Title: Saving Private Ryan
Writer: Robert Rodat
Director: Steven Spielberg
Actors: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore
Year Released: 1998
-Summarize the story and plot of your chosen movie.
Story- This is a story about four brothers that were in the Army and fought during D-Day in the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944. The Army finds out that 3 of the 4 brothers were Killed in Action (KIA) and that there was the last brother that was still out there. So the Army Chief of Staff decides to send in a team to find him and bring him home to his mother.
Plot- After the Chief of Staff heard about the 3 out of 4 brothers were KIA and that the mother was notified about them all on the same day. He took it upon himself to try and bring back her last son. The Army Chief of Staff, George C. Marshall sent an 8 man team to find Private (Pvt) Ryan which was the last brother the mother had left. Captain (Capt) Miller (Tom Hanks) who was with the 2nd Ranger Battalion was tasked to compose a team and to find this Pvt. After they all had landed on the beach after a very gruesome battle is when Capt Miller began to put together his 8 man team. They all started off by trying to find out who each other were and a very good attempt to find out where the Capt was from and what he did for a living before the war.
As the team moves through Normandy searching for Pvt. Ryan they encounter some resistance from the enemy and a few battles that take place. After losing a member of their team they start to question if this 1 guy is worth all of their time to find him. The team starts to become very frustrated with making several attempts to find Pvt. Ryan and in doing do start to fight amongst each other. Finally Capt Miller breaks down and tells them his profession and where he was from bringing the entire team together.
Finally they gather some intelligence of where the Pvt. was located and the unit he was fighting with. The team moves to try and find him and on the way encounter an enemy tank that is coming onto them. They move quickly move into position to conduct an ambush on it, before they can strike the tank gets fired upon by another unit then they both end up ambushing the tank and meet up. As they begin to question the unit they accidentally run into Pvt. Ryan, the long lost son. The Capt tells him what has happened and they show that his unit embraces him and they are his brothers at the time he is fighting with. They Capt orders him to leave and he kindly says no because they were on a mission to hold down a bridge and they could not dessert their post. They only had a few soldiers left at that time. So after realizing the significance of what was important to him and the mission the team joins together with the other unit Pvt. Ryan was with to support their mission.
At the end they encounter the enemy and spring a great ambush on them and almost destroy the enemy moving in on their position. They were far outnumbered and fought back into the bridge and at all costs they would have to blow the bridge so no enemy could cross it. As they get pushed back over the bridge and right before they get ready to blow the bridge the air support arrives and destroys the enemy. Capt Miller fights to protect Pvt. Ryan and in doing do gets wounded and dies at the end protecting what meant so dearly to Pvt. Ryan’s mother.
Discuss whether your film is presented chronologically or non-linearly. In your discussion, address the following:
How did this aesthetic choice contribute to the general effect on the audience?
How are elements like character development or foreshadowing impacted by the choice of storytelling methods?
The film was presented in chronological order for the most part. In the beginning it begins with an old man and his family at a National Cemetery. Then it goes from that into D-day, then at the end it rolls back to show that the old man was Pvt. Ryan and it was hoping that he had a meaningful life. This effect contributed greatly in that the old man in the beginning had a family and grandchildren and looked to have a very successful life. At the end when we finally see that the old man was Pvt. Ryan and he asked his wife if he had led a meaningful life after soldiers had died trying to reach him.
The elements of the story telling led to becoming closer to the group and bringing a bunch of guys that really never had been together grow as a unit and leaned to enjoy each. If there was not a story line I think it would have been more of a documentary of the war and we as the viewers would not grow to like the characters as much as a story method.
If the film had followed a different presentation style, how would the general effect on the audience have been different?
The general effect of the audience would have had been just a slight difference if the story would have had just a linear presentation because the begging and the end of the story was not that huge of an impact on the movie.
The Cult Box (1998) Saving Private Ryan. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwhP5b4tD6g
michaelgonzales25 