SAVING PRIVATE RYAN Movie Review

1998 Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg wraps his combat masterpiece in the flag. Literally. The film opens and closes with sunlight pouring through a translucent, billowing Stars and Stripes. Remarkably, however, the film isn't jingoistic propaganda. Instead, it's a realistic, frightening examination of combat seen from the point of view of foot soldiers, ordinary men called upon to do extraordinary things.

The shots of the flag also reflect the film's deceptively simple mirrored plot structure. Key scenes in the first half are repeated or reflected in the second. The story begins with a prologue of an aging veteran (Harrison Young), surrounded by his attractive family, visiting a military graveyard in Normandy. As he stares at one cross in the mosaic of headstones surrounding him, the scene dissolves to a Higgins boat about to land at Omaha beach. Then perhaps the most realistic and harrowing battle scene ever filmed begins. (See sidebar.)

For more than 20 minutes, the screen is filled with chaotic violence and destruction that defy rational comprehension. The beach becomes a maelstrom of bullets and deafening explosions. When one soldier's leg is blown off, another automatically grabs an ammunition belt from him. No one understands what is going on. The American soldiers know only that to stay in the water is death and so they move ahead. That insanity is one of the main points that Spielberg and writer Robert Rodat are trying to make.

Within that chaos, the focus settles on Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks), Sgt. Horvath (Tom Sizemore), Pvt. Reiben (Edward Burns), Wade (Giovanni Ribisi) the medic, Pvt. Jackson (Barry Pepper), Pvt. Mellish (Adam Goldberg), and Pvt. Caparzo (Vin Diesel). After they've survived their harrowing hours breaking through the first line of German defense, they're given another assignment: Find Pvt. Ryan (Matt Damon), a paratrooper who's somewhere behind German lines, and bring him back to safety. Why? Because the War Department has realized that Ryan's three older brothers have just been killed in action, and Gen. George C. Marshall (Harve Presnell) will not allow an entire family to be wiped out.

The scene at the Ryan farmhouse, where the mother is told of her sons’ deaths, is as solemn and as carefully composed as a Hopper or Wyeth painting. Throughout the film, Spielberg's attention to detail is astonishing. And so is his ability to use closely observed detail—the tactile sense of raindrops beading on a rifle stock, the bone-weariness of a soldier (Paul Giamatti) who simply wants to sit down in a comfortable chair—to involve the audience in the action. For all his commercial and critical success, Spielberg doesn't get nearly the credit he deserves for his use of innovative techniques to create emotional responses.

The mission itself turns out to be a relatively simple, episodic undertaking. Cpl. Upham (Jeremy Davies) joins the unit as a translator and they set off across the French countryside (actually Ireland and England), a beautiful landscape littered with the carcasses of dead horses. Those echo the dead fish washed up on the beaches along with the human bodies. As they walk, the men reveal their personalities. Reiben's the quick smartass New Yorker; Wade's the medic whose mother is a doctor; Jackson is a devoutly religious and deadly sniper; Mellish is a Jewish kid who knows his enemy; Upham is the bookish new guy; Horvath is the non-com who's totally devoted to his Captain. And Miller … nobody really knows what his story is.

Three encounters with Germans provide physical action and keep the story moving, but the more central conflicts are among the Americans; which fights they should take on, which they should avoid, what their mission really is. “We're not here to do the decent thing,” Miller observes, “We're here to follow fucking orders.” (That's a particularly loaded line. What would we think if a German officer spoke it?)

More importantly, how do the G.I.s hold onto their humanity? Miller understands the problem when he says, “I just know that with every man I kill, the farther from home I feel.” And that's finally what Saving Private Ryan is about. It's not about causes or politics or tactics or even the morality of war. It's about guys who want to go home. That's all. They're in a terrible place where they're doing terrible things, and they simply want to go home.

As the embodiment of a lonely man who misses his wife and his job and who must hide his fear, Tom Hanks is perfectly cast. Despite the intensity of the big action scenes, perhaps the most moving emotional moment is the brief instant when Miller is alone and is able, for a few seconds, to let down the barriers and sob uncontrollably. The scene could easily degenerate into pathos, but it's handled honestly, without the sentimentality that Spielberg is sometimes prone to.

With repeated viewings, the film's main flaw is its “have-I-lived-a-good-life?” epilogue. Given the smallest amount of objective, critical distance, the scene is far too thick and obvious. That said, the conclusion is also appropriate for a film that's so emotionally wrenching. And without that framing device, audiences might not have been able to accept the massive violence of the beginning and end. So, perhaps it's a necessary error. On video, the film loses some of the overpowering combination of surround-sound and image that it has in the best theatrical presentations, but that's unavoidable. In any medium, Saving Private Ryan is one of the best.

Cast: Tom Hanks (Capt. John Miller), Edward Burns (Pvt. Reiben), Tom Sizemore (Sgt. Horvath), Jeremy Davies (Cpl. Upham), Giovanni Ribisi (T/4 Medic Wade), Adam Goldberg (Pvt. Mellish), Barry Pepper (Pvt. Jackson), Vin Diesel (Pvt. Caparzo), Matt Damon (Pvt. James Ryan), Ted Danson (Capt. Hamill), Dale Dye (War Dept. Colonel), Dennis Farina (Lt. Col. Anderson), Harve Presnell (Gen. George Marshall), Paul Giamatti (Sgt. Hill), Bryan Cranston (War Dept. Colonel), David Wohl (War Dept. Captain), Leland Orser (Lt. DeWindt), Joerg Stadler (Steamboat Willie), Maximillian Martini (Cpl. Henderson), Amanda Boxer (Mrs. Margaret Ryan), Harrison Young (James Ryan as an old man); Written by: Robert Rodat, Frank Darabont; Cinematography by: Janusz Kaminski; Music by: John Williams; Technical Advisor: Dale Dye. Producer: Mark Gordon, Ian Bryce, Gary Levinsohn, Steven Spielberg; released by Dreamworks Pictures. Awards: Academy Awards ‘98: Best Cinematography, Best Director (Spielberg), Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing; British Academy Awards ‘98: Best Sound; Directors Guild of America Awards ‘98: Best Director (Spielberg); Golden Globe Awards ‘99: Best Director (Spielberg), Best Film—Drama; Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards ‘98: Best Cinematography, Best Director (Spielberg), Best Film; New York Film Critics Awards ‘98: Best Film; Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards ‘98: Best Director (Spielberg), Best Film, Best Score; Nominations: Academy Awards ‘98: Best Actor (Hanks), Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Makeup, Best Original Screenplay, Best Picture, Best Original Dramatic Score; British Academy Awards ‘98: Best Actor (Hanks), Best Cinematography, Best Director (Spielberg), Best Film, Best Film Editing, Best Score; Golden Globe Awards ‘99: Best Actor—Drama (Hanks), Best Screenplay, Best Score; MTV Movie Awards ‘99: Best Film, Best Male Performance (Hanks), Best Action Sequence; Screen Actors Guild Award ‘98: Best Actor (Hanks), Cast; Writers Guild of America ‘98: Best Screenplay. Budget: 70M. Boxoffice: 211.7M. MPAA Rating: R. Running Time: 175 minutes. Format: VHS.