"Saving Private Ryan" is one of those films I will stop and watch whenever it pops up on the schedule. It rolled recently as part of programming looking back on June 6, 1944 and D-Day. As I was seeking something other than the usual sitcoms and reality shows, something more substantial, I stopped and came in around mid-film. Nothing was really missed, as I have a personal copy of the movie and can watch it at any time. Even so, the clicker stopped right there. It is one of the most powerful films of this, or any generation, and while the story is based on fact yet remains a storyteller's version of that time, it remains a gripping and sometimes terrible reminder of what it took to save the lives of millions..
Near the end, there is a bloody battle at what was referred to as the "Alamo" Bridge in the fictional town of Ramelle. While the entire scene was a piece of Hollywood brilliance, it was based on an actual war occurrence that took place along the river Merderet in Normandy. Near the end of the battle, Captain John Miller, played by Tom Hanks, is wounded and dying. His final moments are witnessed by James Ryan, played by Matt Damon, the man Miller's unit was charged with finding and returning home.
Miller, with his final breaths of life, pulls Ryan close and whispers to him, "Earn this. Earn it".
The lights go out and Miller is gone. For those who wish to relive it in context of our conversation, or for the 7 people who have never seen the movie, here's that clip from the film. The scene I've referenced is around the :40 second mark.
As Ryan is taken back to that terrible day, he is once again hearing those words and left to wonder. As a much older man now, he suffers a moment of self-doubt and asks not just himself, but his wife, if he indeed "earned it".
Here, 80 years away from moments in time such as that one, where selfless men surrendered their lives and dreams to conquer an unspeakable evil, those words almost ring hollow. For as we soon bid farewell to every individual who saved the world, the numbers of those who were actually there dwindling rapidly, I often wonder if we are capable of earning their sacrifice.
I wonder if we are, in the present, just throwing it all away as nothing more than fading history.
With what is happening right now here in America, have we failed to take that sacrifice and make the world a better place? Have we remained steadfast in wiping tyranny from our lives, or have we embraced the chaos as we descend into ruin? Do we find ourselves running into the arms of arrogance and greed, fearful of facing that moment where we must prove to ourselves that we have "earned it"?
Have we wasted the effort of all the Millers and Ryans, many of whom are now part of the landscape in their final resting place? Were it not for them, imagine how very different this world would be. Imagine what your life would be like, and the decisions you would have laid before you. That is, if you were even here. Without those who gave everything to make the world a better place, we may have never been born and given the chance.
Most important, if we are wasting that effort, what are we doing to prove we are still, and always will be, in their debt?
Do we have the bravery, the courage, the fortitude necessary to make good on their simple admonition?
Perhaps those words need to be spoken to us all.
"Earn it".
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