This is part of an ongoing series on war movies and great lessons we can learn from them. Today we will be taking a look at a scene from what I consider one of the greatest war films ever made: Saving Private Ryan.
Setting: The Second World War
France, 1944. D-Day + 3
Three out of four Ryan brothers have died fighting in recent battles. The fourth, Private James Ryan, is currently somewhere in France fighting with the 82nd Airborne Division. Battlefield communications were shoddy at best, with mixed units gathering up and embarking on missions wherever fighting was needed. A Ranger Captain is assigned the mission of scouring the countryside and finding Private Ryan, with orders to bring him home. After several days of searching, the Rangers finally locate Private Ryan to give him the news.
Saving Private Ryan is a hard film to watch. It’s gritty realism is perhaps overdone, which is unfortunate since there is such depth in this film. My oldest son watched it on his own this year, and as we discussed it he immediately he keyed in on this scene as I hoped he would. A keen sense of ethical duty to fight it out with your brothers, whatever it is, is the definition of honor, and we need to encourage that — especially among young men who learn early on that packing it up and going home is always the easier option, but rarely the right one.
Are we going to take the easy way out and leave our companions to finish the task on their own? Are we going to let our emotions dictate whether or not we complete the mission? Or are we going to choose to stick it out, to absorb the grief and the pain, and do the hard thing because our brothers and sisters need us?/ We may have every excuse in the book to leave, but what if we stayed?
Full disclosure: I am not a veteran. But I have had brothers who’ve stood by me in a tough fight when they had every opportunity to leave. My guess is you have too, because not all battles are waged with bullets. We can dig down into that deep place of unity where the strength of the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts; we can charge forward in confidence knowing our brothers will be there to cover our six. If we fail, we’ll fail together — but it won’t be because we abandoned one another. And those of us who are left will know who to call on for the next fight.
Watch the full film on Amazon Prime Video.
Prior posts:
Black Hawk Down
Gettysburg