Saving Private Ryan [MA]

After a harrowing and horrific beach landing that turns into a massacre on the shores of Normandy, Captain Miller is assigned the task of tracking down Private James Ryan to break to him the news that his three brothers have been killed in action. In the interest of Private Ryan’s mother’s wellbeing, the charge is to bring Private Ryan back home, but the mission takes a number of turns including Miller’s squad questioning the justification of the mission, there’s more then one Private Ryan running about, and what happens when they actually find the right one. 

Despite the fact that I feel that two and a half hours of my life have been drained away for no real reason, I cannot bring myself to say that this is a bad movie. A serious venture for Stephen Spielberg, Saving Private Ryan was, to me, a massively boring piece of cinema, yet at the same time there is a lot about it that makes it an important piece in movie history. It makes it into The Book, after all. 

After a harrowing and horrific beach landing that turns into a massacre on the shores of Normandy, Captain Miller is assigned the task of tracking down Private James Ryan to break to him the news that his three brothers have been killed in action. In the interest of Private Ryan’s mother’s wellbeing, the charge is to bring Private Ryan back home, but the mission takes a number of turns including Miller’s squad questioning the justification of the mission, there’s more then one Private Ryan running about, and what happens when they actually find the right one. 

When there’re so many characters in a constantly moving environment and rapidly shifting atmosphere, it’s hard to insert yourself into it and come to love the characters or relate to them. I felt that this happened with this movie definitely. I think that’s the real issue I had with this movie. 

Having said that, the audience can actually relate to the characters in one specific way: via the questions raised by the story itself. Right from the off, you’re asking out loud why would you send a whole squad on a suicide mission across numerous battlegrounds and risk multiple lives to find one man? This question is also on the minds of the characters and it forms the basis for further discussion and creation of new questions regarding the price of a man’s life as well as a simultaneously patriotic and antiwar sentiments. At the end of the film the question “was I a good man?” is just a nicer and more streamlined way of asking out loud “was it worth it?” and, more importantly, “was it justifiable?” I have to give credit where credit is due and when it comes to asking questions and making the audience think and discuss and form opinions, this movie does succeed. 

Spielberg’s penchant for sentimentality does creep into the mix with the bookended opening and closing scenes of the American flag, but ultimately this is a different looking film from him. His use of fast moving, slow motion, sometimes hand-held, and something covered camera angles (covered in flecks of water, mud, or blood), as well as harsh lighting, and the clichéd but clever use of muted battle sequences really emphasise the violence and the horror of warfare. It’s definitely one of his more gruesome movies: we’ve got blood red water washing up on beaches, we’ve got body parts flying in all directions, and we’ve got plenty of blood and gore and dead and mangled bodies. To give further credit, the depiction of the Second World War in this movie rivals that of the Vietnam War in many other war classics. 

Starring Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Matt Damon, Jeremy Davies, Adam Goldberg, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Ted Danson, Max Martini, Dylan Bruno, Joerg Stadler, Dennis Farina, and Paul Giamatti, Saving Private Ryan is a movie that wasn’t quite my cup of tea but is still a film that is crafted well and holds some importance. Filled with action, violence, bloodshed, and drama, it’s one of those epics you hear about and therein lays its appeal. Movies gain momentum by word of mouth just as much as anything else and if you’ve heard about Saving Private Ryan then why not check it out?