Saving Private Ryan Is Propaganda…
Anne Frankly It’s Insulting

*^{Saving Private Ryan made $480 Million, Spielberg Did Nazi That Coming}*

By Benjamin Chrollin | March, 2022

Saving Private Ryan was released in 1998 to immense praise for both the cast’s performances and writing, but to what cost? At release, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs created a dedicated outreach line for traumatized WWII survivors as the film was the most accurate depiction of war in modern cinema and set a new standard for more grounded and realistic war films. But how impactful is it after 25 years?

I was shocked to hear from my wife (Sherri) that her boyfriend enlisted in the US Marine Corps and was conscripted into the fighting force via Saving Private Ryan à la Clock Work Orange fashion. The drill instructors taped him and his comrades to chairs and forced them to watch the first 20 minutes or so over and over as they drip fed solution to their eyes. I was utterly shocked upon hearing this so I immediately requested to meet with him.

I finally met Usuf Horner who I was wary of at first, but my wife and our three children have told me nothing but great things about him. From his cooking, cleaning, helping with homework, and taking them all to see every MCU film at release (yuck), he has truly proven himself to be a man of honor. I naturally had to meet him so I offered an invitation to lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings to discuss his time in the service.

“So Usuf, what made you want to be a Marine?” He paused.
“Well, I don’t know. I was born in Nigeria and was looking for money so I just did it.”
“When exactly did you join?”
He glanced around the table. The trauma is evident as he forced the words, “Ummmm. I can’t talk about that.”
“Top secret?”
“Oh yes.”
“Well then, what was basic training like? Boot camp?”
“They beat us. They would yell and scream and punch.”
“From what I understand, you told Sherri that they’d force you guys to watch Saving Private Ryan? What was that like?” He was visibly nervous and on the verge of panic.
“Yes. That is true.”

Usuf Horner was once Sergeant Major First Class Horner in the Marine Corps. After 14 years of service, he recently retired amid a legal battle with the troubled branch as they were withholding his pay during a top-secret operation within Nigeria. He was stranded in his home country alone, destitute and abandoned by a nation he once fought so bravely for.

“How did Saving Private Ryan affect you? As a person. As a human?”
“Uh, I didn’t like the movie. Very violent.”
“Yeah, that’s right. But what about the representation? Rather, lack of black or LGBTQIA+ actors?”

He was stunned as if the revelation broke through his western-racial-normative standards of media representation.

Saving Private Ryan, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat is famous (or notorious), not just for its accurate depiction of violence, but also the lack of representation. In an era of cultural enlightenment, where cultural taboos and norms were tested with representation, Spielberg nor Rodat considered a single black character in all of the film. Hollywood is known for its anti-POC depictions in their features, but the lack of any POC representation is jarring and overtly racist.

Besides being an alleged racist, Steven Spielberg is also well-known for his lack of LGBTQIA+ representation in his films. Often cited as the “grandfather” of the short-lived (thankfully) homophobic “Super Straight” movement in 2021, his lack of representation has also incited other harmful affronts on the LGBTQIA+ community.

One such homophobic movement that Spielberg allegedly fueled purported to “cure the gay away” by presenting a recipe of likely lethal doses of various elements. Thallium and Tennessine as well as Plutonium, Sulfur and Silicon made up the movement’s “cure” as well as their anagram name, TiTs & PuSSi.

The complete lack of both LGBTQIA+ and POC representation in his works can and should be considered one thing, gaycist. Unfortunately, gaycism has proven to be very profitable in modern American cinema.
With a budget of $70 million, Saving Ryan’s Privates went on to make $482.3 million, aiding America’s perpetual capitalist murder machine of war crimes. I was shocked to see these numbers as this will, (undoubtedly) spur on a Saving Private Ryan 2 as the machine must always be fueled.

“After joining, what did they have you do?”
“I was a fighter pilot and special forces.”
“So what did that entail?”
He murmured through the answer as he took a sip of his Pepsi, no ice. I was beginning to strum a nerve.
“What I really find incredible about your story is that you’re also a descendent of Nigerian royalty who then immigrated to the US after joining the Marines? That’s so inspiring!”
“Oh, yes, yes.”
“Luckily you reached out to Sherri for help!”

The capitalist war machine almost took another life. That is until, my sweet wife, Sherri volunteered to help. While on leave and abandoned, Usuf attempted to regain control of his vast estate only for the local government to withhold his wealth. That’s when out of desperation, he reached out to Sherri via Facebook for help with a promise of recouping her paying her back a thousand times over once the estate was cleared. Soon after, they became friends until she decided to co-sign for his visa to the US.

“So the Marine Corps forced the trainees to watch violent film scenes?”
“Oh, yeah. Yeah, they did.”
“Tell me about it? What did they say? The drill instructors?”
“They’d tell us to look at it, beat us if we turned away, and bring out a dummy to reenact the scenes.”
“Oh my gosh! That sounds just awful!” At this point, I was fighting back tears.

Usuf later went on to say they’d be strapped to a chair for 12 hours a day, forced to watch other various violent movies such as Cannibal Holocaust (1980), Death Spa (1989) as well as various PETA animal rights media.

Of those bits of violent media, Saving Private Ryan continues to sit at the forefront of America’s violent consciousness. Many new ultra-violent war films have come and gone but few have generated as much wealth for the billionaires to use as recruiting tools for the poor. Hacksaw Ridge (2016) filmed had only a budget of $40 million but pulled in $180 million. It was originally thought to be a more contemporary marketing tool for mass murderers but proved to not be as much of financial success as Spielberg’s outing thus, long-forgotten.

All in all, I’m very proud of Usuf and am thankful for his presence in our family. He bravely survived the Marine Corps, defied all odds, and became among the highest ranking within the Department of Defense and is soon to be very successful in his home of Nigeria. He is a true patriot and epitomizes the “American Dream.”