RIP, Karl Malden

TangoWhiskey

TangoWhiskey

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Lost another one...

Age 97. Lived a long time! Streets of San Francisco, "Don't leave home without it" AmEx commercials... RIP.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Can't believe I'm about to say this, but...

I've never seen it.

I need to rent it. Saw "Saving Private Ryan" for the first time a couple months ago too... wow.
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SPR is really only very good for the first landing scene. It gets a little weird after that. I highly recommend Band of Brothers, which was made as a result of SPR

Patton is an all time classic. Gives you a good feel for the type of man Patton was. It has several historical inaccuracies but is a good review of the man if not the battles. Karl Malden did very well as Gen Omar Bradley. I am proud to say that I once shook the hand of the REAL Gen. of the Armies Omar Bradley.
 
smigaldi said:
SPR is really only very good for the first landing scene. It gets a little weird after that. I highly recommend Band of Brothers, which was made as a result of SPR

Patton is an all time classic. Gives you a good feel for the type of man Patton was. It has several historical inaccuracies but is a good review of the man if not the battles. Karl Malden did very well as Gen Omar Bradley. I am proud to say that I once shook the hand of the REAL Gen. of the Armies Omar Bradley.
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I agree -- SPR devolved into a morality tale -- "Earn this" did not cut it.

I met MAJ Dick Winters in 1999. He returned to Hershey, Pennsylvania after the war and made a good living selling feed to the ever-increasing livestock market in that area.

He remains as humble and quietly confident today as he is portrayed in the book and the mini-series.
 
smigaldi said:
SPR is really only very good for the first landing scene. It gets a little weird after that. I highly recommend Band of Brothers, which was made as a result of SPR

Patton is an all time classic. Gives you a good feel for the type of man Patton was. It has several historical inaccuracies but is a good review of the man if not the battles. Karl Malden did very well as Gen Omar Bradley. I am proud to say that I once shook the hand of the REAL Gen. of the Armies Omar Bradley.
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An interesting tibit about the movie Patton (which may be apocryphal, as I have never been able to validate the tale) that we learned at the US Army Armor Center...

When Patton opened at the US Military Academy at West Point, the Cadets stood as they always did for the National Anthem when the US Flag was projected.

They may have been surprised to see 48 stars on the flag, but they were even more surprised when the deceased alumnus GEN George S. Patton strode out onto the stage and delivered his famous (though toned down) speech.

The entire corps of cadets remained standing for the duration of the speech.




All Armor Lieutenants used to be provided with a US Army publication, "History of US Armor." It contained several of Patton's unedited speeches.

The movie version was heavily sanitized.
 
At Army ROTC summer camp at Ft. Lewis back in 1973 we had a unit on armor. As part of it we had to write an ops order for a combined armor/infantry assault on an airfield. The instructor's parting words were, "I don't want anybody signing it George Patton!". So, I initialed it. My initials? GSP, of course. :D

Karl Malden was a great actor and he will be missed.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Can't believe I'm about to say this, but...

I've never seen it.

I need to rent it. Saw "Saving Private Ryan" for the first time a couple months ago too... wow.
Click to expand...

Trust me. It was on TV at least once on Memorial Day and it should be on July 4th.
 
"George, you're a pain in the neck."
 
He truly was one of the greats. I think his roles in A Streetcar Named Desire (Mitch Mitchell), On The Waterfront (Father Barry), and Patton (Gen. Omar Bradley) were among the finest in the history of cinema.
 
Are you serious??? "Earn this" made me cry.

Does anyone know for sure who was the voiceover for the letter? I am not sure it is the actor playing Marshall. I ask also because at the American Cemetery in Normandy they have a few films and the voiceover narrating it is the same person. He has a very resonant voice, it seems to fit the somberness of it.
 
woodstock said:
Are you serious??? "Earn this" made me cry.
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I saw it the first time in Maryland with a bunch of Army buddies who were in the 29th Division (the "YingYang" patch the main characters wear).

I thought "earn this" was an over-the-top line.

Who could live up to the burden imposed by a dying man surrounded by his dead compatriots? (Which is why the aged Ryan has to ask his wife to tell him he is "a good man.")
 
I liked SPR. I thought it was well done. However, when they throw in a human interest story it lessens the real meaning of the sacrifice these men made for our country. I usually watch it from just after the landing scene (Rallying) to the end of the battle defense of the small, French town.

I think its one of Tom Hanks' finest performances along with Apollo 13 and Philadelphia.
 
Anthony said:
I liked SPR. I thought it was well done. However, when they throw in a human interest story it lessens the real meaning of the sacrifice these men made for our country. I usually watch it from just after the landing scene (Rallying) to the end of the battle defense of the small, French town.

I think its one of Tom Hanks' finest performances along with Apollo 13 and Philadelphia.
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I agree it's a great performance -- but now I compare every war movie with Pork Chop Hill, Objective Burma!, and Glory.

Each had great performances, and each had a real emotional punch, probably intensified by the fact that each was based almost entirely on actual events.

Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, Commander of the 54th Massachussets regiment, was buried in a mass grave with his soldiers.

The Confederate Commander thought he was providing a final insult.

Instead it was a final testament.
 
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