Research paper
World War II, considered by most to be the most dangerous war and according to statistics (having an estimated death toll of 70 million) it was. Because of this, and because of the United States participation in this Great War, a profusion of movies have been produced since then. While some of these films possess great studio details, they lack in historical significance. One movie in particular I want to discuss is the Oscar nominated movie “Saving Private Ryan” directed by Steven Spielberg. Does this movie depict war as it is in real life? Does its plot follow historical events as they really happened?
The movie Saving Private Ryan starts off with the main protagonist Ryan (now an elderly man) walking through the World War II memorial cemetery with his family. He stops at a certain grave and breaks down crying. The scene then changes to a flashback of the invasion of Normandy and shows the allies landing on Normandy beach commencing the attack on the Axis force. The scene then switches to Captain John Miller as he maneuvers through the war zone. He witnesses many of his fellow soldiers dying, as he tries to get to cover he drags one of his soldiers to safety only to find out he has been struck by a mortar and only has half a body. After he gets to safety Miller then assembles what’s left of his platoon after and continues pushing forward. After they complete their mission, one soldier looks at the beach and comments “What a view”. The camera then shows the backpack of a S. Ryan.
Miller then reports to his commanding officers about a mission that left half his squad dead and he is given a new assignment, to find Private James F. Ryan, The last of 4 brothers all of which were killed in war. They struggle to find ...
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..., soldiers in the movie were shown to have their helmets unbuckled, a real soldier would never be caught with his helmet unbuckled during war as this could be very dangerous and could leave to injuries and even death at times. During battle the un-fastened helmet could fall off, leaving the soldiers head exposed
In retrospect, this movie is still a movie, it’s not meant to follow how the war really went and exactly how it combat was done, now if it was similar? Yes, this movie possessed traits that were nonexistent at the time and made similar combat to that of real soldiers the norm for war movies. It followed a series of events, but nothing can be proven for sure as the mission Captain Miller carried out was not real. The invasion of Normandy was experienced in this movie with a vivid understanding of what it would be like to partake in any kind of warfare
“Saving Private Ryan” is set during World War II; however, it still greatly affects our current society through helping people understand how bad war really is.
Director Steven Spielberg and auther Markus Zusak, in their intriguing production, movie Saving Private Ryan and book The Book Thief, both taking place during World War II. However , in Saving Private Ryan Spielberg focus on a lot of complications that occur during war , but guilt was one difficulty that stood out to me. Zusak, on the other hand , showas that having courage during war can be a advantage and also an disadvantage depending on the situation. Both director and author grabed the audience attention with emotional and logical appeal.
Drama ‘Saving Private Ryan’ salutes the ‘citizen soldier of WWII’.” L.A. Times 10, May 1998: 4/13/99 http://www.multimania.com/spielbrg
But after experiencing ten weeks of atrocious basic training at the hands of the small-minded, vindictive Corporal Himmelstoss and the inconceivable cruelty of life on the front lines. Paul and his comrades realize that the ideals that made them enlist are merely empty clichés. They no longer believe that war is magnificent or respectable, and they live in unceasing physical terror that each day that goes may be their last. When Paul’s company receives a short reprieve after two weeks of fighting at the front lines, only eighty men of the original 150-man company return from the front. The cook , Ginger, doesn’t want to give the survivors the rations that were meant for the dead men He insists that he is only allowed to distribute single rations and that the dead soldiers’ rations will simply have to go to waste but eventually gives in.
Even though the films “Battleship Potemkin”, “From Here to Eternity” and “Saving Private Ryan” are all movies based on military life during war time the variation in time periods and culture made each film very different. These differences did not take away from the impact the films had on their audiences at the time or the messages they were each trying to covey. The Horrific images and hear wrenching scenarios helped to evoke strong emotions and patriotic feeling from audiences allowing film makers to pass along their truths. Thru these films we are magically transported to several dark periods in the world history and left to experience the pain, fear, isolation and ultimately the triumph of these soldiers’ lives.
James Francis Ryan is a World War II veteran and everyday he thinks about what happened during the war. The biggest problem he faces is stress from World War II. World War II was a very tragic event at that time and many veterans developed various mental illness. From the movie, it shows that James Francis Ryan was no exception in facing problems because of the war. He wants to make sure that he lived a good life and was a good person because of the words from his comrade, Captain John H. Miller. James Ryan wants to live up John Miller’s expectation because he went through so many battles and losses in order to ensure that James Ryan returns back home to his mother. This issue that been inside of him for many years and even though he’s now a grandfather he still recollects the events that has happened. Constantly living up to an expectation can be hard, but he has a very supportive family to back him up, especially his wife. At the end of Saving Private Ryan he told his wife, “Tell me I lived a good life, and tell me I am a good person.” He told his wife this in front of John H. Miller’s grave to confirm to himself and John H. Miller that he tried his best to live up to his words. Judging based on how supportive the family seems it is pretty clear ...
After the United States captures the beachhead and settles down, Captain Miller and his seven soldiers begin their mission. The dilemma is Private Ryan, in the 101st airborne, was miss his drop zone away from the original plan. Command thinks he is in a nearby town swarming with German soldiers. Miller’s squad goes through towns, forests, and enemy occupied areas searching for Private Ryan. Sadly, two out of the eight men are killed during the search diminishing the morale. The captain mentally suffers from the burden of losing his men. When they finally locate Ryan, he is defending one of the most strategic towns in the beginning of the war. The town has one of the only 2 bridges across the river that will collect the Allies to the Eastern front. Private Ryan does not want to leave his men guarding the bridge because he feels that it is unfair to leave his fellow soldiers. So Captain Miller and the squad decide to make a last stand ...
"I made my first visit to them as chaplain on Sunday morning. The scene beggars all description. Some of them were comparatively young men. But they made the fatal mistake. They had only twenty-four hours to live.... Here was a wife to say farewell to a husband forever. Here a mother to take the last look at her ruined son, and then a sister who had come to embrace for the last time the brother who had brought disgrace upon the very name she bore by his treason to his country."
War is not just about the physical things that soldiers carry on a daily basis. The things they carried are so much more, even though the physical does take up a majority of the weight of a soldier. So many emotional burdens and tolls are to be accounted for when thinking about the units of the military fighting in the war and how they have to deal with them while in the midst of gunfire and hell.
...effect it has on humans. His film followed a realistic book that talked about soldiers and how the war deeply affected them. The main characters suffered from Post Dramatic Stress Disorder which is something that has affected soldiers all through history. The Great Raid also depicted war exactly as it occurred. It depicted how prisoners of war suffered in Japanese camps. It also shows how brutal the Jap soldiers reacted to American soldiers. The film focuses on showing the raid as accurate as it could be, because John Dahl focused on the realities of war in order to inform his viewers. The Thin Red Line focused on depicting the Battle of Guadalcanal. However, it fails to describe it as it occurred. The film fails to show how much soldiers suffered because of the environment. John Dahl’s main vision focused on entertaining viewers with a war film and that is it.
Since the beginning of man, people have been fighting for what they want. Tom Clancy shows that through his main character, Marko Ramius, who was doing everything he could to save his crew from the grip of Communism. In Clancy’s novel The Hunt for Red October, Clancy depicts that what someone will do to fight for their freedom.
The commanders in the film that is Brad Pitt and Jason Isaacs served in positions that they would have been allowed to serve during World war 2. For instance, Brad Pitt's position in the movie as Don "Wardaddy" Collier; a hardened Army staff sergeant who commanded a Sherman tank against the German Nazis was a misinterpretation of the military age of soldiers who were supposed to participate in world war 2. Brad Pitt who is displayed in the movie as a 50-year individual reflected a historical inaccuracy since in the US during world war two the average age for any US commander by then was between the age of 21 to 37 (briefly to 45 years) . Thus, when Brad Pitt is assigned the role of a commander in the film, it is indeed inaccurate of the permissible age that a US commander was supposed to be during the
Synopsis Band of Brothers is a fascinating book that captures moments lived by soldiers during World War II. It specifically relates to the History of a small unit of paratroopers known as Easy Company, 506 Regiment, 101st Airborne. It is a story that follows the company from its inception to the capture of Hitler’s nest. It begins with the training of these soldiers at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. The 140 members of Easy Company, who were young men from different social levels, were physically and mentally trained.
Although the book did an incredible job in explaining every detail and story that happened throughout the day and preceding night, the movie did a much better job in helping the viewer visualize the entire ordeal. Without the film there would be no real way to understand how massive and tragic the invasion was, unless you were there. Which is one reason why both the book and the movie are both so accurate. Because Ryan had based everything in his book on his own personal accounts and hundreds of veteran accounts. The writers, directors, and producer successfully realized their goal of a truly exact D-day film, and they did it without a consistent story or gore. While the stories in the movie were weak and were never truly completed, the movie and book still left the viewer satisfied with what they had watched or read. Without Ryan’s book, I doubt that there would be a D-day movie out that accomplished the same goal of realism that Zanuck’s The Longest Day had.
There is an intellectual discussion over the accuracy of war films and whether or not these should focus more on telling the truth or decorating it a little. Indeed, the narrative of war films has change throughout the years because the purpose of such films has evolved, especially those representing the World War II years and the aftermath. At the time of war, films were employed with diverse objectives for example to urge the public to support the war, to narrate the latest events, or to rebuild the image of the heroes. Most of the times the perspectives of films could vary depending on the country the film was produced in or which side of the story was being narrated. The plot of most war films might not be real, but they were necessary