For Old Soldiers, and Young Alike

Rating: 9/10 (3 January 2006)

I went to see this film back in 1998 with my father, who is a WWII veteran who happened to serve in the Pacific Theatre, on Iwo Jima. While on line, he struck up a conversation with another veteran who did happen to serve in the European Theatre, and they discussed old times. But near the end of the conversation, my dad said, "For what? For what?" Something that still resonates with many WWII vets who are still alive, and saw that war was not the prettified heroics pumped out of the Hollywood studios, but a very real, bloody and bewildering hell, fought by the young and vital, male and female alike.
The premise of the film being a young man who has already lost several brothers in the service, being saved by a platoon unknown to him has its basis in fact. During the Second World War, many families had several sons who either enlisted, or were drafted, and went into different military units. The five Sullivan brothers, all of whom were lost during the sinking of the USS Juneau, were the most famously representative of this tragedy, and after the war, the practice of multiple draft recipients from one family was eliminated. Does anyone remember the scene where Private Ryan's mother sees an Army car pulling up to her porch? The serviceman and her local clergyman approach her, and she sinks down, struck by the horrible reality they are about to convey. The terrible simplicity of this is deeply moving.
There is also a brief scene in the beginning showing a secretarial pool for the Armed Services, where letters for medals, both posthumous and for the living, were typed and sent to families around the country. My mother worked in one of those pools, and it was not an easy job to deal with day by day.
Some have asked - why no British soldiers here? This is an American platoon on the Omaha beachhead, not one of Montgomery's units. The daily dangers and horrors of war are vividly portrayed. The deaths aren't pretty, and some of the characters aren't pretty, but that's the way war is (and was). You were in a unit with all types, from different states, and your common goal was to survive - kill, or be killed. There were gloryboys and cowards, and some are shown here.
The only maudlin note (and Spielberg can't seem to resist injecting some sentimentality here) is when the mature Ryan, visiting the military cemetery with his family, stops at the grave of his commanding officer John Miller, and asks in tears, "Am I a good man?" In other words - why them, and not me? Why am I here, outliving everyone? It doesn't seem justified to him.
There are some terrific performances to take in : Tom Hanks as John Miller, Matt Damon as Pvt. Ryan, Tom Sizemore, and Vin Diesel, to name just a few.
The sacrifices of our fathers, uncles, and grandfathers' generation were exemplary. They were the lucky ones who came back to lend their voices to history, and without them, many of us, including myself, would not be here. At the end of the film, I sat there, next to my dad, who was also in tears. I would say, "God bless them, one and all."