Saving Private Ryan follows the story of a group of U.S. soldiers who are assigned to go in and save Private James Francis Ryan. The film begins at on D-Day and shows Captain Miller (played by Tom Hanks) fighting his way into Omaha beach. After they have secured that, a higher general informs Captain Miller that there is another assignment for him, a domestic one. He and a small group must go rescue Private Ryan—a soldier whose 3 brothers have all been killed in action. They are mainly doing this for the mother who received the notice about her 3 of 4 sons being killed all in one day. That part was absolutely heartbreaking. So the Captain gets together a small team and they go searching for Ryan, which would be like “finding a needle in a stack of needles” said the Captain. No one had any idea where Ryan was just that he had been part of the Normandy invasion. But then again, that really didn’t help them considering many paratroopers were dropped in the wrong locations. But eventually, by some miracle, they do find him; not without paying the price of two men though. When they find Ryan, he refuses to leave his post, feeling that he doesn’t deserve to go home when all the other men have fought just as hard; Captain Miller asks how he intends to just let them tell his mother he died too. That all she’ll have left are the 4 folded flags. To this Ryan replies, “You can tell her that when you found me, I was with the only brothers I had left. And that there was no way I was deserting them. I think she'd understand that.” So they stay; all of them, including the ones who were just sent to collect Ryan. They intend to take a stand against the impending German attack, even with so few resources and man power. Well, spoiler alert, most don’t make it through, though they gave their best effort. Even Captain Miller dies; but James Ryan gets to go home. The initial objective was complete but with a heavy price.
I thought this movie was absolutely brilliant. It showed just how brutal war is, and the prices we pay. It showed the intimacy of war; the deaths up close, the brutality on both sides, and the bond between soldiers. And, like any movie, you get extremely attached to the characters, and then they are killed. The film also played out how horrible it is to kill people in war; most don’t really think about it. We see the numbers but we don’t often think about the people. This movie showed that, the people. One line Tom Hanks said really stuck: “Just know that every man I kill, the farther away from home I feel.” He said this to stay the hand of one of his men who was going to kill a German who had surrendered, just on the chance that he might have shot their friend. I couldn’t stop thinking about that line; you hear stories of men losing their minds during war (it isn’t any light thing to kill a person, and takes a special person to do it) but you don’t think about the people who can maybe feel it coming, and try to prevent it. It just makes you think.
But anyway, yes the film was absolutely fantastic! I would recommend to anyone unless you can’t handle a lot of blood and guts. It is pretty gruesome but very worth the watch.
Movie poster Shot from D-Day opening scene with medics helping wounded
Comments
Excellent job Alex! Great reflections!