On the last day of my AP U.S History class, we watched a movie called "Saving Private Ryan," and simply put, it was one of the most beautiful movies I have ever watched for so many different reasons. Before I jump into the details, here's a little housekeeping on the background of the film.

The movie was shot back in 1998 with stars actors like Matt Damon and Tom Hanks. The film was actually partially based on a true story on the Niland Brothers who served in WWII. The story follows a group of men who have just landed on Omaha Beach (part of the D-Day landings) and have now been assigned another mission to find a man named James Ryan, who has been ordered back home because his remaining three brothers were killed in action. The problem is that no one knows where James Ryan is because his whereabouts after parachuting down in the Normandy invasion are unknown.

Unlike most wartime movies, this one was different for so many reasons, making it a classic that will never get old in the generations to come. There are seven specific themes the movie painted that proves "Saving Private Ryan" is the best wartime reenactment film of all time.

The following article contains movie spoilers.

1. The horrors of war were disgustingly accurate.

The first 30 minutes of the movie is almost no dialogue — except the screams and yells of the soldiers who have just landed on Normandy Beach on June 6, 1944.

Before I watched this movie, every year I would walk out of social studies class learning the same thing. Names of wars, names of battles and the names of famous wartime generals. We would be overloaded on statistics of the number of deaths that occurred during each war, but even with those numbers in mind, nothing can prepare you for the first half hour of the movie.

Everyone knows that the "victorious" D-Day landings are one of the few battles that led to the Allies' victory, but few can imagine the horrors the men had to encounter when they landed on the coast of France. With German guns constantly raining down on them, the movie accurately paints the D-Day landings and, rest assured, it does not hold back on the gore, dead bodies and organs.

The movie shows some soldiers holding onto other soldiers for their dear lives while other men hide behind dead bodies. Most men aren't even given the chance to fight or live because as their boats land on the beach, they are met with immediate gun fire. There are several scenes that show dead men bulleted in several areas and live men whose insides have now come out. No words can describe the horrid accuracy of this part of the movie.

2. The inner psychological battles showed the dark side of men.

There is a point in the movie where the captain shows pity on a POW and releases him, rather than killing him for killing one of their men. This causes a huge rift between the American team, to the point where one of them plans on deserting the group for bad leadership and another pulls a gun on the one trying to desert them.

It happens all so quickly, but that's what makes it so special. Men, who are close friends because they only have each other on the battlefield, turning their backs on one another because they don't agree on something. Because it happens so quickly, it depicts the dark side of men. It shows how quickly mankind's dark side can take over and how quickly one can turn on those they cherish.

Seeing that the setting is during war, it makes it more sense that their bad side takes over since they're already fighting a physical battle with the enemy, but with those physical battles comes the psychological battles of trauma and abuse that eventually brings out one's bad side.

3. Painting the enemy as, oddly enough, human.

There is a part in the movie when we see the group of American men interact with a German POW they have just captured. Their enemy has just killed one of their men, and understandably, the rest of the group are beyond angry, forcing their enemy to bury the body as mentioned in the scene above. They abuse him, yell at him, don't allow him water breaks, among other things. Interestingly enough, when watching these scenes, you'll feel extreme pity for the POW because of the way he reacts.

You can see the fear in his eyes every time one of the American men points their guns or shuffle around him; when they plan on killing him, he screams in fear and cries how much he hates Hitler and tries to sing the American National Anthem. It was then what I realized what the producers were doing — they were trying to show that the enemy is human too. Those who fight for the enemy have been given promises just as the Americans were given promises. Which actually leads me to my next point...

4. The true effects of wartime propaganda on how wartime enemies saw each other

The enemy POW in the scene above was screaming about how much he loved American things (donuts, the Star Spangled Banner, etc). But in reality, it shows how much dehumanization occurs during the war. While the POW was forcibly digging up holes for the bodies, one of the American men tried to offer him water, but the others take it away from him.

The disgusted look in their eyes can only be described as one staring down on a pig. They don't realize that this man might have a family at home. This man probably had a job he loved doing. He might have had close friends that he used to hang out with on Fridays. No one really thinks about how much those on the other side are suffering as much as they are.

While in this case, the POW, in the end, feels no regret for the deaths he has caused, in real life, Hitler's soldiers had no choice. The same goes for American soldiers. Soldiers on either side were programmed to believe that anything German or American was bad. Wartime propaganda was so bad, soldiers ceased to believe the other side was even human, and "Saving Private Ryan" perfectly captures that.

5. A close brotherhood that forms among people while they serve.

These men see each other as brothers, singing songs together and making jokes together. They follow through on each other's every last wishes — including death. There is a scene where two of the men are jokingly reminiscing on the past while another one sits quietly in the dark, rewriting a letter that was given to him by one of their men who had been shot by a sniper that day.

The letter he had given him was covered in blood so in order to cause the man's family less grief, his friend rewrote the letter for him. The beauty of all of this is that he was not even asked to rewrite it; he rewrote it because he understands the cruelty of death.

He rewrote it because his friend was like a brother to him, and the least he could do was help out his family. That's how close they were to each other. Because on the battlefield, the only good thing that comes out of the bloodshed is the bond that forms between those who share the horrors of war.

6. The lengths to how far men will go for those they do not even know

The group of men that have been chosen to save Ryan don't even know him, and this is a huge challenge that some in the group have difficulty coming to terms to. But in the end, all of them decide that if it means he gets to go home to his loved ones, then it's worth it. It shows how they know the horror of this war (or any other for that matter) is enough to scar a man for life, and that no one should ever have to see such things in their lifetimes.

They wouldn't even wish such physical and mental pain on their worst enemies. So if it means Ryan can go home to his family, it means one less man who will not have to live with the pains of trauma for the rest of his life.

7. There really wasn't a happy ending — and that's OK.

Yes, most of the characters, except Private Ryan, die in the end at the hands of the enemy, but they died for a noble cause. I usually loathe sad endings, but then again, life isn't a fairytale. Especially in this movie, a sad ending is exactly what was needed because it shows the audience that not everyone got their happy ending after WWII.

Even Private Ryan will have to go home, remember the nightmares of war and mourn the death of his three brothers and the men he never truly knew but still saved his life — for the rest of his life. War takes so much away from us, and that's what the ending captures.