"Saving Private Ryan" has been cut!

I just got the DVD version of "Saving Private Ryan" today. I was blown away by this fantastic disc.

However, there seems to be a shot missing.

Towards the end of the movie, I remember there being a shot of an American soldier running up to a tank with a 'sticky bomb'. Before he can attach it, it blows up in his hand, sending his two halves flying in either direction. It was really gruesome, perhaps the most gut-wrenching image of the film.

Now I find that it appears to have been edited out of the DVD version. Perhaps Spielberg felt was too intense for home viewing, and made the cut at the same time as he changed the Omaha Beach opening shot near the beginning of the movie.

Check it out for yourself. I think the cut is at roughly 2:18:23. It suddenly jumps to some guy screaming on the floor, with his legs blown off. Hmmmmmmm.

The interesting thing is, that I rented it here in the UK before Xmas, and that shot was in. Great. I thought buying from the US meant getting films "un-cut". I guess not.

Si

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"I have a bad feeling about this..."

Visit my John Williams website at http://homes.arealcity.com/sithlordsi/

That's strange. My copy of SPR has that very scene in it you are talking about.

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Brad Vautrinot

Which copy do you own (DTS/DD)?

I have the DD version. I wouldn't have thought there would be any difference though.

Maybe I got mixed up, and thought that bit was somewhere else. Could you do me a favour and find the bit, then tell me the exact counter position so I can check? Maybe I remember it more vividly than it ever appears on screen!

Cheers,
Si

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"I have a bad feeling about this..."

Visit my John Williams website at http://homes.arealcity.com/sithlordsi/

I believe that part is uncut. It's at 2:13:40

What did he change about the Omaha scene, Sith?

Apparently, some have said, that in the film's opening the zoom in on the Elderly James Ryan, the shot morphs into Capt. Miller aboard the boat. Then we see the beach / tank obstacles / etc. In the DVD the cut goes from the zoom in straight to the tank obstacles. When I first saw it in the theatre, I was sure that the veteran from the beginining was Tom Hanks. Afterwards (being rather stunned by the film) I seem to have recalled that Ryan had indeed morphed into Miller but wondered how that could be. I watched for it, though, during the 3 times I saw it afterward in the (same) theatre and was suprised to see that the morph really did not occur. I had only assumed that it did. Therefore, I must conclude that the opening of the DVD has not been edited in any way.
Also, my DVD has the scene of the soldier being torn apart by the sticky bomb as well.

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The Dude abides, man.

I found the bit with the sticky bomb! It was earlier than I'd remembered, but just as graphic. Ugh. And I think I'm also now in agreement that the film has not been changed in any way. Now that I think about it, I don't remember a morph near the beginning of the film either. Having read about it, I guess that put the idea in my head. It would have been rubbish to have a morph at the beginning, sort of tacky.
Si

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"I have a bad feeling about this..."

Visit my John Williams website at http://homes.arealcity.com/sithlordsi/

Gee...

I don't know.. but that scene with the sticky bomb makes me chuckle every time I see it...
Especially since the cut from the actor to the dummy wasn't completely smooth...

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I don't mind tyranny....
as long as I'm the tyrant.

-I said this