The Depiction Of Violence In The Hollywood Movie Saving Private Ryan

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject American Studies - Miscellaneous, grade: 2,0, University of Potsdam (Institut für Anglistik/Amerikanistik), language: English, abstract: This essay will begin with a short description of the Saving Private Ryan movie-plot, even though one must consider that this “film is not about its plot. It is about the war in Europe, and more deeply, about the value of human life.“ This has to be described so that one has a foundation when discussing selected substances of the movie. I will then outline the depiction of violence in the movie Saving Private Ryan especially in the highly praised opening scene of the film. The movie Saving Private Ryan (1998, Dream Works Pictures, directed by Steven Spielberg) begins with the screen-filling American flag flapping in the wind at a war cemetery somewhere in France and some time in the present. It continues with the main movie and the landing of American troops on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6th 1944, in Normandy, which is in the north of France. Captain Miller and his men land on the beach where the bloody battle against the Germans takes place. Meanwhile the staff in Washington realizes that three out of four Ryan family brothers died in combat. A mission of help is organized to find the last of the four brothers, James F. Ryan who was parachuted behind the enemy lines with the 101st Airborne division. Captain Miller, a literature teacher from Pennsylvania, and his eight elite soldiers get the mission to find Private Ryan and send him back to America. The soldiers are outraged when they discover what their mission will be. They do not understand why so many lives should be risked for the sake of just one. During their mission very personal talks tie them together as a team that can overcome all the mishaps of their journey through France. It is only later, by chance, that they find Private Ryan who is at a significant bridge in Merderet.