Intro - Any Steven Spielberg film is a big film. When Saving Private Ryan hit cinema screens in

Opening scene - US Flag

Old man and family (generations) at memorial park

old man breaks down in front of cross - sound of waves - cut to beach obstacles

Scene - Landing



landing boats full of GIs



Miller's hand shaking - swig from canteen



Millers face

GIs throwing up




Miller gives instructions, aided by sarge

incoming shells - GIs faces - crosses made or kissed - Jackson kisses cross




bullets whistle in - front two go down straight away




chaos - machine gun in concrete bunker




change in sound for men underwater - bullets zing through water



often something blocking line of view

German pov from machine gun bunker




GI pov on the beach




camera shakes with shell blasts




water red with blood

Miller has bizarre seizure where sound goes muffled and he is just looking around



Guy loses arm - picks it up and carries it



Miller puts on helmet; sees young GI asking him what to do



spots his sergeant and tells them to get up the beach




"Where's the rallying point?" "Anywhere but here!"



Guy doesn't want to go on



guns wrapped in plastic



medics

Miller is dragging a GI when a shell hits - GI cut in half but Miller picks him back up and goes on before he realises.



Bullets everywhere



German pov



Miller on radio - 'Shore party: no armour has made it ashore. We got no DPGs. Dog one is not open."



they are in the right place but no-one else is there.



radio - shore party - "First wave ineffective. We do not hold the beach. repeat. we do not hold the beach.





they are a mixed unit



Radio operatior killed - radio shot



Medics trying to save a battalion sergeant - they stop the bleeding and he gets shot in the head.

Wade is Miller's squad's medic so they make him come with them.



15 minutes




Orders are 'gather weapons and ammo



where's the BAR? Bottom of the channel, sir. Thing tried to drown me.



Bangalores! long tube thing!




Guy is hit on the helmet ("You lucky b*****d!") and takes it off to look - gets shot in the head!



bangalores go off and open up a hole ("Fire in the hole!")



Sarge: "We're in business!"




medic does summary diagnoses

Miller makes makeshift periscope with bayonet gum and mirror - he rapidly assesses the enemy firepower (capable officer)



They send their troops in.




Jackson is chosen to take up a sniper position and try to take out the defenders he mutters a prayer and makes a headshot - we see other soldiers praying - he prays again and shoots - the nest is blown up



dialogue: Sarge: "Sir if your mother saw you do that..." "Sergeant I thought you were my mother!"



Camera makes an over the shoulder glance back at the beaches with fresh forces arriving - Miller and co are up on the clifftop cleaning up



Grenade in and wait for the defenders to come out - flamethrower into the bunker ('Don't shoot! Let 'em burn!") - shoot first then take prisoners - then the whole unit opens jup on the trench (Sarge: "Cease fire! Cease fire!)



two Germans surrender - two GIs shoot them anyway - "Whaddee say?" - "Look I washed for supper!"



Carpazo hands Mellish a souvenier hitler youth knife - he cracks a joke then breaks down.



The sarge fills a tin with dirt labelled 'France' - he puts it in his bag where there are others labelled 'Africa' and 'Italy'.



We see Miller's hand shaking - he takes a drink (repeat shot) - Sarge: 'It's quite a view!', Miller: 'Yeah. Quite a view.'



- we see the beach, strewn with corpses, the sea is red with blood



- camera zeros in on one dead GI, lying face down. (bizarrely, surrounded by dead fish). His name is printed on his pack: S Ryan.

Scene - Letters

Typing pool - voices off: letters from commanding officers to KIA relatives.



Typist notices something funny between two letters and checks a third.




There is no dialogue

Officer takes letters to Colonel - explains that two men died in Normandy - Sean Ryan at Omaha and XXXXX at Utah - Daniel Ryan died the week before in New Guinea.



There is a fourth brother, the youngest. He parachuted into Normandy on D-day. They don't know whether he is alive.



Cut to a housewife. Farm in Iowa. slowly an official car approaches the isolated Farmhouse.



Cut to officers in conference.




General gets out old book and quotes an old letter. Lincoln quote: I pray that ohf may assuage the anguish of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the alter of freedom.
Yours very respectfully and sincerely, Abraham Lincoln.

A pr mission - dateline: D-Day +3




Goodfellahs guy gives Miller mission



Miller has just lost 35 men (times two wounded)



little wooden mines - lots of gun types - Miller knows his s**t.



Airborne misdrops everywhere.




Jackson Wade Capazzo



Key character - Cpl Upham brought in as interpreter - tries to get out of it coz he's never been in combat; he reads maps and he translates! Hasn't fired a weapon since basic training.


Upham is the observer and enables us to empathise with him

Cut from spectacular post D-day landing zone to the intimacy of an 8-man squad.



Uppham tries to bond but is given the cold shoulder and mocked coz he's green.



he's writing a book about the bond of brotherhood that develops between soldiers in combat, which they find pretty funny.



THis is where we learn about the pool on Cpt Miller concerning what he did for a living before the army.



We meet all the members of the squad -



Jackson thinks he has been given a gift by god to be a good military machine!



They are discussing the merits of the mission,



Reiben in particular seems to think it is misguided to send 8 men to save one.

They get to Neuville in the rain - comical German propaganda in the background.



Usual chaos - disappointment that they are not the relief



Vin Diesel is shot down by a sniper while trying to save a French little girl.



Mellish (Jewish GI) shouts back something about his Rabbi - Mellish serves on more than one occasion to recall the anti-semitism of the Nazi regime.


Jackson mutters religious stuff and demonstrates his skills as a sniper



Excellent tense sniper vs sniper scene - classic Spielberg


This scene is all about why sometimes you don't do in war what seems intuitively to be the 'right' thing.

Great Spielberg surprise moment when a GI sits down to take his boot off and accidentally knocks down the crumbling wall to reveal a whole squad of German soldiers! There is a stand-off with lots of shouting until another group of GIs turns up and mows down the Germans. This group turns out to be the one that they are looking for and Miller gets hold of James Ryan and tells him his brothers are dead. He is devastated but when told that they died in action he reveals that that is impossible because they are still at school! This is not Private James Francis Ryan from Iowa but Private James Frederick Ryan from Minnesota. In Millers words 'It's just a big foul-up.'

More tales of airborne chaos - they are all miles from their dropzones. Miller has a chat with Ted Danson, of all people, who surprises Miller by his enthusiasm for their mission.

Scene - choices


Miller and Sarge reminisce about a GI from Anzio days. But Miller is really thinking about Caparzo. And the way he rationalises losing men. You sacrifice one man to save 'two, or four, or even a hundred.' 'Except this time the mission is a man.' Miller is thinking that Ryan had better do something pretty good on his return to merit this mission.

In the church Wade - the medic - is thinking about his mom.

Uppham talks to Miller.

He thinks 'this is all good for us,' and quotes Emerson - 'war educates the senses'. Miller recognises the quote but refuses to be drawn. He reveals that he is aware of the pool.

spectacular image of platoon in silhouette against gunfire flashes.

Scene - Fubar

They come across an encampment that has been improvised around a downed transport plane. A Brigadier-General is trapped dead inside.

The pilot explains that someone had attached steel plates under his plane to protect the general

22 men killed for the sake of one general - Fubar! Uppham has worked out that it's not German.

Scene - Dog-tags

They are insensitive in searching through the tags looking for Ryans in front of a passing column of Airborne troopers.

Even Miller lets himself go a bit, and when Wade berates them - Miller appears to lose it - he starts raving and shouting 'Ryan!' He even asks some French refugees. In fact, one guy *does* know Ryan, and where was last seen. Another missed dropzone, of course.

Handy for the plot, that!

For strategic reasons Miller can see that the bridge is a key position. In briefing his squad he gets the shakes again.

Scene radar station



Reiben is the first to suggest going round, then Mellish, but Miller has no hesitation



We get a great insight into how a squad goes about attacking a position via Miller's rapid and clearly laid out plan of attack.



Upham's role as spectator is emphasised when he remains at the back and peers through the sniper sight to see what is going on. He is like the audience - not a battle-hardened combat-veteran, scared, confused, but drawn to *watch* the action.



The attack is fast and loud but like Uppham we don't get a clear view.



When he does run forward through the smoke to join the rest of the squad they are gathered around Wade trying to save him - he has been shot several times and is trying to tell the GIs what to do to stop the bleeding.

Wade dies in their arms and they want to shoot the German prisoner in revenge, but Miller wants him to dig the holes for Wade and the 3 GIs that had already been killed in the earlier ambush.



Upham doesn't want them to kill the German and has to be prevented from giving him some water while he digs.



The German comes out with all the English he knows, saying he likes America, Steamboat Willy and Betty Boop.

Upham convinces Miller to let him go as a POW - sending him off blindfolded. The squad don't like it - arguing that he may be picked up by Germans before Americans.



Reiben actually refuses to carry on, even facing up to the sergeant who draws his gun on him.



Everyone is shouting at each other and Miller is just looking into the middle distance.



This is a situation.



Upham is imploring Miller to do something but all he does is quietly ask him what the pool is up to.



Now we hear that he was a school teacher - English composition.



This key speech is about the fact that he has 'changed some.' He doesn't know anything about Ryan, but if saving him is what will earn him the right to return to his wife, then that's his 'mission.' 'Every man I kill the farther away from home I feel.'



It is a poignant moment and Reiben falls back into line out of respect for his captain.

They stumble upon a road and duck to avoid being seen by a German half-track. To their surprise the half track is suddenly hit. There is a brief fire-fight and they take out the crew. They have stumbled upon Ryan!

Scene - One decent thing



Back in town where Ryan's unit is defending the bridge, they are again disappointed to discover that this is not the relief. On the contrary, they announce that they are taking a man away! Ryan doesn't want to abandon his post.



They discuss the importance of holding the bridge but Reiben cuts him off with the fact that they have lost 2 men on their way to find him.



Ryan is upset to learn that GIs have died for his sake.



But he remains adamant, however, even faced with the picture of his mother receiving 'another folded American flag'.
Ryan says they should tell her that his unit were 'the only brothers that I have left' and he thinks she would understand that he would not leave them there.

The right thing to do from an army point of view is to finish the mission.



The orders come right from the top and



We have crossed some wierd boundary here.

It is the sarge that sums up the thinking behind the closing scene of the film.



>He wants to stay here, fine, let's leave him and go home.



but he also thinks that if they could stay, and they did ever get back alive, then maybe they would look back and think that 'Saving Private Ryan was the one decent thing we were able to pull out of this whole god-awful s****y mess. We do that, we all earn the right to go home.'

Once again we see what being a front-line officer is all about as Miller assesses the situation and begins to improvise a plan of defence.

Scene - Piaf



The calm before the storm. They dig out a gramaphone and get it running. Uppham translates the melancholy song by Piaf about her lover who has left her.



Then the rumble of approaching armour rouses them all.



sign language from the tower. interesting military detail.

Scene Born lucky

The ominous rumbling sound lasts quite a long time providing the backdrop to the scenes of the unit preparing for the onslaught.

Clever piece of direction - we have been waiting for this ever since the opening scene.



The tanks don't take the bait and we feel cheated when it appears the Germans are not going to fall into the trap



There is a real feeling of the closeness of the enemy and growing tension



close-ups of the ground-shaking



back to the documentary-style camera-work and editing



nitty-gritty of battle - shoot and move - "displace"

There is an ongoing story being played out of Uppham's personal experience of the realities of battle and disillusionment.



He is sposed to be providing ammo but is scared out of his wits and doesn't want to come into the open.

They are very protective of Ryan throughout - as if it is all about him more than the bridge.



Death of Jackson - he has shot a lot of Germans but eventually comes up against a tank.



Religious muttering and highly effective use of a sniper-rifle - but ultimately death in a blaze of glory. Well, a blaze, anyway.

Back to Upham who has left his pals in the lurch. He grits his teeth and goes for it, but is put off when he spots some German soldiers.
The guys he is sposed to getting ammo for run out and are killed -



Mellish is actually killed in an agonising hand-to-hand tussle by the German they released earlier after the radar station attack.



Upham listens to his comrade being killed, frozen to the spot and sobbing in the stairwell. Worse still, when the German appears, he lets him past unmolested.

This German soldier is an interesting character because he is the only German who is remotely developed. In the fight with XXXXX he seems to be rather sadistic, muttering to him that 'it is

Scene - Alamo



The sarge is being heroic with a rocket launcher

Uppham is on his belly, now on the wrong side of the lines, watching German troops run past.



The sarge is shot through but says he 'just got the wind knocked out o' me.'



They are falling back and planning to blow the bridge.



It is too late though, the Germans are on them



Miller has another moment of trance like silent clarity in the heat of the battle



He spots the detonator for the bridge and breaks cover to go for it.

Upham can see 'his' German aiming at Miller



SW shoots Miller



Miller, hit in the chest, simply takes out his hand pistol and shoots at the oncoming tank in a futile gesture of defiance. It looks as though it is all over.



Suddenly, the tanks explodes! The cavalry arrive Deus Ex Machina in the form of an air-raid by US tank-busters



Rather late, but clearly changed by the experience of battle, Uppham takes some German prisoners, including 'his' German



when he tries to talk to him, Uppham simply shoots him in cold-blood. The rest he takes off as prisoners.



Miller tells Ryan to 'earn it. Earn this.'

We see Ryan staring at Miller backed by the voice of the Chief of Staff's letter to MRS R quoting the Lincoln passage.



masterful cut to the cemetery (lots of crosses and one Star of David) and Old Ryan



He is looking down at the grave exactly as he was looking down at Miller's body on the bridge - and so we know exactly what is going through his mind at that moment. Because we have just seen it.



He tells Miller's grave that every day he has thought of what he said that day. He hopes it was enough. He hopes he earned what he did for him.



His wife comes over and he says



"Tell me I've led a good life. Tell me I'm a good man."

Cast list

For my reference -

1. Memorial
2. Omaha Beach
3. Rallying
4. Breakthrough
5. Letters
6. A PR mission
7. Pool
8. Priv James Ryan
9. Choices
10. Fubar
11. Dog-tags
12. Radar Station
13. Big Mystery
14. One decent thing
15. piaf
16. Born lucky
17. Ammo
18. The Alamo
19. The bridge
20. Duty roster