The classic that must be mentioned in war movies is the big director Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan", and the extremely realistic and bloody Omaha Beach landing scene at the beginning of the movie still shocks many people who have seen it.
More than a decade ago, I watched this classic war movie, but as a young man, I really couldn't understand the meaning.
At that time, I thought that except for the scene at the beginning of the Omaha Beach landing that exposed the cruelty of war to us, the rest was undoubtedly a heroic story that embodied the glory of humanity in war.
The group of eight sacrificed themselves to save Ryan, a soldier they had never met before, and after finding Ryan, they also helped to guard the bridge together.
Captain Miller fought bravely and bravely until the moment he died.
But years later, when I revisited the film, I realized that the subject matter was not so simple.
In fact, it was a downright anti-war movie.
The grand scene that begins with a bloody storm is only a symptom.
The director only uses this most intuitive picture to pull the audience directly into that cruel war era, so that we can feel the cruelty of war in the first place.
The latter part of the film is the essence, and the director tells us through the warriors with very different personalities and one plot after another:
The most cruel thing in war is not only physical death, but also spiritual destruction.
For example, among these eight characters, the audience hates the iron and steel character - Urban.
My husband, on the way to watch the movie with me, saw Urban shrinking on the stairs and did not dare to shoot, did not dare to resist, did not dare to go upstairs to save his comrades- and could not help but scold a "coward".
We all felt he was a coward because we were on the battlefield.
And the director is to pull us into the "war" and make us unconsciously forget the universal values in it.
For when we look out of the war, Urban is nothing more than a young man with good intentions.
In the face of the prisoners' pleas, Urban could not bear to kill the other party, because in his heart the enemy was also a big living person with flesh and blood and parents.
He didn't dare to kill, and he didn't want to kill.
His "cowardice" is forged by universal values.
Such values, on the battlefield, are completely unsuitable.
War is a game of your life and death.
So in the end the director arranged a satirical scene.
When Urban witnessed the prisoners of war he had begged Captain Miller to save him to return to the German army and shoot and kill Captain Miller, his heart changed completely.
Urban, who had been walking past him and did not dare to shoot, took the initiative to walk to the prisoner of war he had saved, pulled the trigger, and killed the prisoner of war mercilessly.
Perhaps from this moment on, he will no longer be a coward.
Because the original universal values have been completely erased by the baptism of war, all that remains is hatred for the enemy.
Opposite Urban is the heroic and courageous captain Miller.
When the eight-man squad finally broke through the enemy's defenses but resulted in the death of the medic Wade, Captain Miller revealed his pre-war identity.
Once again, his monologue shows that even Captain Miller, who looks upright, has long been erased by the war.
In his monologue, he said:
If he doesn't release the answer, it's hard for the audience to guess that he was a teacher before the war, right?
Wash your helmet with seawater that has been dyed red, and there is no fear in your eyes.
The adhesion bomb invented by the commander directly blew up the enemy tank.
When the squad encounters the enemy's lurking sniper, he still calmly presses the soldiers as he watches his subordinates die little by little.
Because in his heart, the original values have long since disintegrated, replaced by faith suitable for war.
The 94 men were merely subordinates who had died under his command, and did not count the enemies killed and the people who suffered.
On the battlefield, wrong and right, right and wrong, are no longer important.
Even human life is no longer important, and there is only one thing left: obedience.
Whether it is to save people or to kill people, as long as it is a task entrusted by the superior, just obey.
There's a lot of talk on the web about whether it's worth it to risk eight people to save one person.
But for them in war, whether it is worth it or not is no longer within the scope of consideration.
Completing the task and going home early became their only hope.
For this hope, even if 80 people, 800 people are sent to save one person, they have to obey.
But who doesn't want to go home?
Perhaps the prisoners of war who ran back to the German army to attack the United States were not ungrateful, but hoped that they could complete the task of destroying the enemy as soon as possible and then go home.
From another point of view, all the people on the battlefield are equally cruel.
When the two Czechs who were forced to participate in the German battle raised their hands in surrender and shouted: "Please don't kill me, I'm not German, I'm Czech, I haven't killed anyone, I'm Czech!" The American soldiers still beat the two Czechs to death between jokes.
So the abominable war, which is not only cruel in itself, but also hijacks the minds of people who are looking forward to returning home, turning them into cruel warriors as well.
Perhaps from the perspective of a certain nation, war has created one hero after another.
But from the perspective of all mankind, there are no heroes in war.