Movie Review: Saving Private Ryan
Rating: 4 Stars
There are a bevy of qualities that can make a film great. I often point to great writing as the backbone of a great film. Great writing is buoyed by great acting. Enter expert cinematography, sound design, editing, among other features. Place them all within the reach of top-notch direction, you have achieved the peak cinematic experience.
But before I can go handing out any crowns or four-star ratings, the most important characteristic a film can achieve is the feeling you’re left with while the end credits roll. In one word, it’s a film’s impact that makes it such a unique entertainment medium.
Saving Private Ryan is a film perfectly designed to be impactful from its rip-roaring opening action scene to its melancholy end credits.
After a brief flash-forward, Saving Private Ryan opens with World War II’s most iconic moment in American eyes, storming the beaches of Normandy. Close-up shots bare the trembling hands of Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) who anxiously awaits to disembark his watercraft. The imminent horror awaiting him is only to be exposed to endless machine gun and mortar fire on the beach.
What belies us is a scene so chaotic, confused, and violent, that it’s impossible not to be swept up in the action. The shocking visual effects of severed bodies and faces timed impeccably with the sound of war appear effortless under Steven Spielberg’s direction. Soldiers appear to be moving but making no progress. Captain Miller becomes frozen in time as his comrades vie for his command. Camera movement and placement are paramount in this scene and many to come.
Miller pulls together and his squad clears the beach but heavy casualties are sustained. The ruthlessness of war is prominent. No punches are pulled. Even Hanks who is famous for his benevolent disposition plays his role with a notable disaffection to a higher moral standard. Indubitably Hanks’ Miller is eventually the film’s moral and philosophical compass, but there’s a significant journey to get the payoff established from the jump.
Miller and his men are diverted on a mission to pull off the titular feat of saving Private Ryan. There’s an early cutaway with the Army’s Chief of Staff who orders the controversial mission to send many men to save the life of one man. Ryan’s brothers had all lost their lives fighting in the war in quick succession. His mother is set to receive the news all at once.
The unspoken question is how much value can be placed on life in the face of a great war? The film details the countless letters mothers and fathers across the States received regarding the deaths of their children.
If Private Ryan’s mother were to receive this same message for each one of her children, could she be blamed for losing her faith in the land of freedom, liberty, and justice for all? What justice has she been served by her country?
Contrast that sentiment with the battles ahead for Captain Miller and his men. Miller’s men quickly become jaded by the news that they must all risk their lives to not only find one solitary man but also ensure that he’ll be sent home. They must risk their self-preservation on the whims of the United States government.
The most polarizing character comes in the form of the squad’s translator, Corporal Upham (Jeremy Davies). Upham lacks the bravado necessary to fraternize amongst Miller’s brazen crew. When death becomes an imminently thrust upon him, he is only paralyzed by fear. There are several moments in Saving Private Ryan where the world freezes to allow the contemplation of self-preservation to infiltrate our minds. How far is too far when the mission is to risk your life to save someone you’ve never met? Someone who might not be alive.
Most war films tend to ask pointed questions regarding the duality of man, the rationale behind acceptable losses, and the stability and fragility of a power structure in the heat of intense battle. War movies have always had a lot of meat and bone to gnaw on and it’s no surprise some of the best movies revolve around war stories.
Spielberg would follow Saving Private Ryan with some worthy entries into his expansive catalog. Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can would soon follow but it may be fair to say Spielberg hasn’t reached such cinematic heights since his 90s run. Considering how Jaws shaped the future of the thriller genre, Saving Private Ryan is the gold standard for war films. When the soldiers aren’t wearing writer Robert Rodat’s masterfully crafted narrative on their sullen beleaguered faces, the cinematographer reveals a landscape that does. Saving Private Ryan is a masterpiece.
