Daily Dialogue — September 3, 2016

Captain Miller: Private, your outfit wants to stay, that’s one thing. Your party’s over here.
Private Ryan: Sir, I can’t leave until at least reinforcements come — 
Captain Miller: You’ve got three minutes to gather your gear.
Private Ryan: Sir, what about them, there’s barely, hardly any — 
Private Reiben: [shouts at Private Ryan] Hey asshole! Two of our guys died trying to find you, all right?

Private Ryan [looks at Miller]: Sir?
Captain Miller: That’s right.

Ryan moves toward the others in the squad.

Private Ryan: What were their names?
Private Mellish: Irwin Wade and Adrian Carpazo.
Private Ryan: Wade and…
Private Mellish: Carpazo.

Ryan walks off to be by himself.

Private Ryan: It doesn’t make any sense. [turns to others] It doesn’t make any sense, sir. Why? Why do I deserve to go? Why not any of these guys? They all fought just as hard as me.
Captain Miller: Is that what they’re suppose to tell your mother when they send her another folded American flag?
Private Ryan: Tell her that when you found me I was here and I was with the only brothers that I have left and that there was no way I was gonna desert them. I think she’ll understand that. There’s no way I’m leaving this bridge.

— Saving Private Ryan (1998), written by Robert Rodat

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Blame.

Trivia: All the principal actors, except for Matt Damon, underwent several days of grueling army training. Damon was spared so that the other actors would resent him and would convey that resentment in their performances.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Blame is a sub-current which runs throughout a majority of this movie. Once the squad loses two of its soldiers to get Ryan to safety, they blame him for their deaths as well as their predicament. They resent him. And here we see the first inkling that Ryan casts some blame on himself, one of the motivators for why he insists on staying on the bridge to fight against the Germans.