Saving Private Ryan

A detailed Summary of Saving Private Ryan

The first time I saw Saving Private Ryan, I couldn't watch the whole thing. I got up in the first 15 minutes and had to leave the theater. Now don't get me wrong, I love blood and guts just as much as the next person, but this movie was unlike any Hollywood horror flick I had ever seen. This was a real movie, too real for me. It was a raw, in your face, no sugar coating kind of movie. My second attempt to watch it failed, miserably. Every time I glanced at the screen someone's appendages were being blown off. I tried to sit and watch, but my stomach would turn and I felt the popcorn literally rising in my throat. Before my third attempt to watch Saving Private Ryan, I decided to research this film a little. I have always heard of D-Day and learned about it in school, but I didn't actually know much at all. D-Day, which is also known as Operation Overload, was the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Thousands and thousands of men lost their lives in WWII; and the men who survived have the horrified memories and images branded into their heads. I had the information and gained the mindset and was ready to watch this movie. I sat and watched the whole thing, beginning to end, and at the end I was stunned, ho

The D-Day sequence actually has nothing to do with the plot of the story. The formalism begins when the story line is given to us. A company of men, with their Captain are given a dangerous but special mission; they must go behind enemy lines to find Private James Francis Ryan, whose three brothers have been killed in combat. Losing one son to war is painful enough, but the thought of losing more than one is beyond describing, so since his family is faced with that, they want to find Ryan before another telegram is received. Captain John Miller, played by Tom Hanks, is faced with impossible odds and a platoon of pissed of soldiers; but he takes the orders honorably. The platoon doesn't understand why the eight of them have to risk their lives to find one kid who gets a ticket home. They all wanted to go home; however, each man searches for his own answer as they search for Ryan by foot, only stopping to rest or to fight.

In one scene a soldier takes a child from a German couple, but is forced to return it by the Captain. He lets the private know that they are here for a mission, not to save anyone else. This allows us to know that this movie is expected to be a hero/group/mission, but later becomes a melodrama that has all the soldiers involved. The "family melodrama" in Saving Private Ryan comes when they notice the Captain doesn't talk about where he's from. The soldiers begin guessing his life, thinking maybe he's a sergeant or a criminal. We later find out that he has a wife and he is an English teacher from the city. He feels as if he learns about people, it gets too involving, because they are there to do a job. I think another reason for the melodrama elements used, was to attract an audience of women and younger viewers.

In critiquing Spielberg's movie, I realized that you can not base a movie only on realism. A good movie has got to have some kind of character or formalism to carry the viewer through the realistic scenes. The film begins with the historical accuracy of the Omaha beach landing. The event begins with armed soldiers being tossed aro

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Approximate Word count = 1400
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Movies