No. He just wasn’t a soldier. In real life, he would be the cop who hesitates shooting the thug because he gives all human beings the benefit of the doubt and ends up getting his partner killed.

According to the wiki page of Saving Private Ryan : Just before the Rangers embarked at Portsmouth, England, Miller’s right hand began to shake uncontrollably for unknown reasons, though it hints he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He kept this a secret from his men except for Horvath.

Originally Answered: In Saving Private Ryan, why did the soldier (can’t remember his name, Rieben, is it?) cry when he saw the Hitler Youth knife? Mellish became upset after being handed the Hitler Youth SS knife mainly because he is Jewish and hated the Nazis with a passion.

To clarify what Upham said to the Germans here is a short passage of what he said in English. The words he says in German at the end of the film when conversing with the group of German soldiers are as followed: Upham: “Drop your weapons – hands up, drop your weapons!….. And shut your mouths!”

Mellish is not killed by Steamboat Willie, but instead by a Waffen-SS soldier. Because all of the Germans in the film have shaved heads (an historically inaccurate portrayal), it is not difficult to get these two characters mixed up.

In the movie, Saving Private Ryan, it was the right on Captain Miller’s part to let the German go. While letting him walk away allowed the German to eventually shoot him later on in the movie, at the moment where the decision had to be made Miller made the right one.

Death and Burial While trying to get closer, he was fatally wounded by a machine gun nest after Captain Miller orders them to neutralise it. He had been shot three times in the chest by an MG-42. Wade’s comrades try in vain to save his life.

Arguably the most harrowing scene comes in the finale of Saving Private Ryan, where the squad has located Ryan and helps his unit hold off German troops in the town of Ramelle. A key sequence finds Private Mellish (Adam Goldberg, Fargo) alone and engaging a Waffen SS Soldier in hand to hand combat in a ruined house.

Mellish unjams his rifle, and kills the German who killed Henderson, but runs out of ammo, and is forced to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the last Waffen SS Soldier. He is eventually killed after a violent fight with the soldier, who stabs him in the chest with his own bayonet.

“Earn this” are the last words Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) says to Private James Ryan (Matt Damon). I’d actually like to start with the end of the film because it has this theme of deserving, and earning your life every day, and that theme is relevant to the role of director.