got passed you know right.

Speaker 1: 25:42

Yeah, they called that opening the murder hole.

Speaker 2: 25:45

It's a murder hole.

Speaker 1: 25:46

They just being shot like a fish in a barrel Right, because you're standing like all pretty much grouped up and there's only one way, you know. Oh, I mean not one way, but like you're, you're like it's pretty much like a straight shot. I mean you could jump over the sides, but yeah, it's a straight shot like in, you know yeah, we mentioned Spielberg obviously was, you know, just did so well with the cinematography and everything.

Speaker 2: 26:13

He actually won the Oscar for best director on that and his cinematographer, Janice Kaminsky, won the Oscar for best cinematography.

Speaker 1: 26:23

Well deserved. I mean that movie shot so well.

Speaker 2: 26:27

It also won best effects, sound effects and editing, best film editing and best sound. John Williams was nominated for best score, but he did not win, which is fair. I don't. Like I said, the score wasn't super memorable. I was actually thinking about a band of brothers for most of it, but what is unshakable, Because you said that it won best sounds.

Speaker 1: 26:48

I mean you can think about like that Omaha Beach and like the machine gun fire and all the explosions happening, Dude.

Speaker 2: 26:55

I get chills whenever I think about it.

Speaker 1: 26:56

That's literally all you heard. I mean and like people trying to shout to one another, but all you heard was just machine gun fire and explosions, you know, and I don't even think there's any music in that scene at all.

Speaker 2: 27:08

I think it's just straight machine gun warfare.

Speaker 1: 27:10

Yeah, it's just straight.

Speaker 2: 27:11

Yeah, you know. People calling for their moms, people like holding up their guts, people walking around with missing limbs? Yeah, oh my gosh, it's such an insane and it's powerful because it happened. This may be a remake, obviously this may be fake, but it's based on something that actually did happen and people who were World War II veterans, who were there, I remember reading way back when that they felt it. They felt that this was true and this was real to them.

Speaker 1: 27:39

You know, like this, is how it felt in the war, just the hopelessness and yeah, that's what they wanted to do with this film was be historically accurate as far as that. And I do remember reading that and watching some interviews and they're like, yeah, they're just. I think I had read something online that they said that they remember going to the movie theater with their grandfather who went through that and he had to actually leave because he had like a PTSD flare up from it because it reminded him of that time.

Speaker 2: 28:11

It's scary man, the fact that this isn't that long ago. If you really think about it, it's like this is the World War II. Was what 70 years ago? At this point, that's like two of our lifetimes and change. You know it's really that such chaos was committed and you know lives were lost, like in mass.

Speaker 1: 28:31

We were just talking about it a little bit, also in the Godzilla episode that we did how like soon after they made this movie after World War II happened, you know.

Speaker 2: 28:41

Yeah, yeah it's. I'm having a hard time putting my thoughts into words here just because it's something that's so hard to fathom. Like that, the basically the whole world, went to war for four or five years and, you know just, absolute chaos ensued and tons and tons of people died, more than any other war in history. And that's not even touching like the Holocaust, you know, like there was some crazy stuff going on in the 40s.

Speaker 2: 29:06

But anyway, I digress. You were mentioning that. You know that you have a lot of like not necessarily cameo appearances, but appearances of people who you would now see as cameo appearances because there's such big names in Hollywood like Vin Diesel.

Speaker 1: 29:21

This was Vin Diesel, pre-fasciniferious man.

Speaker 2: 29:25

Was this Vin Diesel pre-? Oh, what's his pitch, dark, pitch, black.

Speaker 1: 29:30

Oh, pitch black. That's actually a good question. That was the first of the Chronicles of Riddick.

Speaker 2: 29:37

Yeah, it is. Is it before?

Speaker 1: 29:40

pitch Pitch black was 2000.

Speaker 2: 29:42

Okay. So yeah, he was no name actor. Pretty much at this point.

Speaker 1: 29:46

So yeah, I don't know that actually.

Speaker 2: 29:48

But he was. He was pre triple X, pre furious, definitely pre guardians. So yeah, Vin Diesel as a character is just like as an actor is.

Speaker 1: 29:57

I keep up forgetting that he's in the group we are good.

Speaker 2: 30:04

Oh, it's so funny, but yeah, no, it's. Brian Cranston pre Malcolm in the middle, nathan Fillian pre Firefly.

Speaker 1: 30:13

We got Ted Danson post cheers.

Speaker 2: 30:16

Post cheers, but pre most of his current work.

Speaker 1: 30:19

Was it pre the good place? Pre curb your enthusiasm.

Speaker 2: 30:24

Yeah, I'm looking through the Lisman. Andrew Scott, who played Moriarty in the Sherlock series, was in it. Paul Giamatti, massive actor.

Speaker 1: 30:33

Yeah, Paul Giamatti. And then there's Matt Damon. He's not a cameo, the actual private right, but Mr Private Right. This was before his born identity stuff.

Speaker 2: 30:45

Oh yeah, dude, this whole movie is filled with people. I'm sure it changed everyone's career, honestly. Giovanni Robisi he played the medic Wade. He's one of the lead bad guys in the Avatar series, like he's the RDA guy who is all after the unobtainium. The whole movie, oh my gosh dude was that.

Speaker 1: 31:07

You know, I didn't even put two and two together.

Speaker 2: 31:09

Well, that was that was. You know. The Avatar movies were a previous obsession of mine, before I got into Monsterverse.

Speaker 1: 31:15

So, oh my gosh, that's crazy, yeah, man.

Speaker 2: 31:18

That this movie was a huge boost to pretty much everyone's career and to understand oh, and of course we have Tom Hanks.

Speaker 1: 31:25

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 31:25

Tom Hanks. There was one scene where he sounded just like Woody and I couldn't shake it.

Speaker 1: 31:32

Like he started like being really animated and it sounded like he was berating Buzz Lightyear, like that was probably when I was yelling at Vin Diesel for like they were going to take, he wanted to take like that little girl down to like the next town.

Speaker 2: 31:49

Yes, oh, my god, what a. So it's interesting. Actually, let's talk about that scene because you have you have this troupe who are you know. Well, actually, we should probably take a step back. The whole point of the movie kind of stems around the idea that in the US mail room, wherever they're getting letters or sending letters out about, you know, this person is here, this person has died, this person you know, instead of yeah, so basically one male lady in that office realized that three separate brothers, all belonging to this one mother's family basically, have died in war pretty much all the same time the last brother, the fourth brother, Ryan, James Ryan.

Speaker 1: 32:34

Ryan James James Francis Ryan.

Speaker 2: 32:37

James Francis Ryan, that's what it was. Yeah, he's the last brother and basically they decide, instead of letting him die which he probably would have had had their platoon not you know went over to grab him Dude.

Speaker 2: 32:52

Yeah, what have absolutely died. Yes, had they. Basically, like the whole point of the movie is they get Tom Hanks character, captain Miller, and a group of soldiers who have, you know, a lot of experience at this point into the war. They send them on like a wild goose chase to find a private Ryan. They go town to town, countryside to countryside, like following, basically hearsay oh. I think there's a. You know the hundred and verses over there. Oh yeah, there's a James Ryan here.

Speaker 1: 33:23

Right Like, it's not like they can pull up a phone. You know they have radio systems and stuff there, but it's not like how it is nowadays, you know it's still yeah it's still very, you know, just old school, you know, not exactly reliable. I mean it was reliable enough but you're not going to be able to find somebody. I mean it would be hard to find somebody like that now, just even with the phones that we have. Can you imagine with just paper and there?

Speaker 2: 33:49

was hundreds of thousands of men on all sides, you know, just walking around randomly shooting each other. I mean, it wasn't at random. Obviously, they were obviously fighting strategic battles on different fronts, but it was. There's so many people that it could become very disorganized, and that's kind of the problem that they face throughout.

Speaker 1: 34:08

This is that nobody knows where anyone is, well me, and some random battles too. There's one that happens literally like they pass by a machine gun nest. You know that happens, you know, to the ambush point, you know.

Speaker 1: 34:21

Yeah, yeah, and so yeah, I mean, that's like I would consider that like a random battle because that wasn't a mission for them. But Captain Miller was like you know, we don't want to leave this here because they're going to ambush the next people. So, yeah, no, I mean, with all that happening, it's yeah, it's tough, and one of the brothers dies on Omaha Beach.

Speaker 2: 34:41

Yeah, I've in. While watching it I was just like wait, private Ryan is already dead, because we saw his, like the brother's like logo on the back. But I realized soon that I must have been one of the other brothers. I was a little bit of a dummy for that. So you were talking about Vin Diesel's scene. When they're in the town, they, you know, like they're mid fight, like there's like a battle going on, and these crazy parents who are probably just shell shopped, scared for their lives, scared for the children's lives, in the building that's half destroyed.

Speaker 2: 35:13

Think that they can give their kids to. You know American soldiers for safety and I obviously we know that that's a dumb idea as an audience. But if you really try to put yourself into someone like that's shoes, they're probably so scared nothing makes sense anymore, you know. But Vin Diesel's character Caparzo, he's already shown up to that point that he kind of thinks that he's immortal.

Speaker 2: 35:37

He has surviving Omaha Beach probably, yeah, he has that scene where, like, they're under fire and he's just like biting into a bunch of apples seeing which one is good enough to get and he's totally capable of being hit right there, but that just goes to show that he thought that he was invincible Like he. He didn't care at that point. So him taking the girl may seem like a good idea. Yeah, yeah, we could take her, it's no big deal. Obviously, he gets shot by cyber.

Speaker 2: 36:05

Yeah, and it becomes this. The film adds another layer onto you know, like what it means to write letters home or like to, you know, bring information back to your loved ones. And that he pulls out a letter that he wrote to his family his father, I believe. He gives it to the medic to copy it onto a new paper because it's all bloody.

Speaker 1: 36:27

Basically Right, and throughout the film, that's such a strong scene too with you. You get that moment with Jackson the sniper.

Speaker 2: 36:35

Yeah, oh yeah, that's dude. Such a good scene. I think like snipers are just kind of just cool and like I don't know how to describe it, Like I don't want to say that you know, warfare is cool because it's not, but you'd have bad asses on the field and Jackson is a badass, you know.

Speaker 1: 36:51

Oh, yeah, yeah, the way that that's what I'm trying to say.

Speaker 2: 36:54

Is that, like, when, when he needed to do something, he did it, in terms of like being stepping up and taking out the guy who just killed Kaparzo, right, right. But yeah, one thing that I really liked the attention to detail about the note that was passed between all the, you know, when Wade died I forget who grabbed it from Wade, but basically the note kept getting passed around to all these different soldiers as, like you know, in remembrance of Kaparzo, basically until they were able to send it to Kaparzo's family. I think, actually, private Ryan grabs it from Tom Hanks in the end, you know. But anyway, I thought that was a neat storytelling trick that they were able to utilize this, this narrative of one brother dies, the next brother picks up there and finishes carrying on their wish, carrying on their legacy.

Speaker 2: 37:40

That's so cool.

Speaker 1: 37:42

What are your thoughts on Corporal Upam?

Speaker 2: 37:45

Upam yeah.

Speaker 1: 37:47

The the interpreter.

Speaker 2: 37:49

Yeah, I believe his character is believable. You know, he's never really seen combat, he's new to war, he's never taken a life and he's not a war monger. You know, he's not someone who wants to get into battle, he's not someone who wants to take a life and he's kind of like the level head throughout the movie. There's the one scene where they end up taking a German prisoner who you know they have like dig a hole for them to bury Wade in, I believe, and yeah, the rest of the crew basically want to kill this, this German prisoner. But Upam says you know, that's not right and it isn't right. You know, if he's a prisoner, he's a prisoner. If he's surrendered, he's surrendered. But they do have a point that like if we let him go he's just going to fall back in line.

Speaker 1: 38:32

You know he's just going to end up happening.

Speaker 2: 38:34

It ends up happening and the credits of this movie they call him. His character is named Steamboat Willie because he he references American.

Speaker 1: 38:43

Steamboat Willie.

Speaker 2: 38:44

Yeah, so his, I'm looking at it so crazy. I'm looking at the cast. I'm looking at the cast, willie, isn't it?

Speaker 1: 38:51

crazy to think that Steamboat Willie is older than World War Two. Dude, it's nuts.

Speaker 2: 38:57

It's so, time is so. Weird man. But yeah, they end up calling this guy Steamboat Willie. I don't think on camera they don't call him Steamboat Willie. No no in the credits he's labeled Steamboat Willie.

Speaker 2: 39:08

Well, we have to give him a name by the end of the movie. It's interesting because, you know, we initially see Upam fail to help Private Melosh, who's like right upstairs. He's having a knife fight with some German guy and he has a panic attack on the stairwell, is incapable of bringing any ammunition to anyone, basically in the whole fight, and he crumbles in battle.

Speaker 1: 39:32

He did get shot at a few times, you know, during that fight. Like you know, he was actually getting actively aimed at, so I mean, I can imagine that being a part of it and just the chaos that was in suing people dying around him. You know he had never experienced that up until that point, you know.

Speaker 2: 39:49

But then of course he sees, you know like, he ends up in a position later in the battle where there are German prisoners and one of those prisoners is Steamboat Willie, and that prisoner recognizes him and you know like, oh hey, he's the guy that saved my life, and he immediately shoots him, which is, I believe, the first life that he takes in the movie.

Speaker 1: 40:10

Yeah, I believe so he could. You don't see him.

Speaker 2: 40:14

And it's almost like all their engagement.

Speaker 1: 40:16

He doesn't fight at all.

Speaker 2: 40:18

And it's a powerful scene because you're just like whoa, what the heck happened to this guy, Like what changed him? And I think it's he lost his innocence. You know, I think that's it Like he's no longer. He has blood on his hands now because he was unable to help his brothers.

Speaker 1: 40:33

Well, he also just witnessed Steamboat Willie shooting Captain Miller.

Speaker 2: 40:38

Oh, of course, and so, but I think, like on, like a more.

Speaker 1: 40:42

And there's a lot going on there, like, in a way, because he doesn't do it immediately, but it's like. You know, I saved this man's life. He was a POW and he was saying all this stuff about, you know, screw Hitler and this and that, and now he's now here.

Speaker 1: 40:57

He's back fighting you know, and that was essentially that that's what they said, like, oh you know, they tell him to walk until he finds the first like you know, american, I guess patrol. But then he was like, well, yeah, but what if he gets picked up by his own people? Then he's going to get cycled right back in. And sure enough, you get cycled right back in into the Battle of Ramelle, which is another like very powerful fight. Let's cover the Battle of Ramelle. This one is really strong too, because I feel like up until this point, you see, it kind of builds the human side of some of the characters, up until then, but you get it a lot more in this battle. A lot of these people talk about you know, their life before they joined the war and it shows a bit, you know, some of the fears that they do have. I mean Tom Hanks character. That man is pretty much afraid all the time, you know.

Speaker 2: 41:49

Yeah, what was interesting is that, like, his shaking doesn't happen when he's in battle. He's shaking happens when he's at rest and it's almost like an anxiety thing. You know, like when am I going to do something? It's an anticipation jitter that he gets. But it's at Ramelle that they find Private Ryan. You know they're like all right, a bunch of our guys have died looking for you. Get over here, brad, we got some news for you and you're going home.

Speaker 2: 42:15

Basically, and props to Private Ryan. He learned the news that his brothers had died all three of his brothers and he assessed the situation that he was currently in and that if he leaves his post here, the brothers that he's made in this war will also die. And he basically comes to the decision that, like no, I'm staying here to you know, this is, this bridge is fortified again. And Tom Hanks, captain Miller and his crew basically realized, like all right, the only way that he's making it out of this alive is if we help them. And it's just, it's such a bloody battle, it's such a crazy, almost like 30, 40 minute sequence of just, you know, the carnage of war.

Speaker 1: 42:55

But right, right and Spielberg dude, that was such a you know, yeah, a lot, of, a lot of people in this group die, including only including Captain Miller. Right yeah, captain Miller, we have up on up on survives.

Speaker 2: 43:11

Horvath, sergeant.

Speaker 1: 43:12

Yes, sergeant Horvath dies, which is like his, his right hand man. Yeah, and Melish Melish dies. Yeah, jackson dies. Caparzo Wade died prior to that. Wade died during that skirmish with the machine gun nest. I'm pretty sure they all die, except for up on, up them and ribbon. Yes, yes, gentlemen with the BAR.

Speaker 2: 43:34

What I really appreciate is that they go back to the gravesite. You know, ryan has lived a life worth living. Basically, like you know, before Captain Miller dies, he tells him to make it worth it. Yeah, earned. He said, earn this. And it's such a powerful idea. Like what does it mean to earn? And basically, like it shows that he's lived a nice, long life. He has family, his children, his grandchildren, and they're all there to witness him paying his respects to these people who gave their lives so that he can live. You know, imagine like the guilty must have to live with after that, or like the survivor's guilt, you know, like why did I have to live you?

Speaker 1: 44:13

know, and you see it pours out of him. You know, in the beginning of the film, you know he, just he drops in front of we don't know who's grave. In the beginning it is, but yeah, you know it's. It's private Ryan, this old man, you know. He's sobbing in front of the grave of Captain Miller and you know a lot of it. You know, because Captain Miller just wanted to get home, he wanted to lay in his hammock while his, his wife, was pruning the, the rose bushes and stuff. But you know it's like he gave his life so that, essentially, private Ryan could have his own version of that.

Speaker 2: 44:48

Excellent movie. This is one of the best war movies ever made. If you guys haven't seen it, I'm sorry for spoiling everything.

Speaker 1: 44:55

But it's. I mean you had a long time to watch that movie, it's definitely so worth it.

Speaker 2: 45:00

But thank you guys so much for listening to us here for episode 73 of Project Geekology. My name is Dakota, I'm joined with Anthony and we'll see you in, I believe, next week's episode where we're covering Avatar, the Last Airbender, right.

Speaker 1: 45:14

The Netflix one, the live action, because we already covered the cartoon. We have a cover Cora, not the movie.

Speaker 2: 45:20

We might touch on that a little bit, but not the movie. Anyway, guys, thank you so much. We hope you have a good day or a good night, wherever you are. Please find our links to our socials in the show notes down below, and see you next time. Bye, anthony, we did it. We didn't even have to make one, saving Ryan's private joke. All right, all right, bye, guys.