Saving Private Ryan (1998)

"Saving Private Ryan" Analysis

directed by Stephen Spielberg

Plot Overview:

            "Saving Private Ryan" opens with Tom Hanks, starring as a Captain John H. Miller, in WWII as he storms Omaha Beach on D-Day along with his troops in the US Army Rangers. Afterwards, the movie follows Tom Hanks and his squad comprised of Mike Horvath (Tom Siezmore), Richard Reiban (Edward Burns), Daniel Jackson (Barry Pepper), Mellish (Adam Goldberg), Adrian Caparzo (Vin Diesel), Wade (Jeremy Davis), and Upham (Jeremy Davies) and their mission to find and bring back a Private Ryan (Matt Damon), who lost his three brothers. This movie puts you in the middle of WWII, with blood, guts, and gore as the US soldiers of the Charlie Company are decimated as they attempted to and eventually took Omaha Beach. Three Days after D-Day Miller (Hanks) and his men are tasked with finding Private Ryan (Damon). Their search for Ryan leads them through treacherous situations, resulting in the losses of first Caparzo to a sniper when they were helping troops from the 101st Airborne Division  in a town called Neuville (which was where they thought Ryan was as he was part of their Division) and then Wade, their medic to a machine gunner after Miller decided to take out a German machine gun nest. Finally finding Ryan, they tell him that his three brothers are dead and that he can go home now. However, he decides to stay with the "brothers [he has] left" (his fellow soldiers) in their task to defend a strategic bridge. Miller and his men decide to stay and help and face impossible odds against waves of German infantry and tanks. In an epic struggle, the meager American forces are pushed back to the bridge, losing many of their men including the majority of Miller's men (except for Upham and Reiban as well as Private Ryan), and with Miller on the brink of death and a tank about to cross the bridge, American reinforcements come, causing the German's to flee. In the end Miller dies, telling Private Ryan to "earn this," and then the movie cuts back to present day with Ryan asking himself in front of Miller's grave whether he had earned his life by living his life to the fullest to which his wife responds that he had and is. The movie ends with Ryan saluting Miller's grave.

The Cast:

• Tom Hanks as Captain John H. Miller
• Matt Damon as Private First Class James Francis Ryan, a paratrooper
• Tom Sizemore as Technical Sergeant Mike Horvath
• Edward Burns as Private First Class Richard Reiben, an automatic rifleman
• Barry Pepper as Private Daniel Jackson, a sharpshooter
• Adam Goldberg as Private Stanley "Fish" Mellish, a rifleman
• Vin Diesel as Private First Class Adrian Caparzo, a rifleman
• Giovanni Ribisi as Technician Fourth Grade Irwin Wade, a medic
• Jeremy Davies as Technician Fifth Grade Timothy E. Upham, a cartographer

Historical Accuracy:

This film is very accurate, at least in terms of WWII combat. It makes use of all the correct weaponry and vehicle of the time period as well as events such as the storming of the Omaha Beach on D-Day which was a very accurate depiction of the seasickness that soldiers felt on the boats heading towards the beach as well as Charlie Company's actions in their taking of Omaha Beach. There were some historical discrepancies in the movie. There was no Miller and mission to save a Private Ryan. And while the bridge was a goal of the American troops to defend, it was not that of the 101st Airborne Division. Regardless of these discrepancies, "Saving Private Ryan" portrayed all of the fighting extremely realistically, showing just how brutally gruesome WWII was (though it was a bit ridiculous how the main characters' remained relatively unscathed and how bullets basically hit everything but them).