Josh Benner

Memorial Day – and the Saving Private Ryan character we struggle not to become

I hope that you’re all having a meaningful Memorial Day. As we observe holidays throughout the year there are movies that become associated with them. For Christmas, there’s an entire season of Christmas movies.At Thanksgiving, It’s a Wonderful Life is associated with the season. At Easter, it’s resurrection movies like Ten Commandments and the Passion of the Christ. 

One of the great movies that I’ve come to associate with Memorial Day weekend is Saving Private Ryan. As a fan of the military film genre, Saving Private Ryan is my favorite. I love the characters, the performances, the story, the themes. 

For men especially, I think that war movies speak to something inside of us. There’s a warrior spirit. There’s the desire to want to be the hero, to want to have valor. But in some ways, the character in the movie who men struggle against becoming is Timothy Upham (played by Jeremy Davies). 

When Captain Miller is putting a team together to go and search for the missing Private Ryan, he needs someone with them who can translate. Upham speaks both German and French. In this regard, he’s helpful, though he offers little aid for his military skills. In one of the most dramatic scenes of the movie, Mellish, one of Upham’s comrades, is in a fierce hand to hand combat situation against a German soldier. Upham is standing in a stairwell, paralyzed with fear. He does nothing to intervene when he could have saved Mellish in that situation. Ultimately Mellish is killed in the struggle. When the German soldier who has just killed Mellish leaves the building, he sees Upham cowering fear and crying. The soldier walks right past him. 

It’s easy to think that we’d be the hero, to think we wouldn’t be the man standing frozen in the stairwell. I think of the various domains of our lives. Being men, being husbands, going to work, growing in faith, leading families.

It’s easy to be the hero in our own mind. It’s easy to be a hero, philosophically. In that, I mean that it’s easy to have the ideas and knowledge of what’s heroic, noble, and valorous. But actually executing on those fronts is the challenge. It’s what separates the common people from the uncommon. It’s what separates the everyman from the superman. We don’t effortlessly become great. If we did, everyone would be great and do great things. It takes real sacrifice, humility, and character. I know these are things that I fail to live up to all too often. 

It’s easy to recognize greatness and know what it takes. It’s a lot harder to pursue greatness which requires actually doing what it takes. It’s easy to be a bystander, it’s easy to be afraid. 

In the movie, Upham isn’t portrayed as a bad man. But he’s also not a great man. There is a scene later in the film where he shoots a German soldier. But in the moment that really counts, he’s standing frozen in a stairwell when he’s needed most. 

Remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice 

On Memorial Day, we do honor hundreds of thousands of brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.

AMERICAN REVOLUTION – 25,000
WAR OF 1812 – 15,000
CIVIL WAR – 364,511
WORLD WAR I – 116,516
WORLD WAR II – 405,399
KOREAN WAR – 36,516
VIETNAM – 58,209
AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ – 6,713

To the hundreds of thousands of men and women who gave their lives in the service and defense of America, thank you.

Originally published May 25, 2020

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Comments

2 responses to “Memorial Day – and the Saving Private Ryan character we struggle not to become”

  1. Gene Hofbauer Avatar
    Gene Hofbauer

    We watched that film, my grandsons at that time had played video war games not thinking of the consequence of war. That movie changed their way as to perceive what war is really like. I’m proud to say they both have served in the USAF. Joe the youngest wanted to follow in his big brothers footsteps into serving. He decided one tour was enough. His older brother a captain is serving as a drone pilot who will in a few years have his 20 years of service and will qualify him for retirement.. I as you i thought that was one of the better movies in that it changed the minds and attitudes of many young people..

    Reply
    1. the Josh Benner Blog Avatar
      the Josh Benner Blog

      That’s so interesting. I’ve seen some people criticize that movie for glorifying war. I’ve never really felt that it does. Sounds like your grandsons don’t either. I think it gives a small glimpse into how harrowing and terrifying it can be. Certainly that opening Normandy sequence might be the most famous movie scene of battle ever. I don’t think that glorifies war. I think one of the goals was to be faithful in trying to depict what it was like. Although obviously a movie can never truly come close to the real thing. I once saw a YouTube video of a man who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroism on D-Day and he said to multiple that scene by 100, and that’s what the real thing was like.

      It gives me tremendous respect for those who had to endure that.

      One more interesting thing. I watched a feature from when Saving Private Ryan was made. The actors talked about how hard it was just to film that opening sequence. It was so loud, and chaotic, and they had controlled expositions, and blanks. And even though they knew it was just acting, they talked about how much more appreciation that gave them for the men who had been in the actual battle because just filming the movie scene was so incredibly intense and unnerving. I know that when they filmed, they sought out extras who were missing limbs and so they had some of those guys made up with fake blood to look like they had lost body parts and it all felt pretty realistic to the actors.

      Reply

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