What really goes on in a war zone.

               A close-up of beach obstacles fill the screen. An amphibious vehicle filled with soldiers approaches the war zone. An anonymous captain nervously and slowly drinks some water before the battle ahead. Fear and stress fog up his eyes. The boat commander blares out, “30 seconds, God be with you!”. Before the soldiers react, the ramp swings down and half the soldiers on the vehicle are dead. The remaining soldiers struggle to exit through the side of the boat, to evade the on looking machine gun. Many men struggle to swim with their heavy equipment, several of them die. A captain crawls out from the blood drenched water. The shot zooms into his face. A face of terror. He watches the ongoing horror of soldiers struggling to stay alive, some failing to do so. He throws on his helmet, now filled with blood. A private under his rank looks him dead in the face. He screams the words “What now sir?!”.

            The first time I watched Saving Private Ryan, I was in my Car with my Dad when he decided to show me this movie. I was interested by the title since at the time; it had a positive feel to it, since I was used to films like Black Hawk Down. The scene I just described above stunned me when I first saw it. I was traumatized when I saw the movie’s gritty portrayal of war, the death of so many men in minutes. I wasn’t used to it. Never before was I subjected to a movie where so much of the scene was men dying in such horrific manners. After that car ride, my view on war films changed. I would always reply the scene again and again in my head, recalling the helpless moments the movie portrayed, such as when a medic’s dying patient was shot in the head, or a dying soldier screaming while grasping his intestines. My entire view of a good war film changed.  

            The aspect that really got my attention was the way the whole scene was portrayed. When captain Miller was swam out of the blood drenched waters, the camera zoomed in to his face in a way that made you know exactly what emotion he was feeling, fear. The whole scene of the invasion of Omaha beach was done in a way that made me feel how war really was, that in the end everyone is just going to try to survive and follow orders, no one is going to be a hero. The portrayal of how everyone struggled to stay alive in the scene gave me a realistic view on war.

            Overall, this film surprised me the first time I watched it. I thought it would be just another regular war film, but many elements of the movie and its design caused me to raise my standard for a great war film. A lot of the form, quality, and content amazed me, and it is truly one of the best films I’ve ever watched.