# Saving Private Ryan (1998)

### reviewed by
Ted Prigge

    SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998)
    A Film Review by Ted Prigge
    Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge

Director: Steven Spielberg Writer: Robert Rodat Starring: Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Jeremy Davies, Adam Goldberg, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Van Diesel, Matt Damon, Dennis Farina, Harve Presnell, Ted Danson, Leland Orser, Paul Giamatti

There are two ways that a war film can go, both of them tragic mistakes: 1) they can glorify it and make it seem like everything the soldiers do is a great and heroic thing (see John Wayne's "The Green Berets" - a pro-Vietnam flick); and 2) they try to be totally political about it and ignore the fact that there's such a thing as heroism, even in the barbarism of war. The latter are usually made by people who never had to go through this and are just viewing from what they've seen on the news and heard from a couple people. There's a scene in "The Best Years of Our Lives" that illustrates what's wrong with the latter. In it, a soldier who was come back from World War II with no hands is told he is a "sucker" for going to war by an everyday schmoo activist, prompting the soldier to attack him in a fit of rage. What's wrong with the activist is he's never had to go into battle and fight for something he believed in, therefore he knows nothing.

And neither did I until about a week ago before I saw "Saving Private Ryan," perhaps the most realistic, gritty film ever put together by a major studio. In the film's opening half hour, we are "treated" to a long, accurate, and gory depiction of D-Day, namely the Normandy beach siege, which, from the looks of it, was almost a suicide mission. We're there in the boat when it's about to dock with soldiers acting nervous, throwing up, and the lot. When the doors open, the first couple rows of soldiers are gunned down immeadiately, and the remaining soldiers hide behind the blocks on the beach made so the boats wouldn't be able to drive up onto the beach any further.

With machine guns blaring all over the surround sound system, jerky camera movements, people dying left and right, and a group of soldiers trying to form a little plan at the last minute to complete their mission and stay alive, we are introduced to one soldier in particular: Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks), who's hands were shaking before the boats docked, and who's job it is to command whatever men he can find to try and stop the opposing army from shooting. When hiding behind the blocks, the camera closes in on him, the sound drops, motion slows up, and he looks around as everyone is quickly and gruesomely being killed. He even notices one soldier in particular who, missing his arm, goes back to pick it up and carry it with him. Welcome to the inferno.

The film was directed by Steven Spielberg, one of the best directors still working today, although this film finds him in a career slump: following the wild successes of "Jurassic Park" and "Schindler's List," as well as a long hiatus from directing, he made three films in a row, two which opened last year - "The Lost World" and "Amistad" - and both which were big disappointments: The former was little more than a cheap way to make money, and it showed; the latter was too overly ambitious for its own good. Not many people realized how important it was that his third film in this trio really was. Luckily enough, "Saving Private Ryan" finds him more than back in his old form, but that he's still as powerful a director as he ever was.

You want to see how great a filmmaker he is? Look how intensely amazing the opening Normandy sequence is. It's probably the most unnerrving thirty minutes ever caught on film - so unnerrving that I couldn't wait for it to end, a damn good thing if you're trying to create a war sequence in all its "glory." Any other filmmaker, or at least most of them, would falter after this. It's such a strong sequence that it could all go down hill from there. But Spielberg decides that not only is he going to keep moving on, but that he's also going to expand his themes, and the result is an emotional rollar coaster through a realistic debate on duty versus humanity.

He does this by bringing up a fictitious composite: the Ryan boys, four brothers who went to war, and three who were found to be killed after D-Day, with one missing, either dead or alive. When discovering this, the heads of the military decide to take strict action: they will send a platoon to find the last Private Ryan (later played by Matt Damon, who made this long before he became a star) and bring him home alive. So following Normandy, we find that Miller and a group of his en have been chosen to find him, whether they like it or not (they don't).

The men are a bitter, cynical bunch, showing their anger in several ways: Sergeant Horvath (Tom Sizemore) shows it by obeying every order and bitching about it in confidence while Private Rieben (Edward Burns, the writer/director who needed the good attention anyway) acts completely sarcastic about everything, hiding his timidness. Our entry into this group is with one of the film's many masterstrokes, Corporal Upham (Jeremy Davies, from "Spanking the Monkey"), a French/German translator who is assigned to the platoon, and who's never stepped foot in battle before. Played to perfect comic nervousness, he becomes the viewpoint of the audience, wreaking of ignorance and pleading for a little humanity in some of the film's more frightening scenes, as well as sometimes the only guy who doesn't know the lingo and attitude that the soldiers have become accustomed to when being with eachother.

Lingering over all this is Captain Miller, who has the terrible burden of not only feeling exactly like these soldiers but having to convey a sense of leadership and emotional stature for the rest of the platoon. Watching Miller have to deal with the mighty paradox of commanding when he's as afraid as the rest of them becomes the film's most human aspect, and thank god he's played by Tom Hanks who gives what has got to be the best performance he's ever given. His is devoid of gloss or cliche; he makes him into a fully-developed character, worthy of our sympathy, and worried that his wife will not recognize him because he's been through so much hell while being in the army. In his most human moment, he confesses to Sgt. Horvath that he thinks his mission is bullshit and that Private Ryan "better be worth it."

"Ryan" could easily be the most anti-war film ever made, what with its total gory depiction of war and sense of loss we get whenever one of the soldiers is killed (look at how saddening the scene where Giovanni Ribisi dies). But at the same time, this could have been an over-glorification of soldiers, with everyone gung ho about getting Private Ryan (this premise could have easily been another vehicle for John Wayne back in the hey day of war films). What it is, however, is much better than that: it's a realistic portrait of this situation that refuses to take sides. It merely asks us to look at it for what it is, and make our own conclusions. He does this not by having the characters speak the ideas of the filmmaker, as many films make the mistake of doing, but by showing it through action, prompting the audience to not see it as propaganda for some personal view, but to see it as totally and utterly emotionally devastating.

What can be said about the battle scenes in this movie that wouldn't seem redundant? What can be said about that shot of the Ryan mother seeing the army car pull up to her house and the priest getting out that can't be said just in emotions? It may not seem obvious right now, but Spielberg has done and said a lot more about war in this film than any other film in history ever has. He has not glamorized it or taken a side with it, and he has found a new way of hating war and a new way of honoring the men who risked their lives to fight for their country: these men weren't really fighting anyone in particular; they were fighting to defend their fellow men seflessly. But the most important thing about this film is that it defies explanation and becomes the one thing that so many films try to be but never become: cathartic.

    MY RATING (out of 4): ****

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