Why Saving Private Ryan Is My Favourite Film?

The movie Saving Private Ryan was released in 1998 and focuses on one of a few of the defining events in American in the time period, World War II, to capture the eternal and devastating moments of war as well as the men behind the uniforms. One of the worst ordeals of war is the mass amounts of men that were killed in result of all the fighting.The movie depicts the D-Day invasion of France's Normandy with American forces coming in on boats and landing on the beach.

There arrival is dangerous, just within the reach of the beach men are already shooting and killed as well as many more throughout the course of the invasion. As this is going on the US Army Chief of Staff, George C. Marshall learns that a mother will be receiving letters that three of her sons had died in war with only one brother remaining, Private James Ryan, he decides to send a rescue mission to retrieve the boy and bring him home to his mother to lessen the grief.

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Captain John H. Miller is ordered to lead a team of seven other men order to retrieve Private James Ryan from the invasion of Normandy. Throughout the film, the men question whether or not this one boy is worth risking all of their lives when two of the men are killed just on their journey to find him. Once they finally find private James Ryan he refuses to leave when he has a bridge to protect from the Germans, as a result, Captain Miller and his team stay to help defend the area.

The fighting was bloody and was not without great loss, Captain Miller end up dying as well as many other men. To honor Captain Miller Private James Ryan swears to earn the losses mn have endured so that he could live buy living a good life and being a good man. In the last scene they show Private James Ryan was an old man with his family looking at Captain Miller’s grave to show the respect he has form him for saving his life.

The historical event presented in the movie is the World War II D-day invasion and its aftermath. The D-Day invasion was on June 6, 1944 where the America, Britain, Canada, and France were the Allied forces that attacked German forces positioned on the coast of France. The movie featured some historically accurate aspects such as the result of the battle of Normandy or also known as D-Day where the Allies gained victory over Germany. The battle of Normandy left many men from both sides of the war dead, but Americans were able to break through part of the beaches barackade with torpedoes. As seen in the movie, after soldiers broke through the barricade Germans began to surrender, but even after they surrendered they are shot because many men had little mercy. In the movie two men put there hands up and plead Americans not to shoot them as a sign of defeat and a few men in the trenches also do this, yet the soldiers mockingly shoot and kill the men. It is also true that many of the men were dropped into the wrong areas because of German forces shooting them, thus leaving forces scattered throughout the coast of France like what happened to Private James Ryan who ended up outside of Ramelle.

However the movie is inaccurate because there was no battle held there in World War II and there was no Bridge they needed to defend.

If I did not have any background on the topic I would have been left with a somewhat true impression of the time period, even though there wasn't actually a Private James Ryan that was being searched for, because overall the war was shown accurately with Americans having difficulty fighting a bloody battle and then eventually succeeding in World War II. As it can be seen in the last scene of the movie when older Private James Ryan is standing in front of Captain Miller's grave but beyond his grave is hundreds more and they are as far as one can see. This shows just how many men were actually involved in the war that had died fighting for America. The film also provides me with a better historical understanding of the topic by recreating what the invasion of Normandy was like and allowing me to see the kind of tactics and equipment were used in action instead of just reading or being told about it. Seeing war take place appeals more to emotions because instead of just reading about who won or lost, you understand what the men serving in the war were feeling and why they were risking their lives. Along with a true impression of the time period by the film, the era represented in the film helps me comprehend the significance of the realities if the time period like that people in America were used to so many me dying in combat. This is depicted in the movie when women are shown mindlessly typing letters to families that their father/brother/son was killed in action without feeling any remorse. Only emotion is shown when they realize a mother is going to find out that three of her four sons have died and sent the letters all on the same day. They were not sad about the men that died but rather their mother that would be devastated. It was also a reality that many of the men were sent off to war and that women would be left on their own to care for the family.

The movie contributes to my understanding of the events depicted with the help of the actual events recreated. The movie featured some historically accurate aspects such as the opening scene of the battle of Normandy that was brutal with boats and planes that are accurate to the ones during the actual war. As well men drowning from this heavy equipment after being forced to jump of the boats because of the enemy shooting at them. Once the men reach the beach the movie shows men on the battlefield being brutally shot and screaming in pain with limbs missing and some soldiers too terrified to move that depicts a true representation of how terrible and bloody the battle was. It is also historically accurate that all of the Ryan brothers were sent to fight in different battles because the United States made a policy that brothers would be split up to decrease the chances of them all dieing and if only one were to survive he would be sent home to provide some relief. There was also some historical fiction that was put into the ovie to create a more interesting plot. Even though there was a policy to send the remaining brother home if his other brothers were killed in action it is not likely the government would order a group of men to search and risk their lives for one man like they did for Private James Ryan especially since they didn't even know where Ryan was it is unlikely they would wander through the battlefields in search. Additionally, Private James Ryan would not have been able to tell Captain Miller that he wanted to stay because once an order is given a soldier must follow it and he would have been forced to go home. Going along with this there was so much complaining and arguing going on in the rescue group and one soldier threatened to leave which would not be aloud in reality. In real life the captain would not allow such back talk and there would be little conversation to create an organized group of soldiers ready to fight. Even more, the film showed mostly American soldiers fighting against the German when actually there were many other Allied nations fighting alongside the Americans.

The movies strengths were the recreation of the invasion of Normandy. I believe this is its strength because of how accurate and real the battle looked in the film. The filmmaker put in a lot of effort to ensure that the recreation of the battle was true to the real thing. They even used effects to make all of the injured bloody men and kept true to how Americans were able to invade the beach through the use of boats to get to the land and then made their way t the barbed wire and barricade to use torpedos to blow it up. The weaknesses of the movie where the accuracy of the story that a group of men were sent on a mission to save a single soldier because in reality a group of men would not go after a one man like the did for Private James Ryan in order to send him home to his mother. The movie could have been improved by making the story more believable like by at least make the group of men come up with a radianal plan of how to track down Private James Ryan rather than just wonder to different drop off zones and ask around for him. Also I would rate Saving Private Ryan an eight out of ten because it is very realistic as well as having an interesting plot. The characters are also well developed so that it causes viewers to form connection with a few of them such as Captain Miller and Private James Ryan that cause people to create sympathy for them.The movie also uses music to affect the atmosphere of a scene like when Captain Miller is dying the music is patriotic, but slow to give a sense of sadness and yet honor because he died protecting his country.

Overall, Saving Private Ryan is seen as one of the most accurate realistic depictions of war made by a film. So the filmmaker was successful in their purpose of portraying the horror of D-Day and sacrifices made by the men who fought that would lead to victory. They images provoke emotional responses with things such as the mood and even the camera technique of getting closeups of characters expressions so that viewers can see the pain in their faces. The detailed D-Day battle uses things such as realistic uniforms, plans, boats, and even the men on the battle field are shown crying for their mothers, bleeding out, lost limbs, and guts spilling out of their bodies; as well as the men who are shooting the enemy. All of this allows me to have a deeper understanding of what World War II was like as well as what the people home in America were feeling.