# Saving Private Ryan (1998)

### reviewed by
Bob Bloom

Saving Private Ryan (1998) 4 stars out of 4

Saving Private Ryan is a brilliant, savage piece of filmmaking, a soaring paean to the courage of man - as individual and as family.

And director Steven Spielberg, with the aid of cinematographer Janusz Kaminski and film editor Michael Kahn, has created the most intense, riveting 30 minutes of combat footage in the history of cinema.

Silence, except for the fluttering of a pale, ghostlike flag, greets you at the outset of this marvelous movie. The prologue follows a World War II veteran as he shuffles through the allied cemetery at Omaha Beach in Normandy.

The movie then flashes back to D-Day, June 6, 1944. And here the audience's senses and emotions are bombarded with the sights and sounds of war.

A chaotic choreography of carnage is what Spielberg and his team have thrown at us. Kaminski's hand-held camera darts through the death and destruction, capturing moments of terror, confusion, fright and most of all blood.

It's everywhere. Death comes unexpectedly, swiftly, randomly. Spielberg spares none of the horror that was D-Day.

The documentary-style footage will make you wince and perhaps turn away. These battle scenes are stomach-churning in their realism. And the film's main story has not yet begun.

As the GIs earn a toehold on the beach and methodically begin decimating the German bunkers, Kaminski's camera slowly pans back down the beach, lingering on a dead GI named Ryan.

It is that image that propels the plotline of Saving Private Ryan. The dead Ryan was one of three brothers killed.

A fourth brother, a paratrooper who was dropped into France the night before the invasion, is believed to still be alive somewhere behind enemy lines.

The big brass in Washington, with equal parts of mercy and attempts to avoid a PR disaster, order that this fourth brother, James Francis Ryan, be found and returned stateside.

Ranger Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks), who survived the D-Day invasion with only a few of his men, draws the assignment of finding this needle in a very huge haystack.

Spielberg deftly establishes the moral dilemma faced by Miller and his squad. Why is this Ryan so special? Why does his right to go home outweigh anyone else's? How does finding him aid the war effort? Is it worth risking and possibly sacrificing the lives of others just to find one man?

As the film progresses, these questions are answered.

Saving Private Ryan is not your gung-ho, John Wayne-Randolph Scott war movie. These GIs' main focus is not defeating the enemy so much as staying alive and returning home. If finding Ryan will achieve that goal quicker, then so be it.

The men in Miller's squad do what GIs have done since the beginning of warfare. They gripe, second-guess their superiors and insult each other. Yet, when thrown into battle, they are a unit, protecting their brother-in-arms.

Hanks gives a sterling performance as Miller. He is low-key, a bit mysterious (his squad has created a continually growing pool trying to guess what the captain does in civilian life) and very much frightened.

Despite his fears - his hand continually shakes - and his doubts about their mission, Miller leads his men on, at times either cajoling, bullying or sweet-talking them forward. Hanks ably embodies the Everyman-ordinary of warfare. He is no professional soldier.

Miller and his men eventually find Ryan, portrayed by Matt Damon as a sturdy and willful young soldier.

Among the other cast members, Tom Sizemore is wise, tough and compassionate as Sgt. Horvath, Miller's second-in-command. Jeremy Davies as Cpl. Upham, the translator drafted by Miller to leave the safe confines of the now-secure beach and possibly come face-to-face with the enemy, represents us, the audience. He is constantly scared, recoiling at every sound, avoiding combat at any cost.

Saving Private Ryan is a magnificent achievement. It shows Spielberg as a more mature filmmaker, a man willing to gamble. How else do you explain why he uses what could be the grand finale of any other film as the opening gambit to cast the audience into the story and its characters?

This is not a movie for the squeamish. Spielberg refuses to compromise. Death is not pretty. With an unblinking eye, the director shows the misery, the horror, the tragedy and the human toll of war.

But the movie's magic is that, while it does not glorify war, it glorifies its reluctant warriors, not because they are heroic, but because they trudge on and do their duty, overcoming their fears and own instincts for survival.

Saving Private Ryan is an unrelenting, emotional experience that deserves its "R" rating. Yet it's a movie that young adults should see with their grandfathers who served in World War II to better comprehend and understand their sacrifices.

In Act IV, Scene III of Henry V, Shakespeare had King Henry deliver a speech to rouse his troops. Part of it went like this:

He that outlives this day and comes safe home Will stand a-tiptoe when this day is named ... And gentlemen ... now abed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap ...

There is no comparison between the battle of Agincourt and the beaches of Normandy. But that special bond that is forged and exists between men who have walked through the gates of hell and returned, must be timeless and universal.

And that is the majesty and power of Saving Private Ryan, for it has captured that camaraderie and shown it to us in all its horrifying brutality and spiritual splendor.

Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at cbloom@iquest.net

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