Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan
As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.
Tanalien reviewedJanuary 9, 2025
It was this film, Saving Private Ryan, that led me to realize the core tenet of Steven Spielberg’s movies: they are all courageous stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. This theme began in fictitious waters: an archaeologist, a boy and an alien, and a paleontologist. Those were powerful tales, but by delving into the stories of America, Spielberg has tapped into something more. Still, the men we follow in the film’s Second Ranger Battalion may be fictitious, but the Second Ranger Battalion itself was a very real part of D-Day. Spielberg is building many of his narratives around American heroes and documenting our history in ways that can’t be gleaned from a textbook.