D-Day + 7

Rating: Null/10 (11 April 2004)

`Saving Private Ryan', takes place during WWII, in Europe. At the beginning, an old man (Harrison Young) walks up to a grave, then the movie shifts to the D-day invasion, on June 6, 1944. As men get torn up all around, Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) moved his men up the beach. They finally breach it and take the beach after a deadly day. Soon after this bloody battle, Captain Miller (Hanks) receives orders to retrieve Private James Ryan (Matt Damon). They have to find him, because all his other brothers were killed in combat. Thus, the only surviving son rule was in affect. While this is happening, men are questioning why one man is so much more important then them after some of them get torn up. The group of men encounters battles all over the place and search for Ryan (Damon). Finally, they find him and his unit in a city. However, Ryan (Damon) refuses to leave the men in his unit. They end up fighting for control of the city.

This movie sparked the more modern war movies, which show more emotion then the average action/war flick. Moreover, it does not show explosion after explosion with no plot to go along with it. The viewer sees the human emotion involved in this movie. Viewers see men crying out for their mothers, and see medics trying in vain to save lives. The viewer does not see the `faceless' people of war movies past, rather the viewer sees people, real people with real emotions throughout the film.

The circumstances for these men weren't ideal. When they where at the town they had to set up the best method for attack. They were low on weapons; Miller (Hanks) shows the men how to make `sticky bombs' with their socks. Later Ryan (Damon) shows Miller (Hanks) how to set off mortars by hand. This shows the planning and improvising that is done in war. Most people would think war is just chaos; however, for the most part it is a well thought out process, which includes chaos.