Saving private Ryan - 1998

June 6 1944, the year says it all. A war movie. The massacre scenes are disturbing, I guess they’d have to be, was is never a nice thing. Many soldiers die, many lose limbs or have terrible deaths. I think there’s even a scene with blood drops on the camera. And there’s a guy hit on the helmet by a bullet who has the brilliant idea to take it off, so next bullet is not stopped. Maybe it wouldn’t have been anyway, but still, better to wear it. Soldiers see their fellow soldiers die and so they kill every different uniform they see, doesn’t matter if they were shooting or yielding with their hands raised. Letters are sent to the families of the men dead, and a woman probably notices a familiar names because she makes a search and other two papers come out. From the same family, Sean, Peter, Daniel. Tonight the family will receive three letters. The youngest son is a soldier too, somewhere. It is decided that he will be found and brought back alive.

The mission is given to Captain John Miller who takes seven men with him, including Corporal Upham, an interpreter who has never fought.  There’s sergeant Horvath, Reiben is next to Miller, Jackson is the sniper, Caparzo is shot while he was trying to take a child that her parents wanted them to take to safety. Wade takes the letter he wrote to his father. Then there’s Upham and Mellish. Wade is the doc of the group. 

They find a private James Ryan, but his brothers are still young, and he’s not from Iowa, he’s from Minnesota. 

They move on in their search, find many soldiers but have no idea where this Ryan might have ended up. Miller starts yelling Ryan’s name, and they find a guy who knew him, and can give them informations.

Miller wants to stop and destroy a machine gun and we see it through Upham’s spyglass.

Wade is killed. 

Half the movie in, they meet Ryan after a shooting. They tell him about his brothers, all of them, but Ryan doesn’t want to leave his post and ‘the only brothers he has left’.  Those guys are without a captain anymore, so Miller stays and helps to hold the bridge.

They all plan and fight. Miller tries his best to have Ryan stay put and safe, but no chance of that. 

Upham is frozen, scared witless. Jackson and Mellish die. Reiben and his friend too. Who was he?

The sergeant is killed too. Miller is so out of it that uses a gun against a tank.

Upham finds himself near the group of Germans, and sees the guy he argued with the others to let live, is now shooting at his comrades, and shoots Miller too.

Upham kills him, he had never killed a man before. Miller is injured. Ryan is alive. Miller dies after telling him “Earn this, earn it”.

James Francis Ryan is sent home, and many years later he visits Miller’s grave with all his family. 

Directed by Stephen Spielberg

with 

Miller - Tom Hanks

Ryan - Matt Damon

Sergeant - Tom Sizemore

Reiben - Edward Burns

Jackson - Barry Pepper

Caparzo - Vin Diesel

Mellish - Adam Goldberg

Wade - Giovanni Ribisi

Upham - Jeremy Davies

Minnesota Ryan - Nathan Fillion

also I see in the credits actors I know but that I don’t remember in the movie

Captain Hamill - Ted Danson

Sergeant Hill - Paul Giamatti

Lt Col Anderson - Dennis Farina