Let's talk about Corporal Upham from Saving Private Ryan

jgarner said:
Upham was a coward. He had a job to do, and failed to do so resulting the horrible death of his brother in arms. When I was in the Marine Corps, we had a few guys come into my battalion, and we could tell they had his type of personality. We hazed the ever living shit out of those kids until they went UA (unauthorized absence) and left the unit. One kid was in my platoon. He was straight shitbag coward who joined infantry for no apparent reason. Me and a few others guys would routinely beat him, lock him out of his room, threaten him, steal his gear, break his stuff, et cetera. We just didn't want him on deployment with us, and we made it clear. He wound up going UA one day and went home. He threatened suicide when they caught him and seperated him from the Marine Corps. I don't regret what I did for one second of my life. Someone in my platoon would have fragged his ass the first time we had a firefight.

Upham is a fictional character, but he really pisses me off. I deeply hate everything he stood for in the movie. I understand he was probably a draftee, but as a man he should have bucked up and did his job. Instead he let Nazis kill better men than him while he hid like a total pussy.
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You sound like a real peice of shit bully to me. I bet you never even knew those guys you beat up and picked on. Bet it made you feel like a big man ganging up one one scared kid. Rather than build him up so he's not a coward you virtually destroy him for reasons you believe and not ever knowing what your fellow man is capable of.
 
jgarner said:
Upham was a coward. He had a job to do, and failed to do so resulting the horrible death of his brother in arms. When I was in the Marine Corps, we had a few guys come into my battalion, and we could tell they had his type of personality. We hazed the ever living shit out of those kids until they went UA (unauthorized absence) and left the unit. One kid was in my platoon. He was straight shitbag coward who joined infantry for no apparent reason. Me and a few others guys would routinely beat him, lock him out of his room, threaten him, steal his gear, break his stuff, et cetera. We just didn't want him on deployment with us, and we made it clear. He wound up going UA one day and went home. He threatened suicide when they caught him and seperated him from the Marine Corps. I don't regret what I did for one second of my life. Someone in my platoon would have fragged his ass the first time we had a firefight.
?
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Jermei said:
You sound like a real peice of shit bully to me. I bet you never even knew those guys you beat up and picked on. Bet it made you feel like a big man ganging up one one scared kid. Rather than build him up so he's not a coward you virtually destroy him for reasons you believe and not ever knowing what your fellow man is capable of.
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The guy I knew was a pussy. We didn't have time to give him a set of balls. We were going into combat in less than 6 months, and he needed to go.I don't give a shit what you think about me for participating in removing him. I did what I needed to go until combat with the best, most badass warriors I could. There's a time and place to build up someone, but predeployment workup isn't the place. Fixing him meant sacrificing training time that was vital. So unless you've been in combat, I can't take you serious.

He's a scared kid? Don't join infantry. You know who else was scared? Me. I still bucked up and did my job. I literally pissed myself the first time 7.62 was snapping inches by my head and hitting the glass plates on the guntruck I was in. You can be scared, but if you can't perform people die in horrible ways
 
Saving Private Ryan = great movie

Shaving Ryan's Privates = not so much.
 
Upham was working translating documents. He was not from the combat arms. I wonder if he would have been different if he had been trained with other soldiers. The only training he had for combat was in basic then he moved into the clerical ranks.
 
Can I just say I am still REALLY confused why they dragged his coward ass along?
 
jgarner said:
The guy I knew was a pussy. We didn't have time to give him a set of balls. We were going into combat in less than 6 months, and he needed to go.I don't give a shit what you think about me for participating in removing him. I did what I needed to go until combat with the best, most badass warriors I could. There's a time and place to build up someone, but predeployment workup isn't the place. Fixing him meant sacrificing training time that was vital. So unless you've been in combat, I can't take you serious.

He's a scared kid? Don't join infantry. You know who else was scared? Me. I still bucked up and did my job. I literally pissed myself the first time 7.62 was snapping inches by my head and hitting the glass plates on the guntruck I was in. You can be scared, but if you can't perform people die in horrible ways
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Alright I get it, you were going into action and I can see you not wanting that type of guy .I was thinking along the lines of just a typical boot camp... but is harassment, beatings and bringing another man to suicide the only way to get someone kicked from the infantry? And how does a guy like that even get in... you'd think your superiors would spot a weakling a mile away know you types re going to shred him to pieces.
 
It seem kinda fake and movieish when the German soldier didn't kill Upham. In a roundabout way the German soldier is responsible for the blindfolded prisoner's death.
 
WrestlinganJudo said:
Upham was working translating documents. He was not from the combat arms. I wonder if he would have been different if he had been trained with other soldiers. The only training he had for combat was in basic then he moved into the clerical ranks.
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Agreed!
His position was no different than putting priests on the battlefield.
How dumb is that?

In the beginning scene there was a bunch of germans on turrets mowing down mobs of soldiers and here you had a bunch of useless priests doing nothing but getting in the way and praying for people.
They were basically cannon fodder, and so was upham.

In a nutshell Upham wasn't a coward, he was merely cannon fodder.
 
KnightTemplar said:
Yeah, that was some Game of Thrones level shit. Funny, the scenes where guys are getting shot, blown up etc are intense, but they didn't make me want to turn away from the screen the way this did. Probably because it was so up close and personal.

The Nazi was a scumbag, of course, but I had more respect for him than for Upham. At least the SS soldier did his duty.
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I can't remember. Was that guy actually SS or just a regular German soldier?

I'd have to rewatch, but he just seemed like a guy on the other side doing his job, and not necessarily a scumbag.
 
The actor is one of the best at, and known for, his ability to play timid pathetic characters. We all empathized or sympathized with the character at the same time that we really didnt like him. Thats an acting job well done.
 
BisexualMMA said:
I can't remember. Was that guy actually SS or just a regular German soldier?

I'd have to rewatch, but he just seemed like a guy on the other side doing his job, and not necessarily a scumbag.
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Waffen SS. The OP has a picture of him and you can see the Sig Runes on his collar.

The SS were scumbags. The Waffen SS were brave bastards, and perhaps some of the toughest, most professional soldiers that ever existed. But they were still fanatical Nazis, as liable to murder civilians or POW's as kill enemy soldiers on the battlefield.
 
KnightTemplar said:
Waffen SS. The OP has a picture of him and you can see the Sig Runes on his collar.

The SS were scumbags. The Waffen SS were brave bastards, and perhaps some of the toughest, most professional soldiers that ever existed. But they were still fanatical Nazis, as liable to murder civilians or POW's as kill enemy soldiers on the battlefield.
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Guess I could have just looked at the OP again. Yes, fuck the SS.
 
Coward for sure but add me to the list of people that thought the two Germans were the same guy. Great movie too. One of the few WWII films I can watch because they aren't pushing the poor Jew angle the entire time. They still manage to show a Jewish headstone at the graveyard in the opening scene though if you pay attention.
 
I never noticed that the dude who stabbed mellish was SS
 
Smelish was an OG and he let him get killed ... Coward!
 
Shell shock is a bitch. I have trouble calling him a coward. More like his soul was being assaulted during that scene. I dunno, war is hell. I'm sure during the annals of war there are countless real life situations where a solider froze up. Its not a matter of being a coward I don't think, more like being frightened to the point of paralysis.
 
Fuck Upham.

I felt pretty sorry for the guy up until the moment he didn't enter that room to help Mellish. Up until then, even though he was scared he was at least trying to do what he could to help. Carrying the ammo and shit. At that moment though, he heard a clearly intense 1 on 1 fight and cried like a baby instead of helping. Stupid bitch. Bothered me as a kid seeing the movie for the first time, bothers me still.

this is a top 2 or 3 all time movie for me by the way. Agreed that the knife slowly plunging into Mellish's chest is fucking tough to watch.
 
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