If I must describe this movie in few lines, that would be:
- Accurate depiction of Brutality of War
- The ethical dilemma of whether to sacrifice one person to save many people
- Captivating Emotions
With a rating of 8.4 on IMDB, Saving Private Ryan is considered one of the best war movies ever made, and it truly stands on this claim. The depiction of War is so thrilling and accurate you will feel you are in that War.
Plot:
The story is simple, a group of soldiers led by Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) is sent to bring back Private Ryan from World War II back home as out of 4 brothers serving the army, he is the only one alive. The group encounters multiple challenges and loses the life of two of its members before finding James Ryan. In their journey, they struggle with the dilemma of how right it is to sacrifice the life of so many persons for saving the life of one person. After finding Ryan and explaining the situation that he must go to his mother as she has already lost her three sons, Ryan says:
“Tell Her That When You Found Me, I Was Here, And I Was With The Only Brothers That I Have Left. And That There’s No Way I Was Gonna’ Desert Them.”
After that, the group stays and finishes the assignment in which the majority of the members die, but Ryan survives and goes home. While dying, Captain Miller says to Ryan:
“James Earn this. Earn this”
The movie starts which starts with old Ryan visiting the grave of Captain Miller with his family ends with Ryan telling her wife:
“Every Day I Think About What You Said To Me That Day On The Bridge, And I’ve Tried To Live My Life The Best I Could. I Hope That Was Enough”
What I learned:
The plot of the movie does not justify the movie because the plot revolves around Ryan, but the real soul of the movie is Captain Miller and the band. Their journey, their emotions, and most of all, the utter brutality of War.
- The first and most important thing which I realized was War is more gruesome than I can ever imagine. The things which we can’t even see are experienced by the soldiers in a war.
- If you are in a war, showing compassion to the enemy can get back at you. The brain is more important than the heart in a war.
- There is no right answer to the age-old dilemma of whether it is right to sacrifice one person to save many people.
- With the right strategies, impossible is possible.
- Sometimes you will have to take the lead when others are afraid, for which you need to be authoritarian otherwise, you will not be able to command that respect.
The Greedy Monk