Film review by Kevin Patterson
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN Rating: **** (out of four) R, 1998 Director: Steven Spielberg Screenplay: Robert Rodat Starring Cast: Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Jeremy Davies, Matt Damon.
It has been my impression that most war movies fall into one of two categories: overtly anti-war pictures, be they the grim seriousness of FULL METAL JACKET or the pointed satire of GOOD MORNING VIETNAM, or action/adventure stories with a bit of flag-waving, melodramatic fluff. Steven Spielberg's SAVING PRIVATE RYAN wisely positions itself somewhere in between: it neither protests World War II nor glorifies it. Instead, Spielberg portrays the war as an ugly necessity, asking the audience to recognize the tremendous human cost of fighting Nazism, paid both by those who were killed in battle and by those who survived it.
The opening sequence, which depicts the D-Day invasion at Omaha Beach with unflinching realism, has been called the best battle scene ever filmed by some critics. I haven't seen enough war films to make that call, but in any case this extensive set piece touches upon an important observation: that survival in war is often more a product of dumb luck than of fighting skill. Hundreds of Americans pour onto the beach, hundreds of Germans are there waiting for them, and they shoot at each other until one side comes out ahead. The death scenes are often gruesome, as well they should be. As Spielberg has said in interviews, being killed in war is not necessarily quick and painless, and certainly does not occur in slow-motion with a swell of strings in the background.
Among the survivors are a company led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks), whose squadron is then assigned to locate a Private James Ryan (Matt Damon), who lost two brothers at D-Day and another in Africa, and bring him back home. Many war films might have played this out as a simple action/adventure yarn, but SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is smart enough to acknowledge that this is a questionable undertaking. Is this a public relations stunt designed to make the military look good, or is it a mission of compassion to Ryan's family? And even if the commanders' hearts are in the right place, can they justify asking eight men to risk their lives for one?
The aspect of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN that everyone will remember, I think, is its disturbing examination of the savage chaos of battle and how supposedly good people can get caught up in the frenzy of violence and anger at seeing their friends die. Spielberg does not romanticize the American "freedom fighters," as several of them shoot German soldiers who have already surrendered, seemingly for the sake of revenge. The one character who seems to stay in touch with his conscience all the way through is Miller, who exudes the air of a tough, no-nonsense commanding officer, not because it's his nature but because he knows that's what his men need. He even refuses to discuss his job and family life from back home, then finally reveals himself at the moment when the rest of the squadron most needs to hear it.
The most accessible window into all of this may be the character of Corporal Upham (Jeremy Davies), a young officer who's never been in battle before and is selected for the mission because he can translate German and French. He finds himself scared senseless when the rest of the squadron engages in battle with the Germans, unable to act partly out of fear of his own death and, it seems, partly because he doesn't want to take a human life. Spielberg plays his scenes in a way that makes his reaction understandable, rather than making him into a simple coward and an object for the audience's scorn, yet by the end even he turns out not to be immune to the oppressive atmosphere of violence and rage.
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is not at all "entertaining" in the usual sense of the word: it is difficult to watch and will leave most viewers feeling exhausted and wrung out when it ends. Which, considering its subject matter, means that it has done its job very well: as I said, this is not a film about patriotism or glory but about the ordeal endured by World War II soldiers. I cannot, however, imagine anyone regretting having seen it: it is a story that deserved to be told and is sure to be remembered as a classic piece of filmmaking.
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