Saving Private Ryan

Movie Reflection Questions

1.       What is an important message/moral in the movie and how did the director illustrate that message/moral?

I think an important message in this movie is that ordinary men choose to become soldiers when the time comes and their country needs them. The director illustrates this perfectly by giving the backgrounds of some of the characters, showing that yes they're all normal men who had normal lives before they had to be pulled into this bloody and violent war. I think the director shows us that ordinary men become heroes on the battlefield.

2.       What did you learn from this movie about WWII that you never knew about and was never discussed in class?

I learned what FUBAR meant. I’ve never even heard of that being used as a military term until this movie.

3.       Which character did you most associate with and what about his or her actions make you think you would behave similarly?

I think out of all the characters, I mostly relate to Upham. I think its because sometimes my compassion for others gets in the way of my judgement. Just like when Upham begged Miller not to kill the German soldier, only to see him later in the movie on the opposing side after he specifically told the German to surrender to the next Allied Unit he came in contact with. Upham shouldn’t have had sympathy for the German, because he was the face of the enemy, but he did. I think that personally me and Upham are a lot alike, because we let our hearts get in the way of our brains. Also, Upham can be very naive, which I admit I can be too sometimes. Me and Upham both have big hearts.

4.       Which scene did you find the most moving or inspiring and WHY?

The scene that inspired me the most was when the German soldier came and killed Mellish but not Upham. I think the reason this inspired me was because right there, I realized that German soldiers were just that, soldiers. They weren’t monsters, really, although they did seem to be portrayed as that. They were just soldiers fighting for their country because they had to. When the soldier sees Upham sobbing and he sees that Upham takes his hand off his rifle, he realizes hes not a threat, so he leaves. He didn’t just kill him in cold blood. It gave me a different perspective on the movie. Not in a “what the German soldiers did was justified” kind of way, but rather a “the soldiers are just doing what they're being ordered to do” kind of way. It even makes me think back to the beginning when the American soldiers shot the Germans who surrendered and laughed about it, and it made me feel different about it than I had before.

5.       Identify two themes that are illustrated in this movie and what scenes or situations illustrate those themes.

One theme that is shown in this is second chances. If someone has a second chance to makes something right, to even the score, then that chance should be taken. This is shown when Upham chooses to kill the German soldier after he killed Miller. Killing the soldier was the right thing to do, and Upham got the chance to honor Miller by doing so. Another theme is morality. A soldier does not have the ability to make moral choices for themselves usually when they become part of the war, because when one becomes part of an army, orders must be followed and morals must be pushed to the side in order to hopefully create a more humane world. When being a soldier, you have to kill men who individually did not deserve to die.

6.       Create a short, realistic alternate ending of the film that would change the whole message of the movie.

A realistic ending of the movie would be if Miller had been shot, but not killed. If he hadn’t died, the whole theme of the movie would have been different. It would have been a much happier ending, especially if Private Ryan's eyes in the beginning turned out to be Millers instead and he ended up alive.