I was watching Saving Private Ryan last night, and was wondering something. After one of the fight scenes, some guy was going through the possessions of one of the dead Germans. He stood up and said, “Look. A Hitler youth knife.” He then gave it to the Jewish guy (Private Mellish played by Adam Goldberg) that got killed (stabbed because the skinny little weasel translator guy wouldn’t help) toward the end of the movie by the German they let go about midway through the movie. When private Mellish took the Hitler youth knife and looked at it, he started crying. I was wondering why he started crying (other than the possible foreshadowing). I completely understand that he was just in a life-threatening situation, and possibly had been in many over a long period of time, thus building stress that could definitely lead to crying. I also understand that he seemed to be taking the war a little more personally than the other soldiers in the movie (understandably). I realize that it is most likely that it is a combination of those things, along with thinking about what the knife represents. It looked as if he read something on the knife. So, more specifically, I was wondering what a Hitler youth knife looked like. Does it have something written on it? If so, in what language is it written? I ask about the language because the movie lets you know that private Mellish does not know the German language.
While I’m at it, does anyone know where I can get translations of all of the German words spoken in the movie?
my impression (perhaps reading something in, but my impression nevertheless) is that he started crying thinking of all that the Hitler Youth stood for – taking young people and turning them into hate filled (and incidentally, Jew killing) caricatures of people. And thinking of the deaths of his fellow Jews and maybe some family.
IIRC, Hitler youth knives had the motto “Blood and Honor” written on the blade in German. If my high school german was not too long ago this would be “Blut und Ihre”. I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong. Doesn’t really answer your question though.
My fiancé’s brother speaks German semi-fluently. If you can’t find a site with the translation E-mail me and we’ll watch it and he’ll translate. As for the movie I found it disturbing. I don’t know why, ( I’m a Jewish male mid twenties) apart from the " it’s a bloody war movie" angle. I can’t watch Shindlers List (SP?) but I know that has to do with the concentration camp seances. Hell I have a hard time watching " the diary of Anne Frank." Sorry, this isn’t a weather you liked the movie or not thread, so I’ll stop with the options.
I don’t think “Steamboat Willie” (the POW from the machinegun team, set free by the Lieutenant earlier) stabbed anybody. He did shoot the Lieutenant later. He looks a little like the guy who stabbed Mellish in the building, but I don’t think they’re the same.
Boris,
If what Roger Ebert has in the back of his 2000 book of reviews is correct,then you also are right. “Steamboat Willie,” the German they release is not the same German who stabs Mellish. He does return later in the movie however.
I never got the impression that the knife had anything to do with him breaking down. It was just the first calm moment since the landing and he broke down. That scene is sort of the unofficial end to the whole opening invasion sequence.
Mellish was also the guy showing his dogtags to the German POWs after the fighting on D-Day, pointing out that he was “Juden”. The scenes establish Mellish’s character and help establish that the movie will be a tribute to the Good Guys.
I can’t remember (and no, it doesn’t really matter…) Did Mellish and his partner get overrun because the ‘skinny little weasel translator guy’ folded? They ran out of ammunition in their rifles, but the SLWTG was carrying ammunition belts. There were two machine gun posts; I don’t remember them as being one.
This reminds me of a scene in Cabaret of all things. (For those unfamiliar with the movie it’s about a group of nightclub performers working in 1930’s Germany.) There was a scene were a group of young teenagers are shown in close up singing “The Future Belongs To Me”. After the actions of the main characters they seem so wholesome and innocent as they sing. Then the camera pulls back and you see they’re dressed in Hitler Youth uniforms.
Melish got into hand-to-hand combat with a German in a second story room in a building. The skinny little weasel translator guy knew that it was one on one, and could have helped, but instead, he stood on the stairs and listened to the fight, paralyzed with fear which ended up getting his buddy killed. Incidentally, what the German said just as he was pushing the knife into Melish was the German translation I wanted the most in the movie, and I found out what it was. It was something like “It’s easy for you to die.”
JLPicard, thanks for the offer. If I can’t find any translations, I’ll take note of the scenes I want translated the next time I see the movie.
EVERYONE ELSE, thanks for all of the info and your takes on what was going on.
No, Steamboat Willie isn’t the same guy that stabs Adam Goldberg. They’re vaguely similar (same haircut) but they’re different guys wearing different uniforms.
Yes, Mellish and the redhaired paratrooper were a machine gun post, and yes, they were overrun because Jeremy Davies didn’t bring them more ammunition. The redhaired paratrooper never ran out of bullets for his tommy gun, though, he just got shot through the wall.
Incidentally, this is the one major continuity error I caught in the film aside from the “eight guys when there should have been seven” boo-boo. When Mellish and the paratrooper have run out of bullets, they hear someone coming up the stairs. Mellish calls out the corporal’s name, which escapes me, there’s no answer, and the paratrooper fires through the wall with his tommy gun. There’s a sickening thud and blood runs into the doorway. Then another German soldier comes in and fights Mellish.
So what happened to the first guy, the one the paratrooper presumably killed? When we see the German soldier coming down the stairs, there’s nobody at the top. Unless the dead guy was assumed into heaven, that’s a strange error.