6 of 1001 Saving Private Ryan

One of my friends who saw this film said the whole film was wrapped in the American Flag. The first shot and the last shot are of a faded Old Glory with the sun shining through it. After the first shot the audience sees a shaking hand opening a canteen and Tom Hanks taking a drink. Then the carnage starts on D-Day on Normandy Beach.

Recently I saw a interview with Steven Spielberg, he said the first 15 minutes of Saving Private Ryan took 26 days to shoot. Why so long? Because the entire sequence was improvised. Nothing was written out on a story board it was all in the directors head. He filmed it as he had read about D-Day from survivors of that fateful day. Even now writing about that sequence I feel the anxiety and fear for the men on the boats. Not knowing if I'd survive to see tomorrow. The graininess of the film the hand held camera and the sound of a heartbeat make it real and in first person perspective.

As the film goes on, we meet and get to know the other soldier's in the group. By the movies end we care about these men and what they have endured. By movies end, we know that Private Ryan earned his survival and remembers the men lost to The Great War: World War II. Tom Brokaw calls the men of that war the greatest generation and I agree. For what those boys saw and experienced and lived to tell the tale should be passed on to younger generations so we never forget. For those who don't learn anything from history are doomed to repeat it. I personally don't want another World War II.

Thank you Steven Spielberg, for giving us a glimpse of what war is really like. The carnage, the death, the blood, and the tears. War is not a John Wayne film. It is life or death and we the audience should never forget that.

-A-