saviors must die

Rating: Null/10 (28 December 2001)

Saving Private Ryan, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks, is set in the second World War. The story begins with the American soldiers storming Omaha beach, and hundreds of casualties result. Within the first half-an-hour, there is much blood shed and violence, in order to capture the authenticity of the actual D-Day invasion. It's obvious Spielberg went to great lengths to capture this accuracy, with a sense of documentary-like filming and incredible special effects. Capt. John Miller (Hanks) leads his men into the horrendous battle of Omaha beach, and loses many of his men. After many advances up the beach, and penetrating the German base, they take their prisoners, and what's left of their patrol, and return to headquarters. This is where Miller receives his orders to retrieve Private Ryan (Matt Damon), dropped somewhere in Normandy, and bring him home to safety. Ryan has been chosen to come home due to his three older brothers all dying in the war. Sparing Ryan's mother of the grief of losing all four of her sons, General Marshall has ordered a mission to save Private Ryan. Miller gathers what's left of his platoon, nine soldiers, and heads out to Normandy to find Ryan. Their trek in search of Ryan is no easy task, to quote Capt. Miller, `It's like trying to find a needle in a stack of needles.' Usually plot driven films evolve around 1 dimensional characters, however these characters are far from that. The characters are deep and emotional, many of them reminiscing of their past home lives, families, and fallen comrades in the war, helping to deepen the plot in return. Many of them insult each other humorously, and help deal with their situation by complaining about it. Once in a while, they reveal their emotions to each other, but mostly bottle it up until they are alone. Their journey is hard and deadly. They first arrive to a decimated French town, and lose Private Caparzo (Vin Diesel) who attempts to help a young French girl. The message here is, if you open your heart to someone in war, you will only get hurt. In war, there is only room for killing and death. Further along they come along a German bunker, armed to intercept American patrols. Despite the disagreement of his soldiers, Miller orders an assault, and we lose Medic Wade (Giovanni Ribisi). With one German Survivor, the men want to execute him, but Miller decides to let him go. To settle his men, Miller reveals his background, that he's an English teacher, and that he doesn't want to kill men he doesn't have to. `Every man I kill, the farther I get from seeing my wife.' Finally, Miller and his men find Private Ryan by accident, they tell him their mission, and despite the grief of his lost brothers, decides to stay with his platoon and continue guarding a bridge. Miller eventually decides to help Ryan's platoon guard the bridge, but afterward he's taking Ryan home. Ryan's entire platoon is killed, and 4 of Miller's men as well. By the end of the battle, Miller is shot. Lying next to a fallen comrade, he pulls Ryan down to him and whispers the most important message of the film: `Earn this.' The end scene is Ryan, older now in present day, visiting the American graves in Normandy. He stands above Miller's grave, with his family, showing him that he's a good man, and that he's tried to earn his gift everyday of his life. The plot contains a melodrama, 8 men searching half a country for 1, plus all the obstacles they must confront, and losing 7 lives in the process. Many of the characters appeal to every emotion possible, sadness, despair, fear, happiness, courage, and grief. There is plenty of extravagant action, and the special effects are outrageous. The moral of the story is that war is hell, it's stupid and violent, and leads only to death. Yet men who are willing to stand by each other, help each other in the face of death, and give it their all will survive and live on. This is one of the greatest films ever made, and even semi-based on a true story, but it was one chaplin who was sent to find the soldier.