WAR: WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?
Saving Private Ryan A Film Review By Michael Redman Copyright 1998 By Michael Redman
***1/2 (out of ****)
There are times in most people's lives for which they are completely unprepared: nothing they have ever done seems relevant to the experience. Extraordinary situations sometimes force ordinary people into a mental state on automatic with no time to think. The most extreme of these circumstances is probably war.
Near the beginning of the film is 25 minutes of pure hell. As troop-carrying ships land on Omaha Beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944, the boys in uniform are vomiting and shaking. When the doors open, they don't even get the chance to leave the boats before they are cut to pieces by Nazi machine guns. The air support that was supposed to have taken out the German weapons missed their targets and the shore becomes a slaughterhouse.
Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) is one of the few that survive the carnage. The next day he's given an odd mission. Three out of four Ryan brothers were killed in the war and their mother in Iowa got all three telegrams on the same day. General George Marshall is determined to send the remaining brother, James Ryan (Matt Damon), back home and assigns Miller to the rescue operation.
The Captain assembles a small unit of men and sets off through occupied France to find the boy. The problem is that Ryan parachuted into the area. The paratroopers were scattered all over the countryside and no one knows where anyone is.
The beach battle and a later one defending a bridge are as close as I want to come to actual combat. The horror is indescribable and the filmmaking exceptional. The camera follows one soldier, moves across the scene to another while obscenities form the background. One man reaches down to pick up his arm that was shot off and stumbles away. Others writhe in pain with gaping holes in their bodies.
These are probably the most realistic WWII battle scenes ever filmed. As in the Vietnam films "Platoon" and "Apocalypse Now", we get a glimpse of what war is actually like. There are no John Waynes here, only civilians forced into a situation where no one knows what is going on and they are trying to make it through alive. During the landing, there are no viable options. There is no place to retreat to. To stay where they are is certain death. To advance into the machine gun fire is lunacy. The men are so shell-shocked that when Germans surrender, they are shot down.
The scenes between the two major battles are not as captivating. With a couple of exceptions, Miller's men are cliches: a New York Irish smart-aleck, a southern Bible-quoting sharpshooter, a Jew, a tough Sergeant and so on. While they are fleshed-out somewhat and become real people as the film progresses, they begin as the same guys you see in every war film.
One of the exceptions is Upham (Jeremy Davies), a translator who has never seen combat and is picked for the squad because he speaks German and French. The most human of the group, he is scared to death. In a particularly terrifying scene, he is carrying ammunition and cowers behind a wall as several enemy soldiers are on the other side. Later he freezes in fear on a stairway as a German walks by, ignoring him because he is inconsequential. Although he is everyman, he is also the most easily despised.
There are apalling scenes that will stay with the audience for a long time. One especially excruciating one is a close-up of a German slowly sliding a knife into the chest of one of the soldiers.
The cinematography is phenomenal. Janusz Kaminski, who also shot "Shindler's List" uses a personal point of view with muted colors, hand-held cameras and various film stocks to give us the feel of battle.
The sound is also spectacular. During the fighting, there is no music. Especially effective are the times where the sound turns into a roar or becomes complete silence.
There are a few things that don't work or don't make sense. Marshall's reason for risking eight men to save one is unclear. Is it a whim based on his obsession with Lincoln's letter to a soldier's mother or is it true compassion? The question of the worth eight men versus that of one is the primary focus of the film, but is never answered.
Towards the end of the film, Miller whispers something to Ryan. What he says is a key point in the movie, but it is barely intelligible. After the utterance, I saw half the audience turn to the other with "What did he say?"
The framing episodes in modern France are needless and add nothing to the movie other than emotional manipulation.
Even with these problems, the incredible scenes make this a must-see.
Also troubling is the consequences of mercy. One soldier attempts to rescue a French child. The squad lets a German captive go that they can't take with them rather than kill him in cold blood. Both of these acts have disastrous results ending with deaths. The message seems to be that kindness during times of war is fatal.
Director Steven Spielberg seems determined to write history. As our society knows less and less about the past, he is apparently aware of the power of cinema. With this, "Shindler's List", "Empire Of The Sun", "The Color Purple" and "Amistad" our view of history is being formed by one man. The Normandy invasion will forever be defined by "Saving Private Ryan" in the minds of the movie-going public.
(Michael Redman has written this column for over 23 years and still hasn't had the space to tell of the fire scare during an IMax showing of "Titanic". Maybe next week...)
[This appeared in the 7/30/98 "Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted at Redman@bvoice.com]
-- mailto:redman@bvoice.com This week's film review at http://www.bvoice.com/ Film reviews archive at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Michael%20Redman
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