Saving Private Ryan" and "Casualties of War" -- a Contrast of Two Wars

In our nation's history, there are no two more different wars than World War II and Vietnam. Our memories of World War II seem to be full of heroes, and the enemy was clearly evil. Heroes acted honorably and vanquished the enemy. It was easy to determine who won and lost a battle -- and the war. Our Vietnam experience is not so clear-cut. The heroes were not those who won battles, but informed on fellow soldiers about atrocities. Wars are never clean, but Vietnam was a particularly dirty little war.

Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat, dealing with the World War II Battle of Normandy. The film is particularly notable for the intensity of the scenes in its first twenty minutes or so, which depict the...
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