Stardate 20011109.0601 (On Screen): I have not seen "Saving Private Ryan"; I don't go to movies much. I hear that by all accounts the first part, which gives a beach-eye-view of the landing at Omaha Beach is some of the best film making of all time, and that men who were actually there who saw the film started having nightmares because it brought the memories back to them so vividly. For anyone who thinks that war is some sort of fun, I suspect it would be a very good thing to view. War is deadly serious and men get killed and maimed.
It's finally arriving on network TV and ABC has decided to broadcast that first segment uncensored. Bravo! But it makes me wonder: how are they going to handle advertising? Generally they tend to back-load the advertising, with the first segment of a film not being interrupted and the ads appearing later when the audience is hooked, so presumably they'll run the initial invasion sequence as a whole. But it should be more than a bit disorienting to be dragged away from Normandy to a car showroom to see new cars, and then be told about the latest antiperspirant -- and then to be bodily shoved back into the hedgerows for further fun and games with the Wehrmacht. Should rather disrupt the experience, don't you think? I don't intend to find out. (But then I have no illusions about the horrors of war.) (discussion in progress)
