ENGLISH WRITING(1) - Film Analysis Essay--Final Submission

Oh, SH

 

Professor William Ashline

 

Writing 1

 

12 May 2023

 

Saving Private Ryan: Who is the most suffered victim?

 

The year is 1944, during second World War. In the middle of the ruined, war-torn town, which is located somewhere in France, stood an old church. The church inside is poorly lit, with only a few candlesticks. Inside the church are seven soldiers. The soldiers look exhausted, both mentally and physically. In the middle of the church chapel is Captain John H. Miller, who is in charge of the soldiers. He is sitting in the middle of the chapel, leaning against one of the pews. The camera shows his shaking hand grabbing a rusty tin mug as he puts his hand near the candle. His severely shaking hand is trying to tell what its owner had undergone in the war. While his men are taking a break from the war, Captain Miller tells his aide, Sergeant Horvath, that whenever he ends up killing his man on the battlefield, he tells himself that it happened so he could save the lives of ten or maybe a hundred others. This reveals how Captain Miller rationalizes the difficult decision of choosing between the mission at hand and the men under his command. Just then, Sergeant Horvath responded. "Except that this time the mission is a man." With this disturbing paradox of waging a mission in expense of risking eight soldiers’ life being lied under throughout the movie, the damage, sacrifice and the losses that each and every characters had taken can be easily found in the film. Then, which character suffered most damage?

 

          First of all, Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 film directed by well-known director Steven Spielberg. The movie is set in 1944 in France during second World War. The main character of the film is Captain John H. Miller, played by all-time famous actor Tom Hanks. After he and the men under his command have landed on the beach of Normandy in France on D-Day, June 6th, 1944, he gets the mission to find the man whose name is James Francis Ryan and send him home. Private Ryan lost his three brothers in the war, so he is ordered to be sent home alive. Captain Miller gathers seven soldiers and starts the search and rescue mission. As they are carrying out the mission, they raise the issue of whether the mission of saving one man is worth carrying out. Besides this main story, the film also shows the horrors and cruelty of war by depicting war scenes in highly realistic detail and showing Corporal Upham, who is unable to contribute to the war effort and eventually ends up letting his comrades dead.

 

          Although the title of the film contains the name Ryan, Private Ryan is not as much developed character as others in the film. The most developed character is Captain Miller, who leads his task force team. The second most developed character is Corporal Upham who takes considerable camera screen time. Corporal Timothy Upham speaks German, French, and English, so he went to war as a non-combatant. Unfortunately, he ended up in the middle of the battleground and ended up losing his innocence. He is considered to be the most damaged victim between characters shown in the film. The unpredictable and unfortunate situation leaves him in the middle of the blood-soaked battlefield. Another tragedy visited him is the wrong decision of ordering him to join the mission made by Captain Miller. Upham’s knowledge of French and German never had been useful during the mission.

 

           One interesting word in the film is that the slang “FUBAR," made and used by us soldiers during World War II, is frequently mentioned in the film. The term “FUBAR” is an acronym of the phrase "fucked up beyond all repair.” The term serves as a measure of whether a person understands the nature of war. The term “FUBAR” also is a symbol of Corporal Upham losing his innocence due to the cruelty of war. He didn’t know the meaning of the word in the first half of the movie. Although Upham takes some portion of criticism of not contributing any war effort, he struggles to understand the situation around him and the nature of war. Him trying to find the meaning of the word “FUBAR” in German dictionary is one example. As the story develops, he frequently uses the term even when he slipped his foot on the ruins. By understanding the meaning of the word "FUBAR” and killing steamboat Willie whom he tried to let go, he gets to understand the reality of war. The destruction of human nature and the loss of innocence is the most damage one can get from war. Steamboat Willie is also a victim of war though he took a role of antagonist of the film. He lost all of his MG squad members, and finally his own life. Steamboat Willie symbolizes human will and instinct for survival and the individual who sacrificed meaninglessly in the name of patriotism. Another victims are Wade and Private Jackson who showed sacrifice. Wade is a medic and the other is a sniper in the team. In Normandy scene, Wade showed the bravery of helping wounded soldiers in the beach despite machine gun fire toward him. The theme of tragedy is seen as the medic denies his instinct and fear. The situation, the training and the order all forced him to change. Jackson is a designated sniper of the team who contributed quite a few effort to the team. In the final battle scene, he relentlessly shoots his rifle in the top of the church bell tower so that the others in the ground can survive. As a sniper, He should have known that such action is dangerous and that such action is just literally telling enemy his position. He shouts to the soldier right next him to get out of the tower even in the moment of him realizing his death.

 

          Interestingly, The film is designed to elaborate structure. The film starts with an old man who went to the memorial cemetery with his family. He then stops and collapses in front of one cross headstone. The camera shows his sad face, and then his face fades away, and the story goes into Captain Miller’s memory of participating in Operation Overlord in Normandy on D-Day. The film is composed of frame structures, and the inner storyline is chronological, mostly following the view of Captain Miller. The Normandy landing scene is presented in the beginning of the film. This shocking scene serves as a good introduction to the movie by inviting audiences into the stark battleground of France. Also, the scene is a good device of showing the reality and the cruelty of war. Even though the title of the film contains Private Ryan, it is Captain Miller, not Ryan, who is the main character of the film. We can see through his inner conflict and rationalize the main idea of the film: the inevitable choice of doing as ordered by sacrificing his men and the meaningless death of the soldiers in the war. Next, Two main conflicts are shown in the film: one is a conflict between Miller and his soldier, both explicitly and internally, over whether the mission is worth carrying out. The other is a conflict between US soldiers and the German soldier Steamboat Willie, who is the main antagonist of the film. Steamboat Willie is involved in at least four deaths in Captain Miller’s squad, including Captain Miller himself. The conflict between Miller’s team members develops when they argue over whether they should execute Steamboat Willie and proceed the mission, which is seemingly unnecessary and impossible. One of the soldiers suggests that Ryan is already dead. The other conflict develops as Steamboat Willie, who got captured and was released by Captain Miller, goes back to the German troops and comes to fight back. The conflict further develops as Steamboat Willie kills Mellish and Horvath and shoots Captain Miller in the chest with his rifle. The film reaches a climax as a German tiger tank approaches Captain Miller, who got shot in the chest and lying on the bridge. Besides him, there is James Ryan.

 

          Besides, The theme of the paradox of saving one man at the expense of sacrificing many is shown in the film when Miller’s team encounters the Glider Brigade. The glider that the general took is heavier than other gliders because, to maximize his survivability of the general, the bottom of the glider plane is reinforced with heavy sheet metal. The weight made the glide difficult to maneuver, and it ended up plummeting to the ground, killing the general and 22 men aboard. 

 

            Finally, The movie turns into falling action as the fighter plane comes out of nowhere and drops a bomb on the tiger tank, destroying it and saving Ryan. In the resolution, Captain Miller leaves his last word to Private Ryan: "Earn this, earn it". The camera shows surviving private Ryan’s face and then fades away, showing an old man in the cemetery. The situational irony is that it turned out that the old man in the cemetery at the beginning of the film is not Captain Miller but survived Private Ryan, who got older and became a grandfather.

 

           With all being said, The film Saving Private Ryan is a desperate attempt to find the reason for the deaths of the men who died in the war. Also, the film keeps showing the suffering and the losses that each soldier take throughout the screen runtime. Whether who suffered the most is controversal, it is clear that all the characters in the film are victims of war. Even steamboat Willie, who is the main protagonist of the film is also explicitly described as a victim of war.

 

Work cited

Spielberg, Steven, director. Saving Private Ryan. Amblin Entertainment, 1998.