Saving Private Ryan 1998 HD [FULL MOVIE]
Saving Private Ryan opens with a 30-minute war scene that is without a
doubt one of the finest half-hours ever on film. This sequence, a
soldier's-eye view of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, is amazing not
only in terms of technique but in the depth of viewer reaction it uses.
Spielberg doenst hold anything back to the viewer of the horrors of
battle, using every way he can to show the chaos and lives that were
lost.
After fighting in the battle of Omaha beach D-Day, veteran
Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) is sent on a WWII rescue mission, he is
supposed to find paratrooper Private James Ryan (Matt Damon) and bring
him home . Ryan's three brothers have all been killed in action and the
Army wants him returned to his family. The paratroops of the 82nd
Airborne are scattered far and wide though, and finding Ryan proves far
from easy.
Hard-bitten Rangers (Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward
Burns, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi) are
joined by an interpreter, Corporal Upham (Jeremy Davies). Upham has no
combat experience, and is held in contempt by the veteran soldiers on
the mission. Several of Miller's men are killed in incidents, but they
do eventually locate Ryan -- who refuses to leave his unit! His squad of
paratroops is tasked to hold a key bridge, and Ryan insists on doing
just that. Capt. Miller and the surviving Rangers (plus the untested
& shaky Upham) agree to help, and in a climactic battle scene,
manage to hold off a German counter-attack.
The film's central
question (When is one life more important than another?) is never really
answered. For those who are willing to brave the movie's shocking and
unforgettable images, Saving Private Ryan offers a singular motion
picture experience. I will be surprised if another film tops it for the
best of 1998.
Ryan, now seen as an old man revisiting the
military cemetery at Normandy, visits the grave of Capt. Miller and
tells his rescuer that he has tried to live a good life in exchange for
the sacrifice of Miller and the rest. Overall its is worth seeing.
================================================
The
opening shot is of a back-lighted American flag, gently flapping. At
the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, an elderly man walks among
the rows of gravestones, which are mostly marble crosses, with an
occasional Star of David marking the grave of a Jewish soldier. He is
accompanied by his wife, children and grandchildren. He searches the
crosses and stops at a specific one and falls to his knees, crying. His
family walks to him and comforts him. As the camera slowly zooms in on
his face, the scene shifts instantly to a beach at Normandy called
"Omaha, Dog Green Sector."
On the choppy waters of the English
Channel, American Ranger soldiers are headed to the beach (Dog Green) in
landing vehicles. The captain of one unit, John Miller, tells his men,
when they land, to "clear the murder holes" and check their rifles for
sand and water when they exit the boats. Miller's right hand shakes
occasionally (it is never explained if his hand shaking is sever nerves
or the early stages of Parkinson's disease). When the landing ramp at
the front of the boat opens, the men are immediately hit by machine gun
fire from concrete German bunkers built into the cliffs at the end of
the beach. Many men are instantly cut down or are forced to jump over
the gunwales of the boats, into the surf, where their heavy gear drowns a
few of them. More take refuge behind the steel tank obstacles lining
the beach, which provide little cover. As Miller exits the boat, a
mortar hits nearby and the blast temporarily stuns him, knocking his
helmet off. The sound in the scene is suddenly reduced and Miller only
hears muddled noise. He watches the men around him who are hit by
bullets or mortar rounds or are too scared to move any further. One
private looks Miller in the eye and asks him what to do. The sound
returns and Miller orders his sergeant, Mike Horvath, to move his men up
the beach and out of the line of enemy fire. As Miller staggers up the
beach, he drags a wounded man. The man is hit by a mortar blast and is
killed; Miller suddenly discovers that he's been dragging less than half
the man's corpse. The German barrage kills most of the US Army troops
and leaves as many wounded; most of the wounded are eviscerated or
missing limbs and die slowly on the beach, despite the efforts of medics
to treat them.
Whomever is left in Miller's platoon assembles at
a sandbar that provides very little cover from the German bombardment.
Miller orders his men to use bangalore explosives to clear out the
barbed wire and mines behind the sandbar for their advance. The men make
it to the nearest concrete bunker where a German machine gun nest on a
nearby cliff keeps them from moving further. After sending a few of his
men into the fire zone where they're cut down immediately, Miller has
his sniper, Pvt. Jackson, run into the fire zone and take out the men in
the machine gun nest. Jackson's efforts are successful and Miller moves
his men behind the bunker where a soldier with a flamethrower sets the
bunker ablaze. On the beach, one soldier yells to the others to let the
Germans burn as they jump out of the bunker. Miller's men engage other
German soldiers in the trenches behind the bunker, quickly creating an
exit route from Omaha for the rest of the battalion. Miller also watches
as a few men mercilessly kill a few German and Czech soldiers who
surrender. Pvt. Caparzo finds a Hitler Youth knife which he gives to his
friend, Pvt. Mellish (a Jew); Mellish begins to sob. Horvath collects a
handful of dirt in a small metal can marked "France" and puts it into
his haversack alongside cans marked "Italy" and "Africa". Horvath
comments to Miller that the beach commands "quite a view"; it is covered
with the bodies of thousands of American soldiers. On the backpack of
one of them is the name "S. Ryan".
At the War Department in the
United States, rows of secretaries are typing death notices to be sent
to the families of the men killed in various battles around the world.
One of the women typing discovers three letters for three men from the
same family. The three men are all brothers from the Ryan family of Iowa
and their mother will receive all three letters at the same time. The
fourth and youngest son of Mrs. Ryan, James Francis, is part of an
airborne Army unit, the 101st, dropped into Normandy ahead of the beach
invasion and his whereabouts are unknown. The letters are brought to the
attention of General George Marshall who, after reading a poignant
letter sent by Abraham Lincoln to a family under similar circumstances
during the Civil War, orders his officers to James and have him brought
home immediately.
Back in Normandy, Miller meets with his
commanding officer and reports on a mission that cost the lives of many
of his men. The Lt. Colonel gives him new orders; Miller is tasked with
taking a squad into Normandy to find James Francis Ryan and bring him
back. Miller gathers what men he can and finds Corporal Upham in the
camp press box to accompany the squad as a translator - Upham speaks
fluent French and German. The squad sets out in the French countryside.
The Upham tries to talk to Mellish and Caparzo but finds them unfriendly
and even insulting. The squad's medic, Wade, asks Upham about a book he
plans to write about the bonds of friendship among soldiers. Reiben, a
hotheaded private from Brooklyn, questions the mission, wanting to know
if the effort to find Ryan is worth the lives of men who should be
fighting more important battles to liberate France and Europe. Miller
himself is also skeptical about the mission but understands that his
current orders are more important.
The squad arrives in a small
French village where Army units are currently at a standstill with the
German forces they're fighting. Miller asks the nearest sergeant if Ryan
is with them, but he's not. In an attempt to get information from the
Army unit on the other side of town, they send a runner across the
battlefield. The runner is cut down almost immediately. They move out to
cross the town and come across a French family trapped in the live fire
zone. The father insists the squad take his young daughter to safety;
Miller refuses but Caparzo takes her anyway. He is suddenly shot in the
chest by a sniper and falls, still alive. The squad takes cover and
Jackson is sent out to a hidden vantage point. Looking over the village,
he determines quickly that the sniper is hiding in a tower a good
distance away. Jackson takes careful and aim and kills the man, putting
his shot through the sniper's telescope. In the meantime, Caparzo has
bled to death in the street and Miller, while standing over him, harshly
tells his men that they're not to take in any children. Wade retrieves a
blood-stained letter from the body that Caparzo had been writing to his
father.
In another part of the village, the men sit down to take
a rest. A sergeant sends one of his men to find their CO. When he sits
down he knocks over a weakened brick wall that reveals a squad of German
soldiers whom were also behind it. A standoff ensues; the Germans are
all unexpectedly slaughtered by machine-gun fire from the Army unit's
commanding Captain and the man sent to find him, both of whom had opened
fire from a walkway over the courtyard. Miller speaks with the captain
who tells him that he has a James F. Ryan among his men. The man is
brought to Miller who tells him his brothers are dead. The man breaks
down and asks how they died and Miller tells him they were killed in
combat. Ryan is incredulous, telling Miller that his brothers are still
in grade school. The man tells them that he's James "Frederick" Ryan
from Minnesota; Miller, exasperated, tells Ryan he's sure his brothers
are just fine. From another 101st private being treated for a leg wound,
the squad learns that the their rallying point is nearby and that Ryan
may have gone there.
The squad spends a few hours resting in a
church. Wade rewrites the blood-stained letter Caparzo wanted to send to
his father. Horvath and Miller talk about how many men Miller has lost
under his command. Miller accepts that men die in combat for the greater
good. Cpl. Upham talks to the captain about a betting pool the men have
going where they try to guess Miller's occupation before the war began.
Upham and Miller come to a silent agreement that when the pool is big
enough, Miller will tell him the answer.
The squad comes across a
rallying point near a wrecked troop glider. On the ground surrounding
the area are dozens of wounded GIs.Sitting with the men is the pilot of
the glider who tells them he doesn't know where to find James Ryan. The
pilot's glider went down after being towed because steel sheets had been
welded to its underside, making it to heavy to fly. The sheets were
supposed to make the underside bulletproof to protect a general who'd
was being flown into combat. The glider crashed, killing the general.
The squad reflects on the efforts to protect only a single man. The
pilot gives Miller a bag full of dog tags taken from dead soldiers.
Miller has his men go through them looking for Ryan. They do so rather
callously while men from Army Airborne units march by. Wade walks over
and starts picking up the tags, muttering that his comrades are acting
rather coldly in front of the passing soldiers. Miller concludes that
Ryan isn't among them and in a minor fit of desperation, beings to
question the passing soldiers, asking if any of them know Ryan. He gets
lucky with one man who is from Ryan's unit and has lost his hearing from
a grenade blast, so he yells his answers. The man tells him that Ryan
was assigned to a mixed unit that's guarding a bridge across the
Merderet River in the nearby village of Ramelle. Miller determines that
the bridge is of vital importance to the Army and the Germans because it
will allow either to drive their tank units across the water.
The
squad sets out again. They spot two dead GIs in a field who have been
cut down by enemy fire. After confirming that none of them are Ryan,
Miller and Horvath spot a machine gun nest near a radar tower. Thought
it would be easier, as Reiben suggests, to sneak around the tower and
the Germans guarding it, Miller resolves to take out the nest so that
the next Allied unit will not be surprised and killed. He debates his
men for a few minutes and gives them their positions. Upham stays behind
with their gear and the squad rushes the nest. Upham watches through
one of Jackson's sniper's scopes. When the skirmish is over, the men
yell frantically for Upham to bring their gear. When Upham reaches them,
he sees that Wade has been hit several times in the chest and is
bleeding to death. The men frantically try to save his life but Wade
dies, saying he wants to go home. One of the Germans is still alive and
the squad rushes to him and beats him. Miller is unsure of what to do
with the live German and orders that he dig graves for Wade and the two
GIs they saw in the field. When Upham protests that prisoners aren't to
be treated like slave, Miller orders Upham to help the German in his
task. Miller is later seen sitting apart from the squad where he breaks
down, then recovers his composure and returns to the squad.
Miller
and the squad are unsure of what to do with the German soldier. When
they initially appear to want to execute him, he begs for his life
saying he loves America and also says "Fuck Hitler!!". The men are
unmoved and prepare their weapons to shoot him when Miller blindfolds
him and, to the astonishment of the squad, lets the man walk off. Reiben
in particular is offended by Miller's compassion and threatens to
desert, saying that their mission has gotten two of their comrades
killed. Horvath orders Reiben to fall into formation and threatens to
shoot the man. The entire squad begins to argue and Miller suddenly asks
Upham what the pot is in the pool on him. The men all stop arguing and
Miller tells them he's an English composition teacher in a small
Pennsylvania town. The men are all quite surprised, suggesting none of
them had thought of that occupation for their captain. Miller goes on to
say that the war has definitely changed him and he's unsure of how
he'll take up his former life when he returns home. However, if finding
and bringing Ryan back ensures that he'll be able to rotate home, then
he'll complete the mission.
The squad, exhausted, approaches
Ramelle. While crossing a field, they are nearly spotted by a German
half-track. Miller orders everyone down until the vehicle moves on.
While they wait tensely, the half-track is hit by bazooka fire and
stops. Miller's squad moves in and they kill the Germans that try to
escape. Miller hears a voice identifying a group of nearby soldiers;
they are all Airborne from various units. One of them is Ryan himself.
In
Ramelle, Miller's squad is shown the bridge that Ryan and his comrades
are guarding. Their commanding officer had been killed a few days
before. Miller tells Ryan that his brothers are dead and that he's been
given a ticket home. Ryan is devastated by the news of his family but
refuses to leave, saying that it's his duty to stay with his unit and
defend the bridge. Nothing Miller can say will change Ryan's mind and
Ryan even says that his mother would understand his desire to remain at
the bridge with the "only brothers [he] has left." Miller and Horvath
contemplate the serious nature of Ryan's refusal and they decide to stay
and help the unit in their defense of the bridge.
Ryan's group
looks over their supplies, which are very low. In looking over the
bombed-out village, Miller creates a strategy that will for any German
tanks up the main street of Ramelle where the rubble creates an narrow
alley that will channel any individual German troops into a bottleneck,
making them easier targets. Miller has several men give up their socks
to stuff with Composition B explosives they've spared from the
demolition set up to destroy the bridge; they'll be used to blast the
treads off any tank. Upham, now accepted by the jaded men of the squad,
is given ammunition duty, running ammo belts to the two Browning machine
gun positions manned by Mellish and Jackson. Jackson is given a perch
in a high church tower. Reiben will ride on a German half-track
motorcycle which will lure the German unit into the bottleneck. The men
wait for the Germans to show up and listen to "Tous es Partout" by Edith
Piaf, while Upham interprets. Ryan tells Miller that he can remember
his brothers but he can't see their faces. Miller suggests he "think of a
context", something they've all done together. Miller tells Ryan when
he wants to remember his wife, he thinks of her trimming rosebushes.
Ryan tells the story of he and his brothers nearly burned down the barn
on their farm when they snuck up on their oldest brother, Danny, while
he was trying to have sex with a local girl in the hayloft. James laughs
and stops when he realizes that the incident was the last time they
were all together, over two years ago, before any of them had gone to
basic training. When Ryan asks Miller to tell him about his wife and the
rosebushes, Miller politely refuses, saying that memory is for him
alone.
The squad feels the ground beginning to rumble, indicating
that the German column has arrived. Jackson signals that there are two
Panzer tanks (they are actually Marder III's) and two Tiger I tanks.
There are also at least 50 German troops. Miller orders everyone to
their positions and Reiben rides out to act as the rabbit to lure the
Germans into town. One of the Tiger tanks proceeds down the main street,
where the German troops following it are cut down by mines planted
along the sides. Two men plant the Comp B bombs on the wheels of the
Tiger, blasting it's tread apart and stopping it immediately. Ryan and
Miller's squads open fire and shift positions several times during the
battle. Though they take the Germans by surprise at the beginning,
several of the men are killed. Jackson is discovered in his perch and is
hit by tank fire. Mellish is trapped in a room where a German soldier
overpowers him in hand-to-hand combat and slowly drives a bayonet into
Mellish's chest. Outside the room, Cpl. Upham sits, frozen with terror,
unable to move to rescue Mellish. After the German soldier is finished
with Mellish, he marches out, indifferent to Upham. Several more
American men are killed when the Germans open fire with an 20 millimeter
anti-aircraft flak cannon. Reiben is able to flank the cannon and takes
out it's operators. Sgt. Horvath is hit non-fatally but grabs Upham and
retreats when Miller orders everyone to cross the bridge to their
"Alamo" position, where they'll make their last stand. The surviving
Tiger tank follows and seems unstoppable when Horvath fires several
bazooka rockets at it. Horvath is hit in the chest while retreating and
dies a few minutes later. Miller prepares the detonator to destroy the
bridge when a shell from the Tiger hits the building behind him, blowing
the device out of his hands. He staggers across the bridge to retrieve
it and is shot in the chest by the same German soldier he'd set free at
the radar station. Miller falls, unable to continue. He draws his .45
pistol and begins to shoot vainly at the Tiger tank, which has begun to
cross the bridge. After a few shots, the tank impossibly explodes and
small squadron of P-51 Mustang fighters suddenly zoom into view, having
bombed the tank and several enemy targets. Reiben and Ryan rush to
Miller's side and call for a medic. Upham, still on the other side of
the bridge and undetected near an enemy squad takes the squad prisoner.
One of them is the man who shot Miller. The man recognizes Upham and
tells his fellow soldiers he knows him. After a few silent moments,
Upham shoots the man dead in retaliation for shooting the man who
previously spared his life. He orders the rest of the prisoners to leave
the scene.
As Miller lays dying, Ryan remarks that the planes
are "tank busters." Miller calls them "Angels on our shoulders." He
beckons Ryan closer and tells him "Earn this. Earn it." As we hear
George Marshall's voice reading a passage from Lincoln's letter, James'
face ages over 50 years to the present day. We see that the grave he is
standing over is Captain Miller's. He tells Miller that he hopes he's
lived up to Miller's wish and that his family is with him. Ryan salutes
the grave. The last shot is of a back-lighted American flag.
