Explain this to me

Rating: Null/10 (9 May 2003)

Here's something I never quite get. People say that the German are made to look evil in WW II films...and I'll grant you that in some of the older ones they do. But where in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN are the Germans made to look evil?
Sure, they look formidable and that uniform makes them look scary. But they are hardly portrayed as baby-eating, snarling sub-humans. They kill Americans but that is what war is about. I don't see any scenes of torture or laughing Germans as they gleefully kill our guys.
Also, the plot was based on a real event. There was a brother pulled out because his brothers were lost. It might not have happened exactly as the movie depicts it but hey, that's what movies do...
There is also some confusion as to people thinking that the German who is allowed to leave by Tom Hanks (called Steamboat Willie in the credits) is the same guy who plunges the knife into the GI's chest...it's not. Spielberg regretted not making them look different after he heard that there was the confusion.
The whole point of the movie, to me, is that WE are Private Ryan...that is, we are the ones that so many gave their lives for....we, the generations of Americans then and now who are free today because of their sacrifices. So, like James Ryan, we must ask ourselves each day, what did you do with this freedom...did we do something to "earn" it...lead a productive life when so many in the world can't. What will we do with what has been given us? WE are Private Ryan. Each of us.