The movie started out with an old man walking in front of his family to the cemetery in France. When he gets to the location he is looking for, he sees two flags, the American flag, and French flag. Walking to the tombstone, he kneels down before it and starts to cry. The look on his face tells the viewer that he is reminiscing about the past. The camera takes us into his eyes, and we see a bunch of soldiers getting ready to pour onto the beach of Normandy for the D-Day attack. During this part, the movie was a little bit gruesome, so watched on and off. It was very disturbing. This is just watching a movie, being there would have been much worse than this, and it is heartbreaking to see these scenes because it gives you a small glimpse of what the men witnessed.
The next scene involved a bunch of women writing letters of death for families. One of the ladies had picked up a letter in a file, then she picked up two more with the same name. Three of the four brothers had been shot during war. The mother was going to get the three letters saying her sons had passed away. The lady had taken the letters to a manager, then he took it to a higher man, who took it even higher. We then are watching the car drive up the lane to the house. The mother looks out the window and stops doing dishes. She walks to the door, opens int, and sits down on the front porch. Immediately after this, we see four men talking about Private James Ryan, the youngest Ryan brother, and last one alive. They knew he had jumped, but no one was sure where he was after. The boys were all put together fighting, but when another set of brothers died, they split the Ryan men up. The highest man knew that James was still alive. He was determined that they were going to get him out.
Tom Hanks, also known as the Captain John, takes a few of his men to find Ryan. They come to a village, and there is a father and mother with a couple kids. The parents want the soldiers to take the children, but John orders the soldier to give the kids back. He, the soldier, doesn't follow orders and ends up being shot. The translator was given the sniper, and he spots a tower. He said if he were the other guy, he would be up there. The German sniper was looking for another man to shoot, when the American sniper had shot him in the eye. After this, the men find a place to set for a little bit, but a board gets knocked into a wall. This causes the wall to crumble, and the Americans see several Germans. The American soldiers shot all of the Germans. After this fighting scene, they find a Private James Ryan. They thought they had the right guy, but realize that they had the wrong Private Ryan. The search continues for the correct man.
The men are still looking for Ryan. The men came to a camp and started looking for dog tags of men who had died. They found a guy who was supposed to drop with Ryan, but they both missed it. He didn't know where he was after that, but now John and his troops are headed to Ramelle where the one who knew Ryan was. The men came across a radar installation, and they tried to figure out how they could take it out. The men run in and start fighting, the medic ends up getting shot and dies. Seconds after this, you see a man beating up a German. Another American comes along and helps hit the German. Later, we see John sitting alone, looking at a map, and then start crying. From the beginning of the movie, John's right hand shakes periodically, and he cannot stop it. John returns and finds the guy that supposed to be digging the graves smoking. He immediately starts digging again, claiming he likes America, and then starts singing a few words of the Star Spangled Banner. The men take him away, blindfold him, and tell him to walk away 1,000 paces. The man ended up being a POW. One of the soldiers gets angry and starts yelling at the captain. He then gets thrown into the ground, gets up and says he's done walking away. Another guys runs after him telling him that he's going to shoot him. The translator doesn't like anything that is happening. Mr. Translator runs to John and asks if he's going to let this happen. He turns around and starts telling what his life was before war. John knew he had changed, and he wondered if he changed so much that his wife wouldn't recognize him. He told the man that if he wanted to go, he could, that he'd even put in the paper work. The man watches them start to lay the medic to rest. He stayed with them. 
Enter Matt Damon into the scene, also known as Private James Ryan. John takes him aside, and tells him that he lost his brothers. He wanted to know which brothers. John told him all of them. Ryan couldn't figure out why John came all the way out to tell him that. He doesn't want to leave his post because it was his mission to stay. The man who was about to walk away called Ryan out by telling him that two of the guys had already died trying to find him. He couldn't figure out why he deserved to go. John asked him if that was what they were to tell his mother. Ryan said that those were the only brothers he had left, and he didn't want to leave. This ends the search, but they still have to get Private Ryan back home. John decides to keep his troops and help accomplish the mission. They are going to use sticky bombs to try and blow the tracks off the tanks because they know the Germans will be coming.
As they are waiting for the Germans, they sit and talk about life before the war. Finally, the Germans arrive with two Tiger tanks, two Panther tanks, and 50 infantry men. The American men are stealth like watching the tanks roll in. You can see the German men running after the tank. American soldiers start firing. They got the the sticky bombs ready and blew up the tracks of the tank. We see a couple of the guys throw bottles that they lit on fire into the tops of tanks. The tanks are toast, and the two men jump out, but are on fire. We see several American men being shot by the Germans. We see Barry Pepper shooting men from the tower while quoting Psalms. He then sees a tank aimed towards him, he yells, and the top of the tower is blown up. Many of the American men start yelling because they are out of ammunition. Upham is the one with the ammunition, and he is creeping upstairs as one of his fellow troop men is being stabbed to death by a German. Another very gruesome scene as blood is everywhere. The German who killed the two Americans walked down the stairs and saw the Upham. He just looked at him, never touched him, and never said a word. Just walked by. This ends as he starts to cry on the stairs. We go back outside to the American men throwing mortars at the German tanks. The men who were throwing them then run away as a tank barrels over where they were. Another American soldier runs and gets the translator off the stairs. Majority of the American men are shot. The Tiger tank does not reach the bridge before an P-51 Mustang flies overhead and shoots it. Upham took several German captive, but shot one while he told the others to flee. Throughout this movie we have been following John and his group. Only three of the Americans fighting at Romelle lived. They were Ryan, Reiben, and Upham. Private Ryan was with Miller as he was dying. Ryan told John what the planes were flying over. Right before John died, he said, "James...earn this. Earn it."
We continue to watch the battle scene as the Chief of Staff does a voice over of a letter to Mrs. Ryan, and he quoted the letter than Abraham Lincoln wrote to Mrs. Bixby. The letter ends, an older version of Ryan is at Miller's grave, and he is talking to him about what is happening. He said that every day he thinks about what John said to him on the bridge. He said he hoped that he earned it, or at least in his eyes. James' wife walks over to him, he asks her to tell him that he led a good life and that he is a good man. She reassures him that he is. James then salutes Miller's tombstone. The movie ends with the sun shining through the American flag at the Normandy American Cemetery.
I know I said it in my last blog, but I cannot imagine the heartache that these men went through in order to protect their country. This is a fictional movie because the people wouldn't go throw such extremes just to find a man. At least I don't think so. It would make me sound heartless to say I didn't cry during this film. Yes, my eyes watered, but true tears never fell. Some of this was very grizzly, but it is what the men witnessed. The soldiers were brave men to bear this. It is no wonder to me why when they come back home, they have nightmares etc. This movie does not even begin to describe how bad the situation was. The men saw more. It's no wonder why they wouldn't be able to talk about the war to their family members. I'm glad that I decided to watch this movie rather than read a book.
Comments
Excellent job Emily!! It;s ok to admit that you cried!