Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Captain Miller: James Francis Ryan of Iowa?

Private Ryan: Yes, sir. Paton, Iowa, that's correct. What is this about?
Captain Miller: Your brothers were killed in combat.
Private Ryan: Which - Which ones?
Captain Miller: All of them. 

Saving Private Ryan is one of those films that will leave you in awe at that generation who spent their youth fighting far away from home for our freedom. Nobody can watch the first few minutes of the film when the Normandy landings are underway and not come back with a lump in their throat.

The film tells the story of a small number of elite US Army Rangers who are ordered to journey deep into occupied Normandy, only a few days after the invasion, and retrieve a paratrooper who is the last surviving son in his family, as all his brothers recently died in combat. The Rangers are, perhaps understandably, not best pleased at the fact that they have to risk their lives, for the sake of one person.

Just how much is a person’s life worth? The film isn’t glorifying war or the US Army, quite the opposite in fact. During the Normandy landings we see numerous American soldiers commit war crimes, and in the middle of the film our group of Rangers also come close to murdering a German POW.  These Rangers are not carrying out a mission that will end the war or save thousands of their comrades; they are simply carrying out a Public Relations exercise. At the end of the film, with most of the Rangers dead, we are left in no doubt that Private Ryan has spent the rest of his life trying to earn that salvation.

All references come from IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120815/

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