A small mark on a nail that can go unnoticed, but was a common ailment among American soldiers.
They say that the devil is in the details and, in the case of cinema, these can elevate a great film to an even higher level, especially when we talk about productions with a historical setting. Today, within this type of productions, we are going to focus our gaze on a modern classic of war cinema, which contains a small element that may go unnoticed, but that reflects the precision with which World War II was recreated for the occasion.
The feature film I am referring to is ‘Saving Private Ryan’, one of Steven Spielberg’s best works – probably in his top 5, or even 3 -, and a mandatory stop for all lovers of the genre who reflected the effects of being on the battlefield on both a large and small scaleand we only have to pay attention to the finger of one of its characters to verify it.
The Garand thumb
In some short shots in which we see him pointing his weapon, Private Daniel Jackson, whom you will surely identify better as “the sniper”, shows a kind of wound on the nail of his right hand. Of course, this is not a coincidence and, although it is not explicitly alluded to in the film, The injury would be caused by what is known as the “Garand thumb” —the Garand thumb in our language—.
If you’ve ever played a first-person shooter set in World War II, you’ll be familiar with the M1 Garand, the standard semi-automatic rifle of the United States Army in that conflict—and also in the Korean War. To load this weapon, The ammunition is inserted into a clip that is inserted into the fixed magazine by applying pressure with the thumb. until it had made its entire journey, at which point two things could happen.
The first of these, with luck, was that the metal piece that opened and closed the magazine remained in place and the soldier closed it manually by pushing a piece with the palm of his hand or with a small sharp blow. The second, also common, was that This piece would close automatically and pinch the user’s thumb, causing injuries like the one Jackson has in the film.For further reference, this video from the YouTube channel, curiously called Garand Thumb, shows both processes.
It is worth noting, however, that Private Jackson’s primary weapon is not an M1 Garand, which he does use in the scene of the assault on the machine gun nests. His trusted weapon is the Springfield 1903 bolt-action rifle.a kind of copy of the legendary German Mauser 98 that was already used in World War I and is considered “single action” as the bolt has to be cocked manually after each shot.
And with this, however insignificant it may seem, we have another reason to fall in love with what, without a doubt, is one of the great war epics from the history of cinema.
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