Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan

Introduction

The film begins with the Allied invasion in Normandy on June 6, 1944.American soldiers on Omaha Beach struggling against entrenched German infantry, machine gun nests. The officer John H. Miller, one of the few who survived the attack, gathers his soldiers and tries to destroy the German defenses. Finally they succeed and get off the beach. Meanwhile, U.S. General George C. Marshall reported that three of the four brothers Ryan have died of war and the mother will receive three telegrams that day of death. The only brother left alive was James Francis Ryan Baker Company, the 506 ° Parachute Infantry Regiment, which is listed as missing after the battle of Normandy. So General Marshall ordered to find Private Ryan and send him home as soon as possible. Captain Miller is assigned the mission of finding and bringing together a group of eight soldiers. The soldiers questioned the purpose of the mission and think it's a waste of time and resources. 

Discussion

In the film a group of eight people travelled across the fettle battle field France to search and bring home one man, Ryan. This decision naturally brought up a conflict among the group of soldiers as it seemed to be waste and risky to send and put lives of eight men in danger for the sake of one soldier. Nonetheless on the other hand it was Ryan who had already lost three brothers in this war and his mother was going through traumatic experience and the loss of fourth son would had been devastating for her. Dispatch of Ryan to his home is presented as a service by United States government. It is important to know that, at the end of the film, six out of eight men died even before they were able to send Ryan back to his home. In this essay, the obvious question that whether war is worth, it is tried to determine that whether the life on one soldier worth risking the lives of eight men and whether it was ethical to send those men on that mission or not. For this subject, the topic will be approached by the ethical schools of Utilitarianism and Duty Ethics.

Utilitarianism is a philosophy which addresses the cause and effect and also measure whether an action is right or justified by calculating the good and bad consequences that must be considered while making a decision. If the ending validates the means, then according to Utilitarianism the action is ethically acceptable though it is not important to be always right. Actions are measured by happiness and pleasure pit beside the sadness and pain. It means that Bentham was measuring the pleasure of one mother against the misery and pain of six other mothers. He also wanted life of one man against the loss of six lives. If we use Bentham's methodology then it is apparent that it was not right to save the life of Ryan. Utilitarianism has other forms also that are Act Utilitarianism and Duty Utilitarianism which focus on the action and the cause ...