Miller, through whom we saw the D-Day action. He receives the orders to assemble a squad to rescue Pvt. The remainder of the movie is a very good, yet not outstanding combat film, about the rescue squad' s adventures in fulfilling their mission. They engage the enemy several times, lose several men, fight with each other, open up to each other, and so forth. There is character development, but not a lot.
Religion has only a token appearance.
The sharpshooter on the squad prays before pulling the trigger for a good shot. I suspect that men on such a suicidal task would actually be praying quite a lot more. Nonetheless, the characters are believable and portrayed well. The final sequence, which is far too long, involves the squad's heroic stand, above and beyond orders, to keep the enemy from retreating over the bridge of a bombed-out village. Morally, Saving Private Ryan is honest, complex, and yet almost completely neutral.