War movies make
for great entertainment, but war in real life is horrible. Other than maybe
David Ayer’s Fury, no movie proves
this point better than Steven Spielberg’s Saving
Private Ryan (1998), which portrayed the horror of World War II so
accurately veterans walked out of the theatres because they felt it was too
realistic. Prior to this movie Hollywood had made tales of that war filled
heroism, humour, and a moderate level of violence. Spielberg’s film may
somewhat overdo it with the American heroism, but it certainly doesn’t avoid
the violence, and the laughs are very rare.
Spielberg has
often been the king of summer movies, and Saving
Private Ryan was another major hit for him in the summer of 1998. I went to
see it in theatres with my parents during a vacation in Quebec City even though
this was clearly not a family movie. I believe I was around 12 years old at the
time, so there are plenty of images that became seared in my brain,
particularly the early carnage of Omaha Beach. This was definitely not E.T. However it did show me why my
grandfather rarely talked about his time in the war.
As with all war
movies, Saving Private Ryan has an
all-star cast, which in this case will probably never all work in the same
movie again. Good luck finding any other movie that has Tom Hanks, Vin Diesel
and Nathan Fillion sharing screen time. Hanks has the lead role as Captain John
H. Miller, one of the American soldiers to survive the Normandy invasion in
1944. Given the number of soldiers who are shot and blown to bits during the
attack it seems Miller has already survived the impossible, only to be given an
impossible assignment.
Raising the
question of how much one life is worth, General George Marshall (Harve
Presnell) sends the orders to find paratrooper James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon) after
Marshall is made aware that all three of Ryan’s brothers have been killed in
action. Wanting to spare Ryan’s mother a fourth wave of grief, Marshall
believes Ryan should be found and sent home immediately. The problem is that as
a paratrooper Ryan is much farther behind enemy lines and will be difficult to
find. Along with a squad of seven men (Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, Edward
Burns, Tom Sizemore, Adam Goldberg, Barry Pepper, and Jeremy Davies), Miller
accepts his orders and sets off to find one man knowing very well the mission
could result in the death of everyone under his command.
As the men go
into enemy territory there are several scenes in which the characters get to be
developed according to each situation. One is a sniper who prays before each
shot, one is good with languages but not with killing, and one is too
compassionate for his own good. The biggest mystery is Hanks’ Miller, who makes
tough decisions throughout the journey and seems tough as nails in the eyes of
his fellow soldiers, to the point that they make a betting pool regarding his
origins. When they eventually learn the truth about who he was before the war,
they are completely taken by surprise.
Some people, even
one of my college teachers in Quebec, have complained that the movie is too
American given how many other nations were involved. It is a valid point given
that the movie opens with a shot of a waving American flag and American troops
are the main characters throughout. In Spielberg’s defence it is an American
movie, made by an American director, and the soldier that needs saving is an
American. Overall, it’s a slight complain about a great film.
What cannot be
denied is that this was the first film to accurately depict how gruesome combat
was in World War II. The first 20 minutes alone are total carnage, shot
documentary style, with a scene in which Miller is dragging a wounded soldier
through the battlefield only to suddenly realize his bottom half is gone. Now
there is something you don’t get to see from reading a history book.
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