Some write off Saving Private Ryan as a film with an incredible opening thirty minutes. It is so much than that it is criminal for people to leave their critique of the film at that. For the uninitiated I will explain why Saving Private Ryan is so much more and why it is one of the best films ever made.
For starters there's the rather simple plot: a group of men after landing in France during the Second World War are put on a detail - to find one soldier who has the right to return home to see his mother because his brothers have all died and never will be able to. As we follow these men the film transforms into what it means to be a soldier and rather amazingly given the film was made 42 years after the Second World War ended it is the first time that I can think of where American GIs are portrayed in a rather unlikeable state.
While Vietnam War films already gave us the disillusioned soldier (see Platoon) this was the first time that a WWII film showed the allied soldiers in a negative light. There are brief snippets of Allied horrors; a surrendering Nazi is shot and mocked; they are told to just let the Nazis burn and some moments of heroism can be easily interpreted as cold-blooded murder. Amongst the main cast (Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Ed Burns, Jeremy Davies, Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi and Adam Goldberg) we learn they are dissenters and are bullish towards newcomers.
For starters there's the rather simple plot: a group of men after landing in France during the Second World War are put on a detail - to find one soldier who has the right to return home to see his mother because his brothers have all died and never will be able to. As we follow these men the film transforms into what it means to be a soldier and rather amazingly given the film was made 42 years after the Second World War ended it is the first time that I can think of where American GIs are portrayed in a rather unlikeable state.
While Vietnam War films already gave us the disillusioned soldier (see Platoon) this was the first time that a WWII film showed the allied soldiers in a negative light. There are brief snippets of Allied horrors; a surrendering Nazi is shot and mocked; they are told to just let the Nazis burn and some moments of heroism can be easily interpreted as cold-blooded murder. Amongst the main cast (Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Ed Burns, Jeremy Davies, Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi and Adam Goldberg) we learn they are dissenters and are bullish towards newcomers.
The cast all give the performances of their careers, including Hanks who often portrays sympathetic characters but here portrays a soldier who not only dislikes their mission but also is conflicted over his whole status as a leader within the military machine. When one of their group is killed he walks away from his men to plot their next course of action before breaking down (the only time in the film) realising it was his orders that got one of his men killed. Not only that but you can see as he removes the dog tags of his dead soldiers and pockets them the guilt weighs on him. If Hanks won for Forrest Gump, it is criminal that he didn't here. If only for the scene where he tells his men what he does for a living, outside of wartime, and his cold military personality is shattered instantly.
Naturally there's the statement that Saving Private Ryan is a film about the horrors of war, but it's about more than that. It's about cowardice, heroism, perceptions of heroism, the moral outcomes during moments of weakness. The film is also, most importantly, about lives. The old adage about the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few is flipped when eight men's lives are put under threat in order to secure the safety of one. Not only that but is the saved life worth it?
Unlike Spielberg's other big war film: Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan sets out to say more than, this is what happened. He puts you right there in the midst of battle with the explosions and bullets flying all around you. People are blown apart before your eyes, a tank rolls overhead, the imagery of the film is at times terrifying, and at other moments beautiful.
The film is shot with a rather interesting style. Most scenes drained of colour as if to suggest there is nothing worth admiring in a world supposed clear cut and filled with motivated killing.
The Omaha beach sequence is for many an audience the highpoint of the film with horrifying imagery and thrilling battle sequences that throw you straight into what battle was like in a way never shown before. The audience is emotionally engaged from the off, and cleverly no music is used to heighten the tension. The scene is already brilliant and intense enough that nothing needs to be done to heighten the action.
The big crime with this film is that it lost out to its deserved Best Picture Oscar to Shakespeare in Love, a pleasant but utterly slight piece of romantic work. This film has the guts. The emotional weight.
Think outside of the Omaha beach sequence to other heartbreaking, and occasionally funny, moments. The team are forced to lay dormant as one of their men dies before their very eyes. The newcomer to the team trying to figure out what FUBAR means. Another re-writing a dead soldier's letter to his father so that it does not have blood on it. Wade (Ribisi) demanding the morphine that will kill him, and calling out for his mother. A look of horror as one of the team realises he's about to die.
Every moment is brief but remains etched in your mind for life. Whatever you bring to this film it will reward back to you tenfold. There are some that will disagree with my decision based solely on Spielberg's own back catalogue. Though no other film of his will leave you with such an experience, even his supposed masterpiece Schindler's List, throwing you through a whirlwind of emotions as the events unfold.
Not only is this the best work everyone involved has ever done (bar Matt Damon and John Williams). Not only is the best war/combat/ WWII film ever made. Not only is it one of my Top Ten films. Not only is it already a bonafide classic but it is a film that is far more important than its reputation gives it credit for. Seek it out. It's brilliant!
Naturally there's the statement that Saving Private Ryan is a film about the horrors of war, but it's about more than that. It's about cowardice, heroism, perceptions of heroism, the moral outcomes during moments of weakness. The film is also, most importantly, about lives. The old adage about the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few is flipped when eight men's lives are put under threat in order to secure the safety of one. Not only that but is the saved life worth it?
Unlike Spielberg's other big war film: Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan sets out to say more than, this is what happened. He puts you right there in the midst of battle with the explosions and bullets flying all around you. People are blown apart before your eyes, a tank rolls overhead, the imagery of the film is at times terrifying, and at other moments beautiful.
The film is shot with a rather interesting style. Most scenes drained of colour as if to suggest there is nothing worth admiring in a world supposed clear cut and filled with motivated killing.
The Omaha beach sequence is for many an audience the highpoint of the film with horrifying imagery and thrilling battle sequences that throw you straight into what battle was like in a way never shown before. The audience is emotionally engaged from the off, and cleverly no music is used to heighten the tension. The scene is already brilliant and intense enough that nothing needs to be done to heighten the action.
The big crime with this film is that it lost out to its deserved Best Picture Oscar to Shakespeare in Love, a pleasant but utterly slight piece of romantic work. This film has the guts. The emotional weight.
Think outside of the Omaha beach sequence to other heartbreaking, and occasionally funny, moments. The team are forced to lay dormant as one of their men dies before their very eyes. The newcomer to the team trying to figure out what FUBAR means. Another re-writing a dead soldier's letter to his father so that it does not have blood on it. Wade (Ribisi) demanding the morphine that will kill him, and calling out for his mother. A look of horror as one of the team realises he's about to die.
Every moment is brief but remains etched in your mind for life. Whatever you bring to this film it will reward back to you tenfold. There are some that will disagree with my decision based solely on Spielberg's own back catalogue. Though no other film of his will leave you with such an experience, even his supposed masterpiece Schindler's List, throwing you through a whirlwind of emotions as the events unfold.
Not only is this the best work everyone involved has ever done (bar Matt Damon and John Williams). Not only is the best war/combat/ WWII film ever made. Not only is it one of my Top Ten films. Not only is it already a bonafide classic but it is a film that is far more important than its reputation gives it credit for. Seek it out. It's brilliant!
I know why “Shakespeare in Love” won. It had a better script than “Saving Private Ryan”. It was better written and it was not full of itself. As Hollywood producer Darryl Zanuck once stated that the backbone of any movie is the script.
ReplyDeleteAnd another thing, it was a mistake on screenwriter Robert Rodat’s part to portray the old man at the beginning of “Saving Private Ryan” as the title character, who had flashed back to the Normandy Beach landing. The title character was NEVER at the Normandy landing. He had jumped into France the night before with other paratroopers.