Leadership Qualities: An In-depth Analysis of Captain Miller in Film

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of Captain John Miller's leadership qualities as portrayed in Steven Spielberg's 'Saving Private Ryan.' It highlights his perseverance, self-control, and ability to make difficult decisions under pressure. The analysis connects Miller's attributes to various leadership theories such as situational leadership, trait theory, strategic contingencies theory, and behavioral theory. The essay further discusses how Miller's character embodies assertiveness and acknowledges the burden of leadership, making him a relatable and effective leader. It concludes that Miller's leadership qualities, including his ability to inspire and maintain a positive work culture, are highly relevant to healthcare organizations and other fields, emphasizing the importance of respecting decisions made by superior authorities while maintaining open communication within a team.

Running head: ASSESSMENT OF LEADERSHIP QUALITIES
Assessment of Leadership Qualities
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Saving Private Ryan is a masterpiece made by the renowned film-maker Steven
Spielberg. This movie is nothing less than one of the finest creations by Spielberg. It is like
an invaluable painting, filled with the colors of human emotions that have been carefully
stroked by the director to give life to each and every character. The movie had won many
awards. The critics and eminent people in the fields of history and art have mentioned Saving
Private Ryan as the most exquisite World War II movies ever made. The movie is based on
the historic D-day of June 6, 1944 which has been marked in American History as the Battle
of Normandy (Bell 2011, pp.425-439). More than 425,000 people were killed, severely
injured or went missing, both on the sides of Allied troops and German troop (Turner and
Bogue 2010, pp.157-177). However, the story depicts nothing less than the various ups and
downs of the relationships among men at battlefield, at the most trying time imaginable. It is
not easy to just simply pick a character and begin analyzing (Singer 2016, pp.56-70). There
are various attributes displayed by several characters that have been found to be significant.
For the ongoing discussion, the focus will be on the protagonist Captain John Miller and his
moral character and leadership qualities.
Captain John H. Miller was a 30-year old American school teacher who served in the
second Rangers Battalion in the US army during World War II. The role was portrayed by the
brilliant and well-known actor Tom Hanks and displayed an ideal soldier in a time of great
despair (Tomey 2009, pp.15-25). The followings are the leadership attributes of Captain
Miller that have been exposed throughout the movie. Captain Miller showed is true
leadership in the battlefields of Omaha beach on the D-Day where most of the soldiers were
reluctant to move forward Capt. Miller denied to stay hidden behind the barricades and
moved forward with bullets pouring down on him from the opposite sides. He led his troop
across the beach to find a better position for attack. His unit thus contributed in the success of
the Allied forces in the battle. Here, Capt. Miller displayed tremendous perseverance to fulfill

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the mission in the midst of a deadly chaos. During the mission of searching for Private Ryan,
they had to make an open field attack on the Nazis. Even though Captain Miller’s tactics had
successfully destroyed the enemy nest they lost a fellow member Wade who died an
agonizing death in front of them. Miller later wept in private after burying Wade, but did not
express his emotions in front of his team and displayed the prime quality of leadership: self-
control. After Miller decided to release the Nazi soldier who had shot Wade, instead of
killing him, few of his team members were infuriated and this resulted in a heated argument
between two men. At this critical situation Miller intervened, not to tell them to obey his
orders but to tell his own story. Miller admitted that he did not know much about fighting
battles or even the worthiness of saving Private Ryan, all he wanted was to go back home to
his wife live the rest of his life peacefully. If the only way to achieve that was to save Private
Ryan, then that was what he would do. His speech moved all the men and everyone settled
down and moved forward with their mission without another word. Soon after this, the squad
found Private Ryan but could not rejoice for completion of their mission. Because, after Ryan
got to know that his brothers are no more, he did not want to leave his team, whom he
considered as his family. He wanted to stay behind to protect the bridge that his team was
assigned to do. Saving Ryan was the only thing that could earn Miller and his team the right
to go home and be with their families which they all longed for. Captain Miller could not
abandon his mission neither could he force Ryan to come with his team. He, therefore, took
an extremely difficult decision to stay with Ryan’s team and help them achieve their mission
of defending the bridge. Leaders often come across such difficult decisions where they cannot
find any desirable options, but have to come up with a solution that resolves the issues
(Grossman and Valiga 2016, pp.2-9). In the final battle, the German troop outnumbered the
two allied forces and heavy casualties ensued until reinforcements arrived. Most of the men
died, but Captain Miller successfully saved Private Ryan. In the end, Capt. Miller was killed

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by the very Nazi soldier who had killed Wade and whom he released earlier. Thus, Captain
Miller went to the extent of giving up his own life in order to save Private Ryan and fulfill his
mission.
Miller’s bravery and courage was balanced by the self-control which is a prerequisite of
making good decisions and a great leader. Miller always led by persuasion and never forced
anyone to obey his orders when things became difficult and thus he kept on creating
examples (Richardson and Storr 2010, pp.12-21). All the qualities of Captain John Miller
discussed above, relates to various leadership theories. Carrying out such a hefty mission of
“saving Private Ryan” entails the leadership qualities of the highest mental capacity. The
mission required a leader who not only possessed the strength but also had unwavering
determination of completing the mission. Captain Miller proved himself to be worthy of that
role, when in the opening scene he was seen to be going in and out of shock on Omaha beach
and yet remained composed and kept on fighting and leading his team. This part proved that
Miller is a brave and smart soldier. To define situational leadership it can be said that while
making a decision, the situational attribute of the leaders result in the improvement of the
whole team. It depends on the leader’s perspective rather than the truth of the situation
(Tyssen, Wald and Spieth 2013, pp.52-67). Leaders here work on factors such as keeping
external relationships, resource acquisition and demand management. Therefore, when
situations turn critical leaders are more likely to attain their directive approach to handle the
situation to avoid the implications of failure of the mission (Giltinane 2013, pp.35-39).
Another leadership theory, the trait theory states that people who become good leaders
possess the correct combination of traits for being so. This includes good interpersonal skills
that enable a person to communicate to others and persuade them to follow his instructions
without implying any negative or coercive tactics. Several such leadership traits have been
identified by studying the qualities of many successful leaders such as decisiveness,

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cooperativeness, persistence, stress tolerance and the sense of responsibility (Chemers 2014,
pp.106-109). When Capt. Miller received the order from the higher authorities to carry out a
search for Private Ryan who had lost his three brothers in the war and had to be brought back
home to his mother, he took the order without any second thoughts. Miller had done
everything within his reach to carry out this unlikely mission. The troop members were
somewhat not thrilled about the mission which meant risking the lives of the entire troop to
save only one man. They believed in their captain and knew that Miller is doing what he is
supposed to do. However, Captain Miller persuaded them to go on with the orders and led
them to ultimately find Private Ryan. The character showed every sign of courage and
bravery in all the difficult situations. Capt. Miller displayed many attributes that made people
realize that he is definitely the correct person for the job of searching Private Ryan. This
mission had put his men in utmost turmoil, but he still handled every situation with his calm
and integrity. His leadership qualities bound his team together in every situation and this
makes him a true war hero who is not only a great soldier but also a noble man. According to
the strategic contingencies theory the leader must possess the skills and expertise of
resolving crucial matters. Thus this enables the leader to achieve power from being placed
superiorly in a negotiation. This place the leader as the central part of the workflow, their
actions holds prime importance to other followers in the team (Latham 2014, pp.11-15). On
the other hand, the behavioural theory entails that leadership qualities are earned by getting
through difficult situations and not inherited by birth. This describes success as the actions
and steps taken to recover a hard situation (Landis, Hill and Harvey 2014, p.97). This is much
easier to comprehend than to adapt the vague notion of “inherited traits”. Throughout the
movie, Captain Miller stays assertive and firm but is well-liked by his men. Everyone
respects and follows his orders no matter what. This puts Miller in a place of higher authority
with a lot of responsibilities. Being a school teacher, he has the experience of tackling “a

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thousand kids” like Private Ryan and he possess the knowledge of handling people who look
up to him during such a difficult time and leading them to the correct path.
All the characteristics of leadership discussed so far, have prime importance in
maintaining a positive work culture at the healthcare organisations. From the moment he
appears on the screen, Captain Miller embodied assertiveness. He analyzed the situation as
fast as possible and gave orders according to what needed to be done. Even though the result
was due to the effort of the entire team, it could not be achieved without Miller’s
organizational and delegatory skills. Sometimes while running an organization, it requires the
leaders to be brave enough to take control and give necessary orders to the workers to keep
things going as the way they should be. Being directive in the right way and at the right time
is of most importance (Mannix, Wilkes and Daly 2013, pp.10-21). Throughout the movie, it
has been noticed that Captain Miller has an issue with the involuntary trembling of his hands
and he never tried to hide it from his fellow squad members. This makes Miller a man who
acknowledges the tremendous burden of pressure on him, but still manages to his best and
keeps on leading the team. This makes a strong point that revealing physical weaknesses does
not affect the work or leadership (Liden et al. 2014, pp.1434-1452). The followers want a
person they can relate to more than someone who is robotically ideal. A rule applied to
almost all spheres of life entails that everyone must always respect the decisions made by the
superior authority even when they do not completely agree with them. Although the leaders
must always be open about their beliefs and let the team know about their perspective, they
should never complain about the superior authority to the team (Chrobot-Mason, Ruderman
and Nishii 2013, pp.95-97). This creates a negative impact on the team. Captain Miller in a
brilliant moment of argument outlined the rules about objection and griping to his team
mates, when he said “There’s a chain of command. Gripes go up, not down. Always up. You
gripe to me, I gripe to my superior officer, so on, so on and so on.” Being a leader, it is

6ASSESSMENT OF LEADERSHIP QUALITIES
unprofessional of anyone to object about the tasks they are asked to do in front of the
followers. Although it does not mean that they should lie. Leadership puts a lot of
responsibilities on the shoulders of the organizational heads. They are bound to fail
sometimes, but despite that they must always acknowledge their failure to the team (Cleary et
al. 2013, pp.2904-2911). When Captain Miller met Private Ryan, without any due diligence
he abruptly gave him the news that all his brothers have died in battle. Private Ryan got
extremely upset, seeing him cry Capt. Miller realized his mistake and tried to console Ryan.
This proves that sometimes even the most thoughtful and experienced persons can also fail to
do a task properly, but they must never shy away from admitting their own mistakes (Young-
Ritchie, Laschinger and Wong 2009, pp.70-85). In order to win the respect of the fellow team
members the leader must always lead from the front and take the risk of staying on guard at
the firing line (Tomey 2009, pp.276-278). Captain Miller showed all the qualities of a perfect
leader. It was his courage and inconspicuous ability to control even the most volatile
situations that had saved many soldiers at the Omaha beach on the D-Day. His efforts was
recognized by everyone and this is the reason he and his troop ended up with such a difficult
mission to save Private Ryan and also the reason why despite of several doubts arising in
their minds the squad risked their life to fight alongside with their leader Captain John H.
Miller.
Implementation of several leadership strategies in nursing to ensure optimal patient
outcome is of paramount importance. It helps to fill in the gap between the nursing leadership
and the positive patient outcomes (Anonson et al. 2014, pp.127-136). Efforts made by the
organizational authorities and the individual leaders reinforce the strategies that improves the
physical as well as mental health of the patients. The importance of the concept of leadership
is that the true act of leadership somewhat diverges from the bookish definition and the
parameters of measuring the leadership qualities which are proven to be nothing but a narrow

7ASSESSMENT OF LEADERSHIP QUALITIES
notion of the term. In any field of work, leaders are required to imply their organisational,
directorial and delegatory skills. They must possess a certain vision of change which is
revolutionary as well as practical to imply. Nursing entails the students and nurses to make an
effort to imply all these leadership attributes in order to utilize their interpersonal skills to
help the other staffs acquire their highest potential. In the movie Saving Private Ryan,
Captain John Miller deployed these attributes and influenced the behaviour, beliefs, attitude
and feelings of his squad members to lead them in the correct path and drive them to work
with their highest ability (Brady Germain and Cummings, 2010, pp.425-439). Such qualities
can make a nursing leader genuinely valued and help them earn respect of their co-workers
and help build up a positive work environment. Leadership includes an array of behavioral
traits, abilities to manage and support the team such as the ones displayed by Captain Miller.
While the nurses are compelled to face stressful work environments with the projected
workforce shortages, implementing such strategies will definitely be proven to be helpful for
influencing and motivating them and will ultimately lead to a better patient outcome (Wong,
Cummings and Ducharme 2013, pp.709-724).
Therefore, from the above analysis it can be concluded that Captain Miller
undoubtedly shows superior leadership over his men. Like any other human being, John
Miller found it difficult to keep a balance between justice and mercy. Ironically his own
judgment of mercy ultimately led to his death in the end. His uncanny ability and qualities of
leadership led to the successful fulfillment of the mission of bringing back Private Ryan from
the war zone. He was the perfect leader who could be entrusted with any mission no matter
how hard it would be. The portrayal of Captain Miller clearly elucidates the need for such
morally superior character coupled with the practical judgment ability in the contemporary
society. He possessed all the components expected of an honorable leader. Be it bravery, or
courage or the potential skills required to lead the rest of the team at the time of need, all of

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these qualities can be implemented by nursing leaders for better management of the difficult
clinical situations. The health care workforce faces many challenges that are needed to be
handled with precision. The nursing leaders are required to address many situations that are
found to be extremely difficult. Their organizational skills, power of superiority and the
brilliance of leading the workers to control every situation as required, is necessary for a
positive patient outcome and maintenance of an ethical work culture in the organization.

9ASSESSMENT OF LEADERSHIP QUALITIES
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