THE GUILT OF THEIR DEATHS
The movie "Saving Private Ryan" (1998) is a movie that many of us have seen and is quite a memorable movie because of its portrayal of the D Day invasion of Normandy in World War II. The movie begins and ends with an elderly man visiting the Normandy memorial. The elderly man flashes back to World War II where the majority of the movie takes place. The movie is about the search for the last brother of a family, Private Ryan, and the heroics that it takes to get him home safely. One by one the characters who have sought out this young man die. Towards the end of the movie, Tom Hanks’ character, as he dies, instructs Private Ryan to live his life to the fullest and to earn the life that was paid with by others. The end of the movie shows elderly Ryan surrounded by his children and grandchildren. Guilt is paramount on his face as he wonders if his life and the way he lived it earned meaning for the deaths of the men who died so that he might live. The guilt of their deaths weighed heavy on his heart his whole life.