Some Moviegoers Find Film’s Violence Hard to Take

Every so often a film comes along that demands to be seen by a general audience, despite demanding subject matter and presentation. Based on its powerful $30 million opening weekend, Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” seems to be striking a similar nerve to his 1993 “Schindler’s List.” Opening weekend crowds in Los Angeles and Orange County were largely impressed, though the film’s graphic violence sickened some and angered others.

“I hope I don’t have nightmares again,” said 80-year-old Ralph Berke, wiping away tears outside the Edwards Cinema in Newport Beach. Berke won three Purple Hearts in World War II, serving in Europe and North Africa. “It’s a tough movie, the real stuff. People don’t know what the infantry man or officer went through.”

Said Lois Paul, a 60-year-old Burbank resident: “I think it was pretty realistic and made you realize what these men have done for our country. It was hard to see but worth it.”

“It was the best war film I have ever seen,” said Shawn Dudley, a 29-year-old San Marino resident. “It should have been NC-17--[though] I would like to show it to high school students to get them close to the real thing. As a history student, I couldn’t find a single mistake in the uniforms, the artillery.”

“It was awesome and intense,” said Judy Adams, 33, of North Hollywood. “I know a lot of people freaked out about the violence, but I was prepared for it. It wasn’t like a slasher film.”

For Costa Mesa’s Ben Vahey, 59, however, the film was too much. He left halfway through. “It’s not the violence, it’s the stupidity. I don’t think anybody ever wins a war.”

“It was like one mass suicide,” says 17-year-old David Stein, who said he will definitely recommend it to his peers, “especially since a lot of World War II’s enlisted men were only 17 when they went over there.”

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In general, reaction to the violence was varied. In Studio City, 25-year-old Lynell Forestall said the film “made me sick, actually. I physically feel bad.”

“Overkill,” said 42-year-old Mary Brodksy of Burbank, who attended with her husband, her 15-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. “We understand that Normandy was a blood bath, but we didn’t need 20 minutes of it. There was no break, just gore. This was not entertainment. If I had known, I wouldn’t have brought [her daughter Jessie].”

But 21-year-old Bill Francis, who saw the movie in Chatsworth, said, “It seems real--like you were looking at Army footage. It wasn’t too violent.”

Standing outside Mann’s Chinese theater, Agnes Seccombe, 73, agreed: “A lot of gore, but it was a beautiful movie. I’m not squeamish. You know, we’ve been through the war. I was a teenager in 1944 and a lot of kids at my high school were killed. I think none of these kids [today] know it was a war we had to win.”

Times staff writers Jennifer Napier-Pearce and Zan Dubin and contributor Tom Schultz also contributed to this report.