25 years of Saving Private Ryan

In the summer of 1998, Steven Spielberg released the WWII set drama Saving Private Ryan. The movie tells the story of a squad of rangers sent into German-occupied France after D-Day to rescue the surviving brother after his other three were killed in combat in both theaters of war, including one on Omaha Beach and another on Utah Beach. 

The movie was well-received as Spielberg and those involved with the project extensively interviewed veterans who experienced D-Day and the days and weeks following. He knew that he had to be true to the opening scene and it paid off. Some veterans couldn’t handle watching the Omaha Beach scene, which took up the first 25 minutes of the film, as it triggered their PTSD and memories of losing a brother in arms.

His masterpiece was the second-highest-grossed movie of the year. It would propel Spielberg to winning Best Director, yet it would lose the Best Picture Oscar to Shakespeare in Love the following year.

The film correlates some Catholic themes that resonate well in our everyday devotion. It tells the story of sacrifice and how it is earned.

The Pieta and Private Ryan’s Mother

When we look at the Pieta, we see the Blessed Mother holding a crucified Jesus who expired on the cross. Likewise, the sorrowful scene when the mother of the Ryan brothers sees an Army car approach her house with four telegrams is equivalent to what Mary experienced on Good Friday. As she exits the house and stands on the porch, she falls on her knees the moment an officer is ready to enter the home, delivering the tragic news of her three sons' death and her fourth reported missing in action, possibly dead. 

Robert Rodat, the screenwriter of the film and winner of the Oscar for Best Screenplay, remarked that “The idea of losing a son to war is painful beyond description ... the idea of losing more than one son is inconceivable."

Sacrifice

The main theme of the film was how eight soldiers, survivors of the D-Day invasion, would put everything on the line to save one man. Two men would be killed before Pvt. Ryan was found. Only two members would survive to complete the mission against all odds. As Jesus said in the Gospel of John, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13). For the eight men of the squad, they didn’t know Pvt. James Ryan, yet they put their lives on the line to ensure his survival.

Even the beginning and end of the film show us what the price of sacrifice looks like when an older Ryan came upon the squad leader’s gravestone in a cemetery in France with his family.

Without sacrifice, there is no love.

Brotherhood

King Henry V had a line that reads, “The man who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother; however humble he may be, this day will elevate his status.”

Pvt. Ryan had a bond with his fellow squad members in his unit when they jumped into the breach. He even made a bigger one with the six men who were ready to relieve him. He even said to Capt. Miller that he was willing to fight and die with the only “brothers that he had left”.

Like the soldiers that fought and died for each other, we must stand side by side with our fellow man as we embark on our faith journey. Every person we will encounter while we live is our sibling in Christ. Our job is to help them strive for the rewards of heaven.

Earn it

Tom Hanks could easily go down with the famous last line of the film. As the Rangers and Ryan’s fellow paratroopers just barely hold off the German’s advancement, Captain Miller sustains multiple injuries. He would tell Ryan, “Earn this. Earn it”. It is profound yet often misunderstood.

What Miller was telling this soldier is to live a life brought forth by the sacrifice of those who saved him. The main message is to give back to those who helped us earn our freedoms that have often been taken for granted.

For us, Catholics, we have a duty to earn the rewards of heaven by fulfilling works of mercy, praying our rosary, daily meditations, and all things that help fill us with the wisdom of God. We also earn it by encountering those around us with pity, gentleness, and compassion.

This is a must-watch movie even if one can get through the gory opening of the film. Hanks and Spielberg had outstanding chemistry in the film. It really shows as they would go on to do two miniseries based on the experiences of many pivotal heroes of World War II in both theaters with a third miniseries set to be released soon on AppleTV+.