Fridge / Saving Private Ryan

Fridge Horror:

• Miller's last words to Ryan are actually quite terrible, when you think about it. Ryan never asked for the rescue mission, in fact he is vocal about not wanting it at all, and it only happens because all three of his brothers have died. And then he gets an enormous heap of survivor's guilt fodder laid upon him by [the dying captain of the team who were sent to save him (and the movie implied that he feels that kind of guilt already when he asks for the names of the two men who, at the time they first found him, had died for him). When we see him again as an old man we learn that he has suffered under this for the remainder of his life, specifically saying that he thinks about those words every day and wonders if Miller feels he has earned it. When he asks his wife (who seemed to recognize the name on the cross they were standing by, suggesting her husband told her about it) if he's lead a good life, and is a good man, she appears to have heard the question before. Miller effectively doomed Ryan to live the rest of his life plagued by the thought that he might not be worthy of their rescue.
• The flagrant killing of surrendering soldiers displayed by the 2nd Rangers will have disastrous consequences during the Nuremberg Trials. Some Nazis in real life were able to escape the death sentence by pointing out occasions during which the Allies committed the same crimes as them. The 2nd Rangers just turn themselves into a carte blanche for the Nazis to execute as many surrendering Allied soldiers as they want.
• The scene where the officer and priest roll up to Mrs. Ryan's front door is devastating enough. But remember; she was probably expecting one death notice. Not three. Plus the news that her last son is MIA.

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