War

Last night my husband and I sat down to watch Saving Private Ryan. My 12 yr old has been begging to watch it ever since a fellow history buff friend of his was given the privilege and filled my son in on the blow by blow events of the movie. So I promised to preview it, since I had never seen it before. The library here had a copy in yesterday, so I checked it out, fully intending to let my oldest 2 boys watch it over the weekend. My husband popped it in the player last night, even though we were tired and ready to crash after putting the kids down.

"Just watch the first 15 minutes and you'll know whether you want them to see this or not."

45 minutes later I finally peeled myself off the couch and turned it off. "Definitely not."

I knew this movie had a lot of explicit images of warfare and death, but I wasn't prepared for the extremity. While watching bodies blown through the air, the beach stained with blood, medics stuffing guts back in stomachs, and a dazed soldier picking up his arm and walking away, I was in a state of disbelief. How much of this was poetic license? How could someone survive and continue to function, let alone continue to fight in combat or to run into enemy territory to save a fellow soldier, after experiencing such a bloodbath?

There aren't very many World War II veterans left. Their stories are being lost.

And I haven't seen that many flags flying at halfmast today in honor of September 11. I'm ashamed to admit we don't have a flag pole ourselves, just a little flag windsock.

Despite the revulsion at warfare this movie induces, I don't believe we'll ever live in a time where there isn't a war being fought somewhere. Human nature is just too easily provoked to anger. I want peace for all mankind, too, but believe we'll only find it in when the brutish part of our nature is dead. Is the hunt for Private Ryan redemptive? I guess I'll have to watch the rest of the movie tonight.

Aside from the graphic imagery of the movie, imagery that imprints on the brain in a way that written descriptions don't, there is another reason why we decided this movie was inappropriate for our kid. His father is deploying in a few months to a country where bombs are blowing arms off, and guts are splayed open, and people are shot in the head. We thought this war would be long over before his turn to go came up, and now we're kind of thankful that he's having a chance to do his duty, and to give some of these other servicepeople a chance to go home. We feel a little guilty for not having to had to make the sacrifice yet.

I know modern warfare is a lot cleaner than it used to be, and I fully expect that my husband will return home safely in six or seven months, but I don't need to be putting out nightmares every night he's gone. I'm sure there will be enough without watching movies like this. Thanks to all those other wives who have comforted their children in the middle of the night during their father's absence.


And for those we remember today:
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.