|
At this point in the film, the men involved on the mission to find Private Ryan are angry, full of angst, and ready to give up. They can't keep finding reasons why they should give up their lives to save someone they've never met-- let alone may not even be alive. Captain Miller, being his wise self, offers some wisdom to the broken soldiers by providing some personal information about himself, his life back home, and his wife. He states the fact that he is a high school english teacher, he wants to see his wife, and he doesn't make much money. This scene was used to show that Captain Miller was every man, and every soldier was him. There are many misconceptions about who soldiers are, and this confirms that they are everybody and anybody.
The opening scene of the film portrays the attack of Omaha Beach. The men had been on ships for days-- they were seasick, incoherent, and in no way expecting the battle that was to come. This scene was used to demonstrate just how intense the battle of D-Day was. There is a shot of a man losing his arm to an explosion, watching it fly away, picking it up, and bringing it along with him as if he would be able to use it later on. Spielberg says, "Omaha Beach was actually an 'X' setting," says Spielberg. "Even worse than 'NC-17,' and I just kind of feel that (I had) to tell the truth about this war at the end of the century, 54 years later. I wasn't going to add my film to a long list of pictures that make World War II 'the glamorous war,' 'the romantic war.'" As a viewer, this scene set the tone for the movie in that it was known right away how real the situations were.
|