*Saving Private Ryan*

Motifs
Light and Dark- The difference between the right and wrong thing to do. For example, when they are at the sand bunker and Wade dies, they don't kill the remaining German. They let him walk at the end.
Noise and Silence- A French woman is singing when they are at the bridge, well they are listening to a record, but as soon as the Germans come, the song stops playing.
Clean and Dirty- When the first man dies in their regiment (the soldier with the little girl who reminds him of his niece), he has a letter that Wade takes out of his hand. By this time, the letter is all bloody, so Wade decides to rewrite it when they have a 3 hour break in the church. Youth and Maturity- The corperal represents youth in the begining because he is only a translator and by the end of the movie, he shoots someone.

Symbols
Flag- the flag represents what they are fighting for.
Dead Soldier- Wade is the dead soldier. Miller made a comment about if you kill one, you save 10 or 20 times as many.
Miller's Hand- I think that his hand, when it was shaking, represented that he still had a mission to take care of. That mission was to find Private Ryan. Then, when he is shot at the end, his hand stops shaking. He had done what he was put on the earth to do. To be a hero.

Theme
Courage- It takes a lot of courage for the soldiers to risk their lives to save one soldier. This all goes back to the kill one, save 10 or 20 times as many.
Manhood- The corperal reaches his manhood at the end of the movie when he finally kills the German soldier that killed another soldier in his regiment.
Self-Preservation- They were doing anything they could to keep themselves alive, like killing other soldiers.
Disregard for human life- Well in order for them to stay alive, they had to kill others. They didn't realize that they were killing others who were also going through self-preservation.