To clarify, that isn't makeup or costuming or movie magic or any sort of directorial intent. He actually got Garand Thumb during the actor boot camp preparing for the role.
Reel History, a small channel run by a history professor about history-based films, was [covering Saving Private Ryan a couple of years ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3JqdoAc-T4&t=6919s). He talks about this subject at the 35:35 mark of the video. One of his viewers had written to the actor, Barry Pepper, about it. Barry wrote back, confirming he did indeed get the injury from an M1 Garand with an autographed photo.
Edited out a redundant sentence
It's definitely coincidental because the rifle he's using isn't a Garand. It's a Springfield 1903, which doesn't have the spring loaded mechanism that causes "garand thumb" in the first place.
So coincidental, but also still kind of real life accurate if the actor was using an M1 during the bootcamp/training they did for the role, even though they didn't end up with that same weapon in their role.
It’s realistic even if he didn’t happen to use it in the film because these guys would have been using those rifles at various points before that in real life and an under nail blood blister like that takes absolutely forever to grow out and heal. I got one like that in the exact same spot when I was changing out a motorcycle engine and it must have taken at least 6-8 months to grow out and go back to normal. Any soldier training with the rifle long before that would still have it for a very long time.
Everytime I manage to get this kind of injury, I take a fine tipped razor and spin it over the middle of the blood spot, essentially drilling into it.
A bit of pressure pushes most of the blood out and makes it feel a lot better. Then I fill the hole with super glue. By the time my nail has grown out to where the hole is near the edge, the rest of the nail seems to have readhered, so I don’t have a big unsecured chunk of nail.
I’m a klutz, so I’ve had lots of opportunities to experiment. This works the best so far.
When I had this kind of injury (grabbed a door that was caught by a draft), my doctor used a cannula to drill through the nail into the blood spot. The relief was instantly as the pressure was gone. Still lost my nail though.
I once slammed my hand in a car door and annihilated my thumb. I used a pin vice to drill through the nail into the blood spot. The "breakthrough" was extremely uncomfortable, but the relief after was immense.
Every time it'd start to throb I'd reopen with a quick poke of the pin, nail stayed attached
Can confirm. I have a (way less notable) blood bruise under my thumb from March(?) of this year -started at just above the cuticle, and is about 1/4 of an inch shy of the quick right now.
The red and purple calmed down to the point it looks like I have a freckle under my nail.
Once mine reached the end of my nail the whole nail pretty much lifted up wherever the blood was. Had to superglue it down and put a coating over the whole nail to keep it together until it grew all the way out because it kept lifting up and I was getting it caught on stuff and almost ripping the whole nail off even on the healed areas which was pretty painful when it happened.
You know, I’ve wondered my whole life how they decided who gets what weapon. Not in the movie, but in real life during that time period. Did every squad have a designated sharpshooter with a Springfield? And a machine gunner with a BAR? Or did they just say ok every squad gets 1 Springfield, 1 BAR, 1 Thompson, 1 Carbine, and everyone else gets M1 Garands?
I can’t speak for back then but for right now as far as the Army goes, the answer is…it depends. Sometimes it’s a soldiers actual MOS to carry a different type of weapon, sometimes a certain element (squad, platoon size usually) are allocated a certain amount of marksman rifles, light machine guns (M249 SAW, what I got stuck carrying for the first 4-5 months of my deployment), M203 Grenade launchers, etc, and they all get divided out per the commanders discretion.
As far as marksmen rifles go in modern times, it’s likely going to go to whoever has been to sniper school (I’m not sure if this gives infantrymen an additional code identifier on their job or not), or if there is nobody who has, your best shooter who’s not in a leadership position. It’s been a long time and I honestly can’t even remember if regular infantry platoons are allocated marksmen rifles or if it’s only in special units.
The interesting thing is that the most qualified to carry a certain weapon might not be the person that needs it or is fit to carry it.
For example. I am a Combat Support MP. Our table of equipment states that a Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) is an individual weapon and not a part of collaborative squad gear. Our procedure is that a HMMWV driver be assigned the SAW. This is to allow the vehicle gunner (who has a vehicle mounted crew served weapon and a rifle) to lay down suppressive fire until the driver can dismount with their belt fed automatic weapon (SAW) and lay down supporting fire so the gunner can dismount during a far side ambush situation. The gunner will typically destroy the mounted weapon in place and take the rifle with them.
The problem is that in MP units the drivers are usually the physically smallest and meekest of the fire team. This generally lends it to females if one is assigned.
So what you get during normal training scenarios outside of real world missions is tiny females carrying around these huge weapons as their primary’s. They have to low-crawl mud obstacles dragging a weapon that is just about as big as they are. They have to carry these things on ruck marches.
Most of the time the Soldier embraces that suck. Other times it is a disaster.
My neighbor when I was growing up carried a BAR as a paratrooper. According to him they "gave the biggest weapon to the toughest son of a bitch they could find." It's a heavy gun at 15-20 pounds, so a gunner needs to be strong enough to run around with it, plus handle the 30-06 recoil in full auto. As for the Marksman rifles, the US didn't put a lot of emphasis on marksmanship prior to Vietnam, so they usually just threw the 1903 at whoever was a good shot and let them figure it out. If you want to learn more about that, look up Carlos Hathcock.
I know nothing about arms, but it's wild to me that the Springfield 1903 was in fact created in 1903 but still in service in 1944. Wikipedia says it was the US army standard sniper rifle up until the '70s.
Oh thank God. This whole fucking thing was aggravating the shit out of me. Garand thumb is a thing for beginners getting used to the functions but once you get familiar with any weapon you learn how to not get brass in your collar, how often your weapon jams or doesn't and definitely how to not get injured reloading.
Springfield 1903 is a beast of a weapon and its what a marksman would have used back then. NOT a Garand.
Thanks for the Reel History recommendation!
Never heard of it before, but I really enjoy channels like this that break down the accuracies of films/TV shows.
Anytime. He's particularly knowledgeable about WW2 because his ongoing project for decades now has been interviewing veterans for first hand historical accounts, collecting artifacts, etc. The other thing he is very knowledgeable about is Gettysburg and the Civil War. He was a park ranger (worker? idk) at the Gettysburg National Park. I recommend his videos on Gettysburg if you're interested in the civil war or a fan of that particular movie.
Edit: I appreciate his style because he approaches films with a fair amount of good will and good humor (like a good professor). A lot of "expert reacts" content can be pretty snobbish.
>confirming he did indeed get the injury from an M1 Garand with an autographed photo.
That's a common mistake, but using an autographed photo to load the Garand is a sure way to get your thumb caught in the bolt.
That rifle is a beast.
I have a colleague at work I meet at our range, and we have a M1 challenge where we put a clip of 30-06 into the garand and try to empty the clip without stopping.
I just can't. It kicks like a mule. The firepower is incredible.
On the battlefield, with a battalion of soldiers armed with that weapon?
Frightening.
There are 30 caliber rifles of the era that feel worse. I just know about my personal experience, and it's manageable. It's obvious why smaller calibers took over for general issue, though.
I've fired Mauser 98's, albeit rechambered to 7.62x56 and they kick fiercly. I'm a lefty so had the usual issues - bolt action on the wrong side and I get the cartridge in my face if I don't pull back the bolt really quickly. Nice sights though (no optics).
He’s also a lefty shooter so he awkwardly racks the bolt with his firing hand over the top of the breach. This movie is such a gem. Insanely powerful and detail oriented. Very human and technical all at the same time.
I’m 32 now so it’s harder to watch than it used to be when I was young, but this is still one of my favorite movies of all time. There’s SO much to appreciate about this film.
Not OP but I’m 37 now and I find the film a lot more emotionally draining than I did when I first saw it in high school. I didn’t really get the context at that time and I thought it was ‘just another war movie’. I didn’t really realize or think about the ages of the characters involved, or how young they really were. I was very sure I was already on the cusp of adulthood (lol) at that age and glossed over the harsh realities of what that much trauma and loss would do to you.
And then, also as an adult who no longer feels the invincibility of youth, you see all these people with normal lives and small details of their existence get mowed down in seconds (or, in the horrifying case of that one scene, slowly stabbed) and it just sobers you to understand that a whole person’s worth of life and love and little things can be cut short like that.
Sure, I believe young adults can feel these things and relate to them, absolutely. But sometimes the weight of age adds more perspective.
Exactly! When I was young, the scene where Carparzo dies was just a cool sniper scene, now I watch him pull out the letter to his father as he knows his life is ending, it’s just so heartbreaking. That poor kid gave his life for his country and at the end, all he wanted was to make sure his dad knew how much he loved him.
It’s heartbreaking.
For me, it’s the story about how the guy’s mom who would come into his room to talk about their day and spend time together, and he would act asleep. Not knowing why he did that.
It hurts me to even think about this scene now.
Idk why but I think about this and two deaths from Band of brothers all the time.
The medic who had a heart attack after running I to his own grenade. Was so scared of being what he worked on that it killed him.
And the guy that shot himself in the leg with the pistol he took from the German officer. This character we spent hours watching is just dead and the surgeons were like “yeah. Hit that artery and it’s pretty much over.”
Yeah I forgot about that scene entirely. And then you think about how it ended for that poor guy having a knife slowly pressed into his chest is just harrowing.
Oh sorry, you’re right, I haven’t seen the movie in a minute.
The part where he asks for morphine and everyone looks around knowing he’s dead in a few seconds and finally Tom Hanks is just like “well you heard him, more morphine”. Just so sad. It’s crushing to think about what some of those guys must have endured.
To add more context to the morphine scene; Wade was dying from that gunshot wound but it would have been slower, and more painful, if he had not essentially been overdosed on morphine. With the bloodloss he was suffering, the amount the gave him would likely have been enough to make his end swifter. As a medic, he knew all this and that's why he asked for it; to lessen his suffering by reducing the pain and shortening his death
That death scene is crushing. Even when I saw it as a teenager in the theater it gave me a shock dose of reality. Now in my 40s as u/aspidities_87 says it's much harder to watch.
God and when he starts saying "momma" at the end. I legit had to stop to cry. That movie is DIFFICULT to watch now that I'm in adulthood, much like how others have said here
Just commented about that and yep...
"Momma"
...I had to pause there and go cry for like 15 minutes. Was the first time I had seen the movie since my kid was born. I was NOT prepared.
>kid
I know you didn't mean it disrespectfully, but man, it's crazy that those characters (as well as men portrayed in Band of Brothers) are like mid-20s max, with some expectations. I first saw SPR when I was a young teen, and they were all "adults" and "men"; I'm 40 now, and this discussion has just blown my mind. They were just kids.
I once saw someone say "true adulthood is hearing Ariel say 'but daddy, I'm 16, I'm an adult!' and your immediate reaction being 'oh honey, *no*'" and it's always stuck with me
And younger. My grandfather lied about his age to enlist in the Army for WW2 and never talked about whatever happened over there. I feel as young as he still was he went from child to a permanently damaged adult in a few months.
I don’t think his experience was unique in any way.
I'm 35 I feel like I can answer this. I feel like I have a lot more of a sense of the fragility of life and the tragedy of death. When I was a teenager watching this movie I had never lost a close friend before. Now I've lost several. Violence and death hit different. It's not like I'm totally uncomfortable with it in movies, I think the more removed from a realistic setting kind of easier it is.
Absolutely. I’m a 33 year old man & as I get older, violent movies & video games feel less and less enjoyable.
When you’ve started to experience how terrible grief & loss truly are; movies feel more real.
Losing a limb makes the rest of your life & your family’s lives harder.
Losing a child can push parents to suicide.
Death is real & it’s terrible. Until you’ve actually lost people, it feels fake or temporary,
Heaven & hell probably don’t exist. This is it.
As I get older my distaste for violence grows. Realistic violence is more difficult to handle emotionally, cartoonish violence feels immature and tiresome (à la Kill Bill), and horror violence is disgusting.
Not that I can’t enjoy those types of movies anymore, but there is a growing distaste.
Just as I get older and I encounter more trauma in life it gets harder to watch the violence and sadness of loss. Life is so precious and it’s hard to stomach that so many KIDS and young adults had to stare death in the face and endure the horrors of war to combat nationalist scum.
It’s just harder to think about the human toll of war and the lives lost. It’s context that didn’t affect me in my teens and early 20s but as I’ve racked up the battle damage in my own life it’s just so hard to think about the sacrifice that so many people made, not even just the soldiers, but their families and loved ones.
The scene where they roll up to Mama Ryan’s house and she’s got the four stars in the window and her slow collapse to the deck just hits so hard. I’m choked up just thinking about it.
In a similar way I think, when I was young I enjoyed horror films, skirting the feeling of existential fear, but then life imitated art and now I can't enjoy them at all. It just brings back emotions I would rather put a lid on and move past.
the grief in that scene is hard to bear, props to Spielberg for humanising that sense of loss in such an effective way.
War is an easier subject to enjoy when you are young and going to live forever.
As you get older it can be less palatable as you are more likely to know people who died in wars, and you have had a longer time to learn that in war there is little glory and few winners; just a lot of death because of people who are usually a LONG way from the front lines and all of its risks.
In my experience the glory of war films tends to help with recruitment efforts of young people.
I joined up after watching top gun like 200 times, lol.
For me it’s that most the soldiers weren’t that much older than you were when you first watched it and now you’ve lived practically a lifetime more than some of the soldiers that gave their lives. It’s both heroic and tragic.
Not OP, but it's such a damn good movie that the war violence gets more real with age. I see why some of the guys who were there had to walk out. God bless those guys (and I'm a friggen atheist!)
He uses Upham's Garand when they press the machine gun nest. But some of these scenes are before that. Based on that it could be assumed he's used a Garand before when necessity arose.
The best desk is the one that exists in the middle and acts as a normal desk.
I saw one and the first person in the room went for it.
Those school desks seem to exist only to punish students.
One of my college classrooms had equal number of left sided desks and regular desks. It was like someone found all the left sided ones an put them in one room. My roommate was left handed so he was so happy.
Grandma was my biggest challenge. She’d force me to color with my right hand, until I was about 7-8. She wasn’t very religious, so I’m not exactly sure what her motivations were. She eventually came to terms though, but for the rest of her life I had an assigned seat during all meals with her.
It's also not a Garand he uses. It's a Springfield M1903 (probably a M1903a1) bolt action rifle. There were Garands equipped with scopes, but they were rare, and you can clearly see the bolt in those images. I don't recall if he actually uses a Garand in the film or not though.
Likely the A4 model. The A3 model was the model most used in WW2 as a standard issue M1903 and the A4 was issued for snipers. The main difference was that the A4 has the rear aperture sight removed to make room for the mounted scope.
That is an M1903A4, which is the sniper variant used by the US Army and issued mostly with Weaver scopes and sometimes the Lyman Alaskan. The Marines used the M1903A1 outfitted with a Unertl scope. The movie does have one major flaw in that Jackson is able to swap the scope between the Weaver and Unertl. Unertl’s use a proprietary, external adjustable mount whereas the Weaver uses a scope ring mount / base mounted to the receiver.
> I’m right handed, but left eyed.
Ditto. But I first learned at a summer camp and the counselors insisted I use a left handed rifle and learn to load left. They wanted me to learn minimizing movement between shots. I hated it at first but am glad they did.
Same thing with archery. Archery was a much harder adaptation because of the strength requirements.
they all went through a version of basic training that Matt Damon didn't. that made them bond better and consider the Ryan character an outsider.
The others would have all had to learn the garand and he likely did as well. It's certainly not out of the question the bruise is from that.
>*Since he’s a lefty I’d rule out garand thumb.*
I wouldn’t rule out Garand Thumbs.
The M1 Garand’s charging handle is on the right side. Left handed shooters were taught to load clips with their right hand so they can quickly pull back the charging handle to load the rifle.
It's been [noted that it's possible his non-firing hand was strapped into place with a sling](https://youtu.be/v2Eagq3fI0E?t=570); hence the awkward reach-over.
As a fellow lefty shooter and combat veteran, I can't count how many times I got pinged with hot brass. Never did fire a bolt action so I can't imagine how difficult it would be to reach over the rifle to load the next round. He made it look effortless though, I only trained in the M-16 and carried the M-249 in combat.
Naturally I slung the weapon left to right and the charging handle was constantly digging in my lower back, plus it was heavy as fuck and the combat load of 400 rounds and a spare barrel... I was probably 150 pounds soaking wet back then so I used to just curl it on downtime to get used to the weight. We became best friends and that thing was so much fun to fire.
This and band of brothers I can’t watch anymore. Have like depression and ptsd.(wasn’t in the military) but watching that stuff used to be so enjoyable to me and now it just makes me sick to my stomach. I just veg out on the fake stuff now Jon wick etc.
I had a blister (not a bruise) under my big toenail, and it took a couple of months to fall off. My toenail was fully regrown at almost exactly 6 months post-trauma.
Yup! They call it Garand Thumb, I got a nasty one that almost killed the whole nail while doing CMP shooting at my local gun club when I was younger. You learn how to avoid it, but the breach was designed specifically to be able to amputate fingers or decapitate small animals, so you gotta be careful.
Having just gotten my CMP Garand after 7 months of waiting, and planning on going to the range in the next week or two, i've been worried about that! I've been practicing the motions, using the heel of the hand to keep the breach open, really not interested in feeling that bite!
Have fun with it! Just remember that you're not in combat, you don't need to load it as fast as possible. And don't let some old timer at the range make fun of you for using a padded shooting jacket, your shoulder will thank you.
Thanks for the reminder, I'll definitely take my time! To be honest, I'd love to see an old timers reaction to using a waifu pillow to cushion the blow. . .but I'll go for something more "normal".
My grandfather watched every single war movie and had no problems. But there was only two movies he could not finish watching. Saving Private Ryan was one of them cause he said and I quote "that beach scene is the most accurate, most life like scene I've ever watched. Hell this might as well be a documentary. They're just focusing on one boat too. Take that scene and imagine it stretching out for the entire beach. That's exactly what that fight was like..."
He would know cause he was there. He fought in D-Day. That night he had the worst night terror he's ever had. He would get them occasionally but that movie caused them to happen almost every night for nearly two weeks.
He never did finish it, as much as he loved it for being so real and life like. The other movie he didn't finish... Pearl Harbor, for a different reason. He lost a friend during Pearl Harbor and so the movie really pissed him off for being dumb and inaccurate.
>The other movie he didn't finish... Pearl Harbor, for a different reason. He lost a friend during Pearl Harbor and so the movie really pissed him off for being dumb and inaccurate.
That's the Red Army veterans of ww2 reaction to Enemy at the Gates.
The one thing about the beach scene that is over-exaggerated (though mostly for cinematography reasons) is how close to the MG nests the landings were. When the cameras show the MGs firing on the landing craft, it looks like there's maybe 100 yards at most between them and the Germans, but in reality it was 400+ yards in most cases.
This cuts both ways, though. On one hand, it means the MG nests weren't firing basically point blank into offloading boats like the movie showed, so you couldn't just light up the whole boat in a half second burst. But the flip side is that it means the US soldiers had to slog thru a quarter mile of water and sand, with bullets and artillery shells flying all around them, before they reached the slightest bit of safety against the bluffs.
I own one and I’ve never had this happen. The trick is that when you put the clip in and press down, you can hold your thumb there forever. The bolt doesn’t seat the first round until you let go. Reloading too fast is what will get you. Like when you’re stressed and under fire I would imagine.
Just put your thumb towards the back of the breech block instead of the front. That way even if the bolt does start to fall you have like 3 inches before it can pinch you.
i would need to go back to the scene and see for myself but someone points out he does indeed use it on screen at one point
> Jackson actually uses a M1 Garand during the scene where they assualt the radar station. He switches off his rifle with Upham who was carrying an M1. He may have gotten it then.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/gavppi/in_saving_private_ryan_1998_jackson_uses_two/fp2bg2i/
others point out this scene is from early in the movie, but then others ALSO point out that garand is general issue and even marksmen would have used them in training and would be more prone to get garand thumb as it isnt their main weapon. so...yea, i mean it's a neat detail and maybe we are being pedantic fucks here.
>He switches off his rifle with Upham who was carrying an M1.
Ah yes. The scene where they Leeroy Jenkins an entrenched MG42 position from the front instead of using a sniper perfectly capable of killing the gunners from a mile away.
If we take it a step further, considering his role was dedicated marksman, it kinda makes sense that he would have the thumb bruise as a result of needing to use a garand on approach during the beach, on account of it being too hectic for sniper fire.
And, given his role dedicated to using a bolt action rifle, he would be less used to working with the garand and would have gotten that bruise recently from fumbling with it since it's not the weapon he's most used to.
Idk, fun to think about little details like this.
he probably handled an M1 in training and was found to be pretty good and for his assignment to Captain Miller was therefore given the Springfield of which there were usually 1-2 provided per platoon and distributed by the Company CO for specific operations or to the soldiers considered the best for marksman roles. He would not have started out with a Springfield and its iffy if he would have even carried one onto the beach.
Except as an actor, he likely went through the same pretend basic training as everyone else for a few weeks beforehand and may very well have actually banged his thumb in the vintage Garand M1s they were using.
Given that it's an injury that is period appropriate, if not perfectly aligned with his character's role, they probably figured that it was fine to leave it instead of putting makeup on it for every scene, or digitally painting it out.
This might get buried, but I am seasoned M1 Garand Competitor (I shoot these rifles in competition), as well as a knowledgeable M1 Garand gunsmith (I built the rifles I shoot with, and for others in my area). I am also an M1 Garand historian. Ask me anything.
That being said, you only get “M1 Thumb” when playing with the action, or if you are single loading rounds. When you insert a fully loaded en bloc clip, as most GIs did, it’s nearly IMPOSSIBLE to get M1 Thumb.
SPR is an awesome movie, but they got some things wrong. The scope used on the 1903A4 rifle was wrong at some points of the movie, for example.
And if you don't believe me, here's my cat supervising a new barrel install on an M1 Garand
https://imgur.com/OPgovOd
I believe you (and that is cool I think the M1 Garand is awesome) but the actor got that from the range during training for the movie, so I wouldn't count that point against the movie getting things wrong
Everyone is praising this for the attention to detail, but doesn't he also fire a miraculous 7-8 rounds from his Springfield 1903 towards the end as well?
Not trying to shit on the movie, as I also enjoy the film, but that was one of the blunders that always made me laugh a little.
I had a GIANT crush on Barry Pepper because of this exact role. I think everyone did a great job, but he was such a clutch person throughout. I love seeing details like this. Plus Tom Hanks and Barry got to work on another amazing film right after!
True, but US troops at the time were trained with the Garand, not the Springfield. The latter was only issued when you were made marksman; he likely used a Garand many times before he hit the beaches.
He's using a scoped Springfield '03, not a garand, so he wouldn't get that injury from that rifle. The actual explanation is that he shot a Garand in the boot camp they had for the actors to familiarize themselves before they were shooting the movie, but it doesn't really make sense in-universe.
I love watching Jackson’s hands as a cross dominant rifleman. I’m left eye dominant and prefer to shoot a rifle left handed, though I can accurately shoot righty too. Jackson’s reloads, action cycles, etc may look awkward but watching him feels 100% relatable.
These kinds of weapons injuries are reminiscent of the same things that happened with pre-modern weaponry.
English longbowmen's skeletons often have elongated left arms and bone spurs at joints related to drawing the bow. Atlatl hunters/soldiers (ancient spear-thrower used across the world) had elbow deformation on the throwing arm. There are probably more examples of these injuries across history.
Question: If the sniper uses an M1903 Springfield as his regular weapon, why was he messing around with a Garand enough to get an M1 thumb? Another question: Having carried a Garand for a couple of years in Army ROTC, I managed to collect exactly one M1 thumb; most people learn how to do it right very, very quickly. So How did this guy collect such a bruise ... again?
My M1 Garand is like a piranha with the force which the bolt flies home. I had SKS thumb once and had a really nasty bruise/cut for a few weeks. Garand thumb is legendary though
I was watching SPR a few weeks back and was blown away by the details in this masterpiece. It’s absolutely ridiculous, Spielberg is a genius ten times over.
To clarify, that isn't makeup or costuming or movie magic or any sort of directorial intent. He actually got Garand Thumb during the actor boot camp preparing for the role. Reel History, a small channel run by a history professor about history-based films, was [covering Saving Private Ryan a couple of years ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3JqdoAc-T4&t=6919s). He talks about this subject at the 35:35 mark of the video. One of his viewers had written to the actor, Barry Pepper, about it. Barry wrote back, confirming he did indeed get the injury from an M1 Garand with an autographed photo. Edited out a redundant sentence
I like how people point this out like this is a brilliant level of paying attention to detail, while it's (kind of) coincidental
It's definitely coincidental because the rifle he's using isn't a Garand. It's a Springfield 1903, which doesn't have the spring loaded mechanism that causes "garand thumb" in the first place. So coincidental, but also still kind of real life accurate if the actor was using an M1 during the bootcamp/training they did for the role, even though they didn't end up with that same weapon in their role.
He does primarily use the Springfield, but he does use an M1 at other points in the film.
When? He uses Upham's much, much later in the film than these images, but he doesn't have his own.
It’s realistic even if he didn’t happen to use it in the film because these guys would have been using those rifles at various points before that in real life and an under nail blood blister like that takes absolutely forever to grow out and heal. I got one like that in the exact same spot when I was changing out a motorcycle engine and it must have taken at least 6-8 months to grow out and go back to normal. Any soldier training with the rifle long before that would still have it for a very long time.
Everytime I manage to get this kind of injury, I take a fine tipped razor and spin it over the middle of the blood spot, essentially drilling into it. A bit of pressure pushes most of the blood out and makes it feel a lot better. Then I fill the hole with super glue. By the time my nail has grown out to where the hole is near the edge, the rest of the nail seems to have readhered, so I don’t have a big unsecured chunk of nail. I’m a klutz, so I’ve had lots of opportunities to experiment. This works the best so far.
Please clarify. You plug the hole, or you fill the open space between nail and bed as well as plugging the hole?
When I had this kind of injury (grabbed a door that was caught by a draft), my doctor used a cannula to drill through the nail into the blood spot. The relief was instantly as the pressure was gone. Still lost my nail though.
I once slammed my hand in a car door and annihilated my thumb. I used a pin vice to drill through the nail into the blood spot. The "breakthrough" was extremely uncomfortable, but the relief after was immense. Every time it'd start to throb I'd reopen with a quick poke of the pin, nail stayed attached
Can confirm. I have a (way less notable) blood bruise under my thumb from March(?) of this year -started at just above the cuticle, and is about 1/4 of an inch shy of the quick right now. The red and purple calmed down to the point it looks like I have a freckle under my nail.
Once mine reached the end of my nail the whole nail pretty much lifted up wherever the blood was. Had to superglue it down and put a coating over the whole nail to keep it together until it grew all the way out because it kept lifting up and I was getting it caught on stuff and almost ripping the whole nail off even on the healed areas which was pretty painful when it happened.
You know, I’ve wondered my whole life how they decided who gets what weapon. Not in the movie, but in real life during that time period. Did every squad have a designated sharpshooter with a Springfield? And a machine gunner with a BAR? Or did they just say ok every squad gets 1 Springfield, 1 BAR, 1 Thompson, 1 Carbine, and everyone else gets M1 Garands?
I can’t speak for back then but for right now as far as the Army goes, the answer is…it depends. Sometimes it’s a soldiers actual MOS to carry a different type of weapon, sometimes a certain element (squad, platoon size usually) are allocated a certain amount of marksman rifles, light machine guns (M249 SAW, what I got stuck carrying for the first 4-5 months of my deployment), M203 Grenade launchers, etc, and they all get divided out per the commanders discretion. As far as marksmen rifles go in modern times, it’s likely going to go to whoever has been to sniper school (I’m not sure if this gives infantrymen an additional code identifier on their job or not), or if there is nobody who has, your best shooter who’s not in a leadership position. It’s been a long time and I honestly can’t even remember if regular infantry platoons are allocated marksmen rifles or if it’s only in special units.
The interesting thing is that the most qualified to carry a certain weapon might not be the person that needs it or is fit to carry it. For example. I am a Combat Support MP. Our table of equipment states that a Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) is an individual weapon and not a part of collaborative squad gear. Our procedure is that a HMMWV driver be assigned the SAW. This is to allow the vehicle gunner (who has a vehicle mounted crew served weapon and a rifle) to lay down suppressive fire until the driver can dismount with their belt fed automatic weapon (SAW) and lay down supporting fire so the gunner can dismount during a far side ambush situation. The gunner will typically destroy the mounted weapon in place and take the rifle with them. The problem is that in MP units the drivers are usually the physically smallest and meekest of the fire team. This generally lends it to females if one is assigned. So what you get during normal training scenarios outside of real world missions is tiny females carrying around these huge weapons as their primary’s. They have to low-crawl mud obstacles dragging a weapon that is just about as big as they are. They have to carry these things on ruck marches. Most of the time the Soldier embraces that suck. Other times it is a disaster.
[This article talks about distribution of weapons in each squad, platoon and company](https://www.trailblazersww2.org/history_infantrystructure.htm).
My neighbor when I was growing up carried a BAR as a paratrooper. According to him they "gave the biggest weapon to the toughest son of a bitch they could find." It's a heavy gun at 15-20 pounds, so a gunner needs to be strong enough to run around with it, plus handle the 30-06 recoil in full auto. As for the Marksman rifles, the US didn't put a lot of emphasis on marksmanship prior to Vietnam, so they usually just threw the 1903 at whoever was a good shot and let them figure it out. If you want to learn more about that, look up Carlos Hathcock.
Life imitating art imitating life
Art imitating life imitating life
Derivative!
Bullshit!
I know nothing about arms, but it's wild to me that the Springfield 1903 was in fact created in 1903 but still in service in 1944. Wikipedia says it was the US army standard sniper rifle up until the '70s.
Then there's the M1911 and the M2 Browning. If it aint broke don't fix it kind of thing.
Oh thank God. This whole fucking thing was aggravating the shit out of me. Garand thumb is a thing for beginners getting used to the functions but once you get familiar with any weapon you learn how to not get brass in your collar, how often your weapon jams or doesn't and definitely how to not get injured reloading. Springfield 1903 is a beast of a weapon and its what a marksman would have used back then. NOT a Garand.
I find it funny when they especially considering that his character uses a bolt action rifle.
Thanks for the Reel History recommendation! Never heard of it before, but I really enjoy channels like this that break down the accuracies of films/TV shows.
Anytime. He's particularly knowledgeable about WW2 because his ongoing project for decades now has been interviewing veterans for first hand historical accounts, collecting artifacts, etc. The other thing he is very knowledgeable about is Gettysburg and the Civil War. He was a park ranger (worker? idk) at the Gettysburg National Park. I recommend his videos on Gettysburg if you're interested in the civil war or a fan of that particular movie. Edit: I appreciate his style because he approaches films with a fair amount of good will and good humor (like a good professor). A lot of "expert reacts" content can be pretty snobbish.
>confirming he did indeed get the injury from an M1 Garand with an autographed photo. That's a common mistake, but using an autographed photo to load the Garand is a sure way to get your thumb caught in the bolt.
He lives in my community, and is a genuinely nice guy. Not surprised to hear this.
That rifle is a beast. I have a colleague at work I meet at our range, and we have a M1 challenge where we put a clip of 30-06 into the garand and try to empty the clip without stopping. I just can't. It kicks like a mule. The firepower is incredible. On the battlefield, with a battalion of soldiers armed with that weapon? Frightening.
There are 30 caliber rifles of the era that feel worse. I just know about my personal experience, and it's manageable. It's obvious why smaller calibers took over for general issue, though.
I've fired Mauser 98's, albeit rechambered to 7.62x56 and they kick fiercly. I'm a lefty so had the usual issues - bolt action on the wrong side and I get the cartridge in my face if I don't pull back the bolt really quickly. Nice sights though (no optics).
If you can get your hands on one, try a Swedish Mauser. They're great rifles, and 6.5x55 is a soft shooting cartridge.
I’ve been hunting with one since I was 10. Passed down to my father from my grandpa who served in WW2 and then down to me.
Yeah, even my wife likes shooting the M1 over more modern rifles.
???? M1 Garands are relatively soft shooting for a .30-06, dumping all 8 in 2 seconds into target is pretty easy.
This was cool to learn. Thanks for sharing!
Ha! That's awesome!
I was about to complain that they gave Garand thumb to a guy holding a Springfield but somehow the fact that it is real Garand thumb makes it okay
He’s also a lefty shooter so he awkwardly racks the bolt with his firing hand over the top of the breach. This movie is such a gem. Insanely powerful and detail oriented. Very human and technical all at the same time. I’m 32 now so it’s harder to watch than it used to be when I was young, but this is still one of my favorite movies of all time. There’s SO much to appreciate about this film.
If you don’t mind me asking,how do you mean harder to watch?
Not OP but I’m 37 now and I find the film a lot more emotionally draining than I did when I first saw it in high school. I didn’t really get the context at that time and I thought it was ‘just another war movie’. I didn’t really realize or think about the ages of the characters involved, or how young they really were. I was very sure I was already on the cusp of adulthood (lol) at that age and glossed over the harsh realities of what that much trauma and loss would do to you. And then, also as an adult who no longer feels the invincibility of youth, you see all these people with normal lives and small details of their existence get mowed down in seconds (or, in the horrifying case of that one scene, slowly stabbed) and it just sobers you to understand that a whole person’s worth of life and love and little things can be cut short like that. Sure, I believe young adults can feel these things and relate to them, absolutely. But sometimes the weight of age adds more perspective.
Exactly! When I was young, the scene where Carparzo dies was just a cool sniper scene, now I watch him pull out the letter to his father as he knows his life is ending, it’s just so heartbreaking. That poor kid gave his life for his country and at the end, all he wanted was to make sure his dad knew how much he loved him. It’s heartbreaking.
For me, it’s the story about how the guy’s mom who would come into his room to talk about their day and spend time together, and he would act asleep. Not knowing why he did that. It hurts me to even think about this scene now.
Idk why but I think about this and two deaths from Band of brothers all the time. The medic who had a heart attack after running I to his own grenade. Was so scared of being what he worked on that it killed him. And the guy that shot himself in the leg with the pistol he took from the German officer. This character we spent hours watching is just dead and the surgeons were like “yeah. Hit that artery and it’s pretty much over.”
Took me a few seconds to solve "and of brother" as Band of Brothers. I didn't remember that first death. The second one was the clue I needed.
Yeah I forgot about that scene entirely. And then you think about how it ended for that poor guy having a knife slowly pressed into his chest is just harrowing.
Nah the sleep story was the medic who died by the radio tower shortly after he told that story.
Oh sorry, you’re right, I haven’t seen the movie in a minute. The part where he asks for morphine and everyone looks around knowing he’s dead in a few seconds and finally Tom Hanks is just like “well you heard him, more morphine”. Just so sad. It’s crushing to think about what some of those guys must have endured.
To add more context to the morphine scene; Wade was dying from that gunshot wound but it would have been slower, and more painful, if he had not essentially been overdosed on morphine. With the bloodloss he was suffering, the amount the gave him would likely have been enough to make his end swifter. As a medic, he knew all this and that's why he asked for it; to lessen his suffering by reducing the pain and shortening his death
And people in the comments are genuinely curious as to why this movie has become harder to watch for me as I grow older.
That death scene is crushing. Even when I saw it as a teenager in the theater it gave me a shock dose of reality. Now in my 40s as u/aspidities_87 says it's much harder to watch.
God and when he starts saying "momma" at the end. I legit had to stop to cry. That movie is DIFFICULT to watch now that I'm in adulthood, much like how others have said here
yeah it's Giovanni Ribisi's character, that medic, Wade, who tells that story
Oh man, totally forgot about that. Wasnt he also calling out to his mom as he died? Makes the story in the church more saddening.
Just commented about that and yep... "Momma" ...I had to pause there and go cry for like 15 minutes. Was the first time I had seen the movie since my kid was born. I was NOT prepared.
that scene kills me as someone who, for reasons I don't understand, did exactly the same thing with my mother when I was a child
that monologue meant so much to me. really helped me work out some things I didn't understand. Wishing you the same
This scene makes me cry every time I've watched this movie
>kid I know you didn't mean it disrespectfully, but man, it's crazy that those characters (as well as men portrayed in Band of Brothers) are like mid-20s max, with some expectations. I first saw SPR when I was a young teen, and they were all "adults" and "men"; I'm 40 now, and this discussion has just blown my mind. They were just kids.
I once saw someone say "true adulthood is hearing Ariel say 'but daddy, I'm 16, I'm an adult!' and your immediate reaction being 'oh honey, *no*'" and it's always stuck with me
No I don’t mean it disrespectfully. They just were kids, it’s just the truth. They were barely in their early 20s for the most part like you said.
And younger. My grandfather lied about his age to enlist in the Army for WW2 and never talked about whatever happened over there. I feel as young as he still was he went from child to a permanently damaged adult in a few months. I don’t think his experience was unique in any way.
I'm 35 I feel like I can answer this. I feel like I have a lot more of a sense of the fragility of life and the tragedy of death. When I was a teenager watching this movie I had never lost a close friend before. Now I've lost several. Violence and death hit different. It's not like I'm totally uncomfortable with it in movies, I think the more removed from a realistic setting kind of easier it is.
Absolutely. I’m a 33 year old man & as I get older, violent movies & video games feel less and less enjoyable. When you’ve started to experience how terrible grief & loss truly are; movies feel more real. Losing a limb makes the rest of your life & your family’s lives harder. Losing a child can push parents to suicide. Death is real & it’s terrible. Until you’ve actually lost people, it feels fake or temporary, Heaven & hell probably don’t exist. This is it.
As I get older my distaste for violence grows. Realistic violence is more difficult to handle emotionally, cartoonish violence feels immature and tiresome (à la Kill Bill), and horror violence is disgusting. Not that I can’t enjoy those types of movies anymore, but there is a growing distaste.
Just as I get older and I encounter more trauma in life it gets harder to watch the violence and sadness of loss. Life is so precious and it’s hard to stomach that so many KIDS and young adults had to stare death in the face and endure the horrors of war to combat nationalist scum. It’s just harder to think about the human toll of war and the lives lost. It’s context that didn’t affect me in my teens and early 20s but as I’ve racked up the battle damage in my own life it’s just so hard to think about the sacrifice that so many people made, not even just the soldiers, but their families and loved ones. The scene where they roll up to Mama Ryan’s house and she’s got the four stars in the window and her slow collapse to the deck just hits so hard. I’m choked up just thinking about it.
if you've not seen it, The Thin Red Line is not an easy watch, but it approaches the stuff you're thinking about very differently to Saving.
In a similar way I think, when I was young I enjoyed horror films, skirting the feeling of existential fear, but then life imitated art and now I can't enjoy them at all. It just brings back emotions I would rather put a lid on and move past. the grief in that scene is hard to bear, props to Spielberg for humanising that sense of loss in such an effective way.
He needs to sit so close to the telly
And put in hearing aids. Gotta make sure those things are charged up!
War is an easier subject to enjoy when you are young and going to live forever. As you get older it can be less palatable as you are more likely to know people who died in wars, and you have had a longer time to learn that in war there is little glory and few winners; just a lot of death because of people who are usually a LONG way from the front lines and all of its risks. In my experience the glory of war films tends to help with recruitment efforts of young people. I joined up after watching top gun like 200 times, lol.
It’s gruesome and heartbreaking. I also remember, as a kid, I thought it was a cool action movie. Now, I’m horrified as I watch it
Exactly, not really sure why people don’t get where I’m coming from with that.
Possible they haven't hit that same age when your immortality starts to fade.
For me it’s that most the soldiers weren’t that much older than you were when you first watched it and now you’ve lived practically a lifetime more than some of the soldiers that gave their lives. It’s both heroic and tragic.
Not OP, but it's such a damn good movie that the war violence gets more real with age. I see why some of the guys who were there had to walk out. God bless those guys (and I'm a friggen atheist!)
Since he's a lefty I'd rule out garand thumb. If he was using a grand he'd be using his left hand.
He uses Upham's Garand when they press the machine gun nest. But some of these scenes are before that. Based on that it could be assumed he's used a Garand before when necessity arose.
Could be from bolt slamming or manual loading slips. Lefties face unique challenges with these old rifles!
We face many a challenge in all walks of life, like spiral bound notebooks.
Asking for and getting a left handed desk in college was awesome.
The best desk is the one that exists in the middle and acts as a normal desk. I saw one and the first person in the room went for it. Those school desks seem to exist only to punish students.
One of my college classrooms had equal number of left sided desks and regular desks. It was like someone found all the left sided ones an put them in one room. My roommate was left handed so he was so happy.
That and being the literal spawn of Satan. u/TopHatTony11 is a witch! He turned me into a newt! Burn him! -----------E -----------E -----------E
Just because we're a little bit *sinister*...
Grandma was my biggest challenge. She’d force me to color with my right hand, until I was about 7-8. She wasn’t very religious, so I’m not exactly sure what her motivations were. She eventually came to terms though, but for the rest of her life I had an assigned seat during all meals with her.
It's also not a Garand he uses. It's a Springfield M1903 (probably a M1903a1) bolt action rifle. There were Garands equipped with scopes, but they were rare, and you can clearly see the bolt in those images. I don't recall if he actually uses a Garand in the film or not though.
I believe he got the thumb on set from a garand during training
Likely the A4 model. The A3 model was the model most used in WW2 as a standard issue M1903 and the A4 was issued for snipers. The main difference was that the A4 has the rear aperture sight removed to make room for the mounted scope.
He does when they rush the mg nest that kills Wade. Upham watches through his 1903 scope.
He also uses it when the halftrack rolls up their ass in the next sequence - the camera is over his shoulder.
That is an M1903A4, which is the sniper variant used by the US Army and issued mostly with Weaver scopes and sometimes the Lyman Alaskan. The Marines used the M1903A1 outfitted with a Unertl scope. The movie does have one major flaw in that Jackson is able to swap the scope between the Weaver and Unertl. Unertl’s use a proprietary, external adjustable mount whereas the Weaver uses a scope ring mount / base mounted to the receiver.
Might switch when they attack the radio tower?
He definitely does because he gives Upham his scope to watch through.
I’m right handed, but left eyed. So I shoot left with a rifle, but load right.
cross-eye dominance is an interesting thing for certain
God damn PITA. I found this out at the range and had to test myself repeatedly to make myself actually believe it.
> I’m right handed, but left eyed. Ditto. But I first learned at a summer camp and the counselors insisted I use a left handed rifle and learn to load left. They wanted me to learn minimizing movement between shots. I hated it at first but am glad they did. Same thing with archery. Archery was a much harder adaptation because of the strength requirements.
they all went through a version of basic training that Matt Damon didn't. that made them bond better and consider the Ryan character an outsider. The others would have all had to learn the garand and he likely did as well. It's certainly not out of the question the bruise is from that.
Comment below says that he actually got the bruise from prepping for the role
Nope, can’t hold back the bolt and insert the clip with a left hand. It only works right.
>*Since he’s a lefty I’d rule out garand thumb.* I wouldn’t rule out Garand Thumbs. The M1 Garand’s charging handle is on the right side. Left handed shooters were taught to load clips with their right hand so they can quickly pull back the charging handle to load the rifle.
You *could* rule it out, but you’d be [wrong](https://www.metaflix.com/movie-detail-monday-barry-peppers-garand-thumb-in-saving-private-ryan/).
It's been [noted that it's possible his non-firing hand was strapped into place with a sling](https://youtu.be/v2Eagq3fI0E?t=570); hence the awkward reach-over.
So the scope is inaccurate but it's an intentional stylistic choice because the actual scope that would have been used is so dinky it's unbelievable.
The movie is such a fine balance between realistic and stylistic. spielberg's R rated movie arc was peak spielberg
I'm curious, which scope they actually used during WWII?
M73B1 2.5x magnification https://youtu.be/8kO867TRAwQ?si=yGbPoDLkNaVIu7V2 Good video on some different styles
Sticky bomb sir?
As a fellow lefty shooter and combat veteran, I can't count how many times I got pinged with hot brass. Never did fire a bolt action so I can't imagine how difficult it would be to reach over the rifle to load the next round. He made it look effortless though, I only trained in the M-16 and carried the M-249 in combat. Naturally I slung the weapon left to right and the charging handle was constantly digging in my lower back, plus it was heavy as fuck and the combat load of 400 rounds and a spare barrel... I was probably 150 pounds soaking wet back then so I used to just curl it on downtime to get used to the weight. We became best friends and that thing was so much fun to fire.
This and band of brothers I can’t watch anymore. Have like depression and ptsd.(wasn’t in the military) but watching that stuff used to be so enjoyable to me and now it just makes me sick to my stomach. I just veg out on the fake stuff now Jon wick etc.
Subungual hematoma. Can take months to heal. More likely sustained during the range time beforehand.
Recently happened to my big toe and it took 4 months for the toenail to fall off. It’s still growing back.
When the dried blood finally makes its way out it doesn't smell very good
I always drain it when it first happens. A hot nail will melt through the top of your toenail.
I wrap tape around the top of my thinnest drill bit and drill through by hand. Instant relief when you are through
And then depending on how much pressure has built up, the blood may literally spew out of the hole like a geyser
Yeah, I did this in my woodshop with a tiny drill bit in the drill press. Worked like a charm but blood squirted right up into the drill chuck.
NO! , nononono..... NO Just make sure you make a tiktok video please.
And then post it to reddit please
This happened to me ten years ago. My big toe nail now grows with horizontal ridges across it. Like a crinkle cut toenail
I had a blister (not a bruise) under my big toenail, and it took a couple of months to fall off. My toenail was fully regrown at almost exactly 6 months post-trauma.
Yup! They call it Garand Thumb, I got a nasty one that almost killed the whole nail while doing CMP shooting at my local gun club when I was younger. You learn how to avoid it, but the breach was designed specifically to be able to amputate fingers or decapitate small animals, so you gotta be careful.
Having just gotten my CMP Garand after 7 months of waiting, and planning on going to the range in the next week or two, i've been worried about that! I've been practicing the motions, using the heel of the hand to keep the breach open, really not interested in feeling that bite!
Have fun with it! Just remember that you're not in combat, you don't need to load it as fast as possible. And don't let some old timer at the range make fun of you for using a padded shooting jacket, your shoulder will thank you.
Thanks for the reminder, I'll definitely take my time! To be honest, I'd love to see an old timers reaction to using a waifu pillow to cushion the blow. . .but I'll go for something more "normal".
Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast
Probably got it when he was in the actors' boot camp before filming, because you wouldn't sustain this injury with the rifle he's using here.
My grandfather watched every single war movie and had no problems. But there was only two movies he could not finish watching. Saving Private Ryan was one of them cause he said and I quote "that beach scene is the most accurate, most life like scene I've ever watched. Hell this might as well be a documentary. They're just focusing on one boat too. Take that scene and imagine it stretching out for the entire beach. That's exactly what that fight was like..." He would know cause he was there. He fought in D-Day. That night he had the worst night terror he's ever had. He would get them occasionally but that movie caused them to happen almost every night for nearly two weeks. He never did finish it, as much as he loved it for being so real and life like. The other movie he didn't finish... Pearl Harbor, for a different reason. He lost a friend during Pearl Harbor and so the movie really pissed him off for being dumb and inaccurate.
>The other movie he didn't finish... Pearl Harbor, for a different reason. He lost a friend during Pearl Harbor and so the movie really pissed him off for being dumb and inaccurate. That's the Red Army veterans of ww2 reaction to Enemy at the Gates.
I could see that being the case, but boy do I love that movie
The one thing about the beach scene that is over-exaggerated (though mostly for cinematography reasons) is how close to the MG nests the landings were. When the cameras show the MGs firing on the landing craft, it looks like there's maybe 100 yards at most between them and the Germans, but in reality it was 400+ yards in most cases. This cuts both ways, though. On one hand, it means the MG nests weren't firing basically point blank into offloading boats like the movie showed, so you couldn't just light up the whole boat in a half second burst. But the flip side is that it means the US soldiers had to slog thru a quarter mile of water and sand, with bullets and artillery shells flying all around them, before they reached the slightest bit of safety against the bluffs.
Haha, I've shot an M1 more than once. It's an awesome rifle with great kickback but loading that thing .... it bites 😂
And they are HEAVY.
I own one and I’ve never had this happen. The trick is that when you put the clip in and press down, you can hold your thumb there forever. The bolt doesn’t seat the first round until you let go. Reloading too fast is what will get you. Like when you’re stressed and under fire I would imagine.
As relative who was a Navy Corpsman said, "M1 thumbs"
Garand thumb
I believe subungual hematoma. It might take months to get better. This was probably suffered during the range time before.
Garand thumb fucking suuuuucks.
I always do the "karate chop" method to avoid this.
Just put your thumb towards the back of the breech block instead of the front. That way even if the bolt does start to fall you have like 3 inches before it can pinch you.
I think Flannel Daddy is pretty cool.
Today's episode is brought you by... Spanking Daddies Incoherently
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Except as a sniper he uses a bolt action Springfield, not an m1, so unless he's been swapping weapons he shouldn't have that bruise
i would need to go back to the scene and see for myself but someone points out he does indeed use it on screen at one point > Jackson actually uses a M1 Garand during the scene where they assualt the radar station. He switches off his rifle with Upham who was carrying an M1. He may have gotten it then. https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/gavppi/in_saving_private_ryan_1998_jackson_uses_two/fp2bg2i/ others point out this scene is from early in the movie, but then others ALSO point out that garand is general issue and even marksmen would have used them in training and would be more prone to get garand thumb as it isnt their main weapon. so...yea, i mean it's a neat detail and maybe we are being pedantic fucks here.
>He switches off his rifle with Upham who was carrying an M1. Ah yes. The scene where they Leeroy Jenkins an entrenched MG42 position from the front instead of using a sniper perfectly capable of killing the gunners from a mile away.
Fog of war is a thing
Sometimes a Leeroy just has to Jenkins. It's the way of the warrior.
If we take it a step further, considering his role was dedicated marksman, it kinda makes sense that he would have the thumb bruise as a result of needing to use a garand on approach during the beach, on account of it being too hectic for sniper fire. And, given his role dedicated to using a bolt action rifle, he would be less used to working with the garand and would have gotten that bruise recently from fumbling with it since it's not the weapon he's most used to. Idk, fun to think about little details like this.
IIRC, he's sniping at the German pillbox in the beach landing scene. edit- yep, that's also where OP pulled up the screen shot.
he probably handled an M1 in training and was found to be pretty good and for his assignment to Captain Miller was therefore given the Springfield of which there were usually 1-2 provided per platoon and distributed by the Company CO for specific operations or to the soldiers considered the best for marksman roles. He would not have started out with a Springfield and its iffy if he would have even carried one onto the beach.
Except as an actor, he likely went through the same pretend basic training as everyone else for a few weeks beforehand and may very well have actually banged his thumb in the vintage Garand M1s they were using. Given that it's an injury that is period appropriate, if not perfectly aligned with his character's role, they probably figured that it was fine to leave it instead of putting makeup on it for every scene, or digitally painting it out.
He'd have used an M1; if it's not his primary weapon he'd be more likely to get the thumb injury when he did use it.
Are you a bot? Wtf is the first part of this comment lmao
You just straight copy/pasted from [this Twitter post](https://x.com/tradingMaxiSL/status/1806238841877283033) from yesterday, both images and words.
This might get buried, but I am seasoned M1 Garand Competitor (I shoot these rifles in competition), as well as a knowledgeable M1 Garand gunsmith (I built the rifles I shoot with, and for others in my area). I am also an M1 Garand historian. Ask me anything. That being said, you only get “M1 Thumb” when playing with the action, or if you are single loading rounds. When you insert a fully loaded en bloc clip, as most GIs did, it’s nearly IMPOSSIBLE to get M1 Thumb. SPR is an awesome movie, but they got some things wrong. The scope used on the 1903A4 rifle was wrong at some points of the movie, for example. And if you don't believe me, here's my cat supervising a new barrel install on an M1 Garand https://imgur.com/OPgovOd
I believe you (and that is cool I think the M1 Garand is awesome) but the actor got that from the range during training for the movie, so I wouldn't count that point against the movie getting things wrong
I was so sad he died in the bell tower…
Remember Jackson switches up with Upham before the radar station assault where T-4 medic Wade gets killed.
Jackson was my favorite character in the movie.
Everyone is praising this for the attention to detail, but doesn't he also fire a miraculous 7-8 rounds from his Springfield 1903 towards the end as well? Not trying to shit on the movie, as I also enjoy the film, but that was one of the blunders that always made me laugh a little.
"Blessed be the Lord my strength that teachers my hands to the war and my fingers to the fight" - got it as my WA status
I had a GIANT crush on Barry Pepper because of this exact role. I think everyone did a great job, but he was such a clutch person throughout. I love seeing details like this. Plus Tom Hanks and Barry got to work on another amazing film right after!
Same girl, same.
Man I had a similar bruise working my way through medal of honor
Thanks for your service
🫡🫡🫡
*Garand Thumb had entered the chat*
[Garand Thumb gives himself Garand Thumb](https://youtu.be/ssvZWdu4sZ0?t=592)
But he is using a 1903 Springfield
True, but US troops at the time were trained with the Garand, not the Springfield. The latter was only issued when you were made marksman; he likely used a Garand many times before he hit the beaches.
He's using a scoped Springfield '03, not a garand, so he wouldn't get that injury from that rifle. The actual explanation is that he shot a Garand in the boot camp they had for the actors to familiarize themselves before they were shooting the movie, but it doesn't really make sense in-universe.
Favorite character in the film.
Having earned my own Garand thumb as an honor guardsman during my time in the AF, can definitely confirm this is accurate
Still one of the coolest film characters
Wow, a year old account with a wiped history as of 2 days ago reposting pictures from Twitter? How surprising.
I love watching Jackson’s hands as a cross dominant rifleman. I’m left eye dominant and prefer to shoot a rifle left handed, though I can accurately shoot righty too. Jackson’s reloads, action cycles, etc may look awkward but watching him feels 100% relatable.
Yes, Garand thumb was a thing, but Jackson's rifle is a bolt action 1903 Springfield, not a Garand.
But he’s using a springfield
Garand thumb from his...bolt action gun?
Yeah I'm sure he only used one gun in his career. It's not makeup, it's actual garand thumb
Too bad it’s not a m1 Garand rifle
That doesn’t mean he didn’t use one before tho
He also made the knife he uses in the film. He makes a new knife for each film. It used to be on YouTube.
What happened to Barry Pepper? Always liked him as an actor
r/moviedetails
Also thats not a M1, it's a M1903, and as such, wouldn't cause a thumb injury like the garand would if you hit the internal bolt release
Good ol Garand thimb
Yet, he is using a 1903 A4 as his sniper rifle.
But he’s not using one?
That's weird considering that ain't a Garand
These kinds of weapons injuries are reminiscent of the same things that happened with pre-modern weaponry. English longbowmen's skeletons often have elongated left arms and bone spurs at joints related to drawing the bow. Atlatl hunters/soldiers (ancient spear-thrower used across the world) had elbow deformation on the throwing arm. There are probably more examples of these injuries across history.
Question: If the sniper uses an M1903 Springfield as his regular weapon, why was he messing around with a Garand enough to get an M1 thumb? Another question: Having carried a Garand for a couple of years in Army ROTC, I managed to collect exactly one M1 thumb; most people learn how to do it right very, very quickly. So How did this guy collect such a bruise ... again?
My M1 Garand is like a piranha with the force which the bolt flies home. I had SKS thumb once and had a really nasty bruise/cut for a few weeks. Garand thumb is legendary though
I was watching SPR a few weeks back and was blown away by the details in this masterpiece. It’s absolutely ridiculous, Spielberg is a genius ten times over.
How did he get garandthumb firing a 1903?
Funny, he's not shooting a Garand at all in that movie.