Saving Private Ryan Critique

At the very beginning of the movie they showed the United States Army invading the Omaha Beach. In this scene, they showed all of the casualties on the beach. The scene was able to show the sand was just covered in blood and bodies. Those bodies lying on the sand weren’t all dead either. Some of the bodies on the sand were people still alive, they were just suffering from their wounds from the gun fires and bombs. This particular part in the movie was completely true to what actually happened in real life during WWII.

The acting in Saving Private Ryan is phenomenal and it baffles me that none of the actors received any real recognition for their performance. The film’s casting is a brilliant array of actors ranging from personality actors, character and wild card, and one of Hollywood’s megastars. These actors bring their character to life almost to the point that you believe, they are actually playing themselves on the screen. One of the film’s best scenes is when the squad maneuvers on and takes out a German manned machinegun nest. While conducting the attack they lose yet another member of their team, the Medic. His death scene is absolutely heart breaking, especially the moment right before he passes as he calls out for his mother. What entails next is absolute chaos. You can actually see the despair and madness on the actors faces as they seek revenge on the only surviving German soldier. The actors deliver their performance so well you can feel what is happening.

One popular theme that can be seen throughout Saving Private Ryan is the idea that life is fragile. In the opening scene of the movie, while US troops are invading the beaches of Normandy, there are many soldiers who die as soon as they step off of the boats. The soldiers go from fighting to dead or dying in an instant. Another scene where we can see that life is extremely delicate is when Private Jackson and Private Parker are shot out of the bell tower by a tank. The scene starts with the two trying to “snipe” enemies, but quickly turns bad when a tank appears and kills them within seconds.

There is one scene where the three flag raisers entered a crowded stadium before a football game which typified how an image of war can be so different to the reality of war. The flash photography, the cheering, the roar of the crowd all went to John Bradley’s head and he had flash backs of the fighting on Iwo Jima and the genuine heroes that he had left behind. This scene contrasts what the reality of war, were all the men are dug in and fighting for there life, and the images of war. Ira Hayes says “I know it’s a good thing, raising the money and that, ‘cause we need it. But, I can’t take them calling me a hero. All I did was try not to get shot. Some of the things I saw done, things I did, they weren’t things to be proud of, you know?” Clint Eastwood shows continuously, through his characters physiology shows how one single photo can be so different what really makes up the battle of Iwo Jima. The aim was to get war bonds; the minds of the three main characters through Clint Eastwood’s directing showed a strong insight to how the reality of a war and an image of war can be so contrasting.

The beaches were indeed covered with bodies, and the water was red with the blood of the slaughtered soldiers. The recreation of this battle by Steven Spielberg has succeeded in bringing this war, this battle in particular, out of the history books and into larger than life color on America’s movie screens. Everyone I interviewed already knew of the terrible acts of the Germans during World War II, but hey had not, however, ever really been able to comprehend the degree of loss that many families experienced. They had also never really been able to picture the battles of the soldiers themselves in quite the detail that Saving Private Ryan provided them with. This is one movie that should not be negatively reviewed because of the degree of violence. Saving Private Ryan is about a horrible war, that took place because of a madman’s craziness, and this war was an ugly thing that happened very much like this movie portrayed it. The continuous gore is difficult to watch at times, but leaves the viewer with a greater appreciation of their nation’s military, and the sacrifice of the soldiers who serve willingly.

I read the section about the battles that took place during WWII. It brought to my minds that in real life. There are more important things during a war than finding a private Ryan. War is a huge event and the little things like finding a person to keep the family name going is too small to include in war history. This is what separates the movies from the real life. Another difference is they don't show the actual planning it takes to start an attack or the inelegance that is needed to set up the perfect defense barrier to prevent the advancement of the enemy soldiers. A real battle can last days, weeks, months, or years, compared to movie war that lasts not even a day and has one guy or one platoon take on the entire other side. The casualties of real war is tremendous, rather than movies where you see almost the same characters in the whole movie accomplishing some of the most intense tasks with only one or two dying. Also, in movie war you don't see the other side's horror. You think all the opponents are bad horrible people that deserve to die, when they are just soldiers doing their job and the only reason we are fighting them is because of a bad leader or government. So in the movies every enemy deserves to die and should be shown no mercy, but the actual thing about that is that the enemy is just like any other soldier. And furthermore when the good guys lose a battle in a

Even though the soldiers join the war as naive youths, the war rapidly changes them and they develop into young men. Surrounded by death, the boys are bound to foresee the fragility of their own lives and are stripped of the carelessness and brazenness of youth. The dreadful horrors around the boys bound them to consider a world that does not accommodate to their childish and simplistic view. They want to only see a separation between what is right and what is wrong, they instead find moral doubt. Where they had wanted to see order and meaning, they only found senselessness and disorder. Where they wanted to find heroism, they only found the selfish instinct of self-preservation. These realizations destroyed the innocence of the boys, maturing and thrusting them into their manhood.

It is obvious from the opening chapter that this novel will center on the war and the effects it has on a young group of soldiers, none of them more than twenty years of age. They are all friends and former classmates of Paul Baumer, the narrator and protagonist of the book; they have enlisted in the German infantry because their teacher, Kantorek, had painted for them a glorious picture of fighting and saving the homeland from destruction during World War I. In this first chapter, Baumer and his friends are away from the front lines, relaxing a bit after two weeks of fierce fighting. As each of the young men is introduced, it is apparent that they are tired, hungry, angry, and disillusioned over the war.

When the United States entered World War II in 1941, it was commonly believed that the war was “America’s golden age, a peak in the life of society when everything worked out and the good guys definitely got a happy ending” (2), which is a direct result from Hollywood’s glamorization of the war. During the war, the film industry began to boom, using the war as inspiration for making movies. Lifeboat (1944) and The Moon Is Down (1943) for example, makes it clear who the enemies were because the enemies were always “…cruel, devious, and unprincipled…” (11). It was also clear who the good guys and heroes were. The film industry even glamorized how people died in the war. In these movies whenever an American died their death was quick, painless, and clean. However, when the

Saving Private Ryan is a theatrical masterpiece that incorporates many universal themes that almost all people can relate to. The movie follows a squad of U.S. soldiers as they battle through the trenches of World War II. Directed by the great Stephen Spielberg, the movie is claimed by many to be the most accurate presentation of war in any movie to date. The movie includes several themes that helps captivate the audience and truly help people understand just how horrible war is. The idea of losing loved ones frightens even the toughest of us, and being lost in a foreign land scares many others. Both of these themes are thoroughly explored and propelled onto the audience to experience. The extremely accurate depiction of war, the universal themes that everyone can relate to, and the film being a theatrical masterpiece are all reasons why everyone should watch Saving Private Ryan.

Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 film directed by Steven Spielberg dealing with the World War II Battle of Normandy. During its intense first twenty minutes, the film depicts the brutal, gruesome realities of what happened on June 6, 1944 on Omaha Beach. The historically accurate portrayal of the D-Day invasion by Allied Forces is the background for the fictional plot of a rescue mission for a single soldier, Private Ryan. The story of Ryan, his family, and his rescue is not true but it is symbolic of the heroism and terrible losses suffered in this crucial military campaign. Historian Steven Ambrose was a consultant on the film and views this kind of fiction as “the kind that illuminates truth rather than diminishing it.”

1-Yes, General Marshall should have made the decision to rescue Private Ryan because he spared Mrs. Ryan from heartbreak. She had already lost three of her sons to the war and no mother deserves to lose all of her sons in war.

Saving Private Ryan is a film staged within World War II, during which an incredible mission to locate and bring home Private Ryan is launched in behind enemy lines within Europe. The return of Private Ryan is hoped to increase moral in the homeland and benefit combat efforts. Captain Miller is in charge of the reluctant team tasked with the rescue mission of Private Ryan, not knowing where he is at or if he is even alive. The company finally finds Private Ryan even after several enemy encounters and finding another soldier named “Private Ryan”. Once Private Ryan is located they give him the news that his three brothers were killed while fighting in the war. Private Ryan chooses not to go home and continues to fight in the war.

eyes when he picks up his helmet and puts it on his head and the

Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan has been credited as being the most accurate war recreation film in history. It is the winner of five Academy Awards including Best Director for Steven Spielberg. Like Jaws, the opening scene has perfect equilibrium, calm at both the beginning and the end. Another thing this opening scene has in common with Jaws is the under water camera, and there are also shots from the killer’s point of view – in this case, the shooters’. In addition to this, they both end with calm water; a common theme in Spielberg’s openings. At the beginning of the scene, there is a long shot of a war cemetery; this drives home the seriousness of the war and just how many people died as it is very easy to forget the sheer number of people who were murdered during the war. The extreme close up on the eye of an old Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) gives the audience a feeling of connection with the character and lets them know he is going to have an important role within the film. During the fight scene the camera angles are wild movements and a handheld camera is used to give the effect of a person running as though it is from one of the soldiers’ point of view as this is likely to be something like what they would have seen and experienced. There are many visual effects such as one boat being set on fire with the soldiers still