kabbes, I’m blowing a big ole raspberry at you. 
As for bookends in a movie, I thought they were done quite well in Titanic, and served to advance the story, but in Saving Private Ryan they were stupid. I mean, I got it, but the impression at the beginning was that the old guy was Tom Hanks.
Why would Matt Damon be remembering that whole part of the story when he wasn’t even there?
In Titanic, DiCaprio did have an Italian buddy named Fabrizio, but they met up with an Irish guy named Tommy, the one who was shot at the end. Fabrizio took Tommy’s life jacket after he was shot.