# Saving Private Ryan (1998)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 1998 Steve Rhodes

    RATING (0 TO ****):  ****

"What the hell do we do now, sir?" the discombobulated grunt asks his equally nonplussed captain. The captain has lost most of his men in what appears certain to be a rout. As soon as their landing craft hit the beach, most of his troops were slaughtered before they could get out. A few jumped into the sea only to be shot underwater while attempting to remove their heavy packs. The water has turned a blood red from the massive bleeding of thousands of dead soldiers.

It is June 6, 1944 at Omaha Beach. By the end of the day the battle, which looked at first like a monstrous disaster, will turn into one of the greatest victories in modern military history.

As the wise Captain John Miller, the man whose unit has almost vanished, Tom Hanks gives the most reserved performance of his career - reserved, but no less brilliant. Hanks plays a man who prefers being an enigma to the men under his command. They take bets on when he will finally reveal his occupation in civilian life. Why this is a mystery is a mystery in itself. Mild mannered but self-assured John Miller doesn't look like a man who would want or need to hide his past.

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is director Steven Spielberg's best film since SCHINDLER'S LIST. A moving war picture that takes neither an overly pacifist nor patriotic approach, it avoids shameless manipulation of the audience's emotions. The war itself is shown so realistically that the reaction of many viewers may be similar to mine. I wanted to go to a private corner and cry my eyes out after the movie finished.

The film opens in the present with a dramatic scene of an old man leading a private procession to a military cemetery. With his extended family behind him, he stares at a white cross in a sea of crosses and breaks into tears.

Part of a strong cast, GOOD WILL HUNTING's Matt Damon plays Private Ryan. Private Ryan's three brothers have been killed in the same week in battle so the top brass sends Captain Miller and a small crew out to locate the private and bring him home to safety. Edward Burns, Jeremy Davies, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg, Barry Pepper, Tom Sizemore and Giovanni Ribisi play the soldiers accompanying the captain on the rescue mission.

Since Private Ryan has parachuted behind the German lines, finding him is a dangerous operation akin to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. The captain's men resent the mission to prevent Private Ryan's mother from losing all of her sons. They argue that they have mothers too. As they start to be killed off, their cynicism increases and then turns bitter toward this Private Ryan, whom they've never met. Full of twists and turns, their quest is long and torturous.

John William's heroic music for the film is sweeping in its grandeur, yet never overwhelms the more delicate moments.

SCHINDLER'S LIST's Academy Award winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski is as good in the intimate moments as the dramatic ones. When the men rest inside a church, he uses a warm natural lighting to show reverence toward the men's battle worn faces. When the captain goes up on a ridge, the camera captures him in shadow with all of the drama of a Life magazine cover. Finally, Kaminski uses the handheld camera to good effect during the battle sequences. As it bounces up and down, you can feel the jitters of the fighting men, and the chaos of the battle.

Between scenes that take your breath away, Robert Rodat's script is smart enough to throw in a little much-needed humor. Fighting a war vicariously can take an enormous toll on an audience. Watching men necessarily reduced to animals fighting for survival may be hard to watch, but this film of Spielberg's is movie making at its best. It is an experience sometimes hard to endure but not to be missed.

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN runs 2:48. It is rated R for profanity and strong violence and would be fine for mature teenagers.

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