: Study Questions: Week Six

Genre, Realism, and Stephen Spielberg.

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

1. What is the significance of the sequences in the American cemetery which frame the main plot of Saving Private Ryan? How does it comment on the legacy of D-Day and the sacrifices of men like Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks)?

2. The first 30 minutes of the film have been described as Hollywood's most realistic depiction of modern war. What, in your opinion, is the thematic significance of the extended sequence of violence and suffering?

3. In what way does Saving Private Ryan fit the conventions of the war film found in Heartbreak Ridge and films about WWII you have seen ?

4. In what ways does Tom Hanks' performance make Capt. Miller different from the typical Hollywood war hero? Why is Miller, who is the obvious hero of the film, never mentioned in the title? Why is Ryan mentioned?

5. Cpl. Upham (Jeremy Davies) quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson and Tennyson on the ability of war to build character in the participants. Are we to take his musings seriously or dismiss him as hopelessly naive? Why? Why not?

6. What are the motives for saving Private Ryan? Are they completely altruistic, or does Gen. Marshall (Harve Presnell) worry about public relations too?

7. Are the criticisms made by Miller's men in some ways justified? Consider the attack on the German gun emplacement. Why? Why not?

8. How does the defense of the bridge turn the mission of Miller and his men from the rescue of Pvt. Ryan into a classic climax of a war film? Consider the discussions of its crucial importance? Does this conventional ending seem at odds with the opening sequences on Omaha Beach? Why? Why not?

9. What is the meaning of Miller's final admonition to Ryan, "Earn it"? What does he mean, and how does it serve to relate the cemetery scenes to the War itself? Has Ryan "earned it"?

10. How does the emphasis on the heroism of the common men who fought World War II manage to suggest that the bleak assessments of American life in films such as Apocalypse Now or The Deer Hunter are not the final word on the country's future?