December 12: George Orwell, "England Your England," Rupert Brooke, "The Soldier," Saving Private Ryan, Platoon (pick one question)

1. Saving Private Ryan is about the exploits of a small group of soldiers whose mission is to "rescue" just one man, Private Ryan, during the initial days of the Normandy invasion in WWII. Yet, as even some of the characters in the film themselves suggest, the idea of risking several men to save the life of one seems ridiculous, especially in the middle of a war in which thousands are dying every day. What is the value of one individual life? What are the motives of the higher ups who send Captain Miller and his squad to search for Private Ryan? What drives the men on in that search? What is Ryan's reaction when they finally find him? What are his obligations, as the one who is being "saved"? Why does the film begin and end with Ryan as an old man? What is the message we are meant to take home about the nature of the sacrifice and of the effort to rescue Private Ryan? Discuss the mission to "save" Private Ryan and its ethical and moral implications, for the generals who created the mission, and/or the soldiers who must carry it out, and/or Private Ryan himself in Saving Private Ryan.

2. Platoon is about the exploits of a small group of soldiers in Vietnam who arguably don't have a specific mission. As in Saving Private Ryan, the film depicts tensions among individual soldiers, but in Platoon, the clashes between the GIs are as intense and divisive as the clashes with their supposed enemy. Why are these soldiers, who are all supposed to be on the same side, so contentious and divided? What happened to the intense bond that combat is supposed to instill among fighting men? What are some of the reasons, personal, political, or social, that divide the men? Why don't the two sergeants, Elias and Barnes, get along? What sort of values does each men represent in the film? Why does one man kill the other? What is the message we are meant to take home about the clashes between the American fighting men and the nature of the "bond of brotherhood" that combat is supposed to instill? Discuss the conflict between American soldiers, their motives and outcomes, in Platoon.

3. Saving Private Ryan and Platoon are both contemporary Hollywood films about the American war experience, but they are also about two different wars: WWII and Vietnam. How do the treatments of war and the experience of Americans in both films reflect differing attitudes in American culture today about our involvement in these two wars? How does each film make a larger statement about the value, outcome, and significance of each of the wars they depicts? How do the behaviors of individual soldiers differ? How do the ultimate aims of America's war effort depicted differently in the film? What are the "lessons" of each war for America now or in the future? Both films are rather honest in their depiction of the horrors of war and the moral ambiguity combat behavior, but could one film be said to be more "upbeat," more positive about the "value" of war to the country or to the individuals who fought in it? Compare/contrast Saving Private Ryan and Platoon and discuss how both films are shaped by, or help shape, American attitudes about the country's involvment in WWII vs. Vietnam.