Saving Private Ryan
The movie begins with an old man and his family walking through cemetery. The old man then stops at a specific grave, and falls to his knees crying, while his family tries to comfort him. The next scene is on a beach in Normandy, France. It is June 6, 1944(D-Day). Captain John Miller and his unit are heading towards the beach on a boat. As the door of the boat opens, many of his men are instantly killed by German soldiers firing machine guns. I think this scene shows how brave our soldiers really were. The Germans clearly had the advantage, because they were on land, and could see our soldiers. Our men on the other hand were like sitting ducks, just waiting to get shot in the water, or drown. In the next scene, it shows Captain Miller crawling on the beach. Suddenly, a big blast knocks his helmet off leaving him stunned and scared. He watches as the many men around him are killed. In one scene of the attack, Captain Miller is shown dragging a man who he thinks is just wounded, but is actually half a body. I think that this scene also shows how the soldiers that fought on D-Day were heroes, because Captain Miller was scared from seeing his men die around him, but yet he has the strength and courage to try to drag a man to safety.
After the attack, the movie shows thousands dead soldiers on the beach of Normandy. One of the soldiers has the name S. Ryan on his backpack. Later, it is discovered that three brothers from the Ryan family were killed. There is one brother left, James Ryan, and there has been an order to find him and bring him home to his mother in Iowa. A few days later, Captain Miller is assigned with that task of taking a small group of men to go find James Ryan. This will be a hard task, because nobody knows where James is. It is very clear that the men are angered that they have to go on this mission. “Why do we have to risk our lives for one man,” says one of them.
Later in the movie the group arrives in a small village where another army unit is. Miller asks one of the sergeants if Ryan is in his unit, but the sergeant says he is not. The group then crosses the small village. While crossing, they meet a family that is trying to escape the battle. The father begs that the group take his daughter to safety, but Miller refuses to take her with them. A soldier from the group steps out to take the girl with him, but is shot by a sniper. The soldier, Caparzo later dies. After his death, Miller tells the group of men that they are not supposed to take any children. Later, a soldier goes to get the letter that Caparzo had been writing to his father. I thought this scene was really sad. I know they were on a mission and couldn’t help the family, but I still find it very sad that they could not take the girl to safety. I also thought it was really nice how the soldier took the letter that Caparzo was writing to his father.
In another part of the movie, Miller asks another sergeant if he has Ryan in his unit, and the sergeant says he does. Well it turned out that this man was the wrong James Ryan. This James Ryan was from Minnesota, and his brothers were still in grade school. During some other scenes of the movie, Miller and his group look through dog tags taken from dead soldiers, but Ryan’s is not in there, in that same place, Miller meats a soldier who is from Ryan’s unit. He has lost his hearing, so yells where Ryan and his unit are.
Later in the movie, Miller and his men find Ryan, and tell him that his brothers have been killed. Ryan is very sad, but does not want to leave. He says that he has to stay with his unit and defend the bridge, and that his mother would understand. At the end of the movie, only James Ryan and two other soldiers have survived the battle. Ryan is with Miller who had been shot and is dying. As Miller dies, he says,” James… earn this. Earn it” The movie then goes back to present day at the cemetery, and it is revealed that the old man is Ryan, and he is standing over Miller’s grave.
I thought this was a very good movie. This movie was sad, adventures, and happy all at the same time. The battle scene in the beginning was one of the most memorable scenes for me. I do not know why, but seeing the red water from all the blood really sickened me. The scene where the man picked up his blown off arm was really sickening for me to watch too. So, overall I thought this was a really sad, but good movie. I think my favorite part of it was that the guy who played Forest Gump played Captain Miller!
Comments
Excellent movie for sure! Well done Jenna!