The message of Saving Private Ryan

Rating: Null/10 (3 August 1998)

When a film like Saving Private Ryan (hereafter SPR) is released, too often people focus more upon the film itself than the message that it carries. SPR is a brilliantly filmed, marvelously executed story, but it is not a perfect film. No movie could ever be perfect and please everyone. I will not deny that the flaws many have pointed out here are not present - but I disagree that those flaws render the movie less impactful or important. This was a film that NEEDED to be made, because if one can look beyond the film itself to the message that it delivers, I believe that this film shows better than any other the terrible futility of warfare and the fundamental endurance of the human spirit against all odds. SPR is, ultimately, an allegory. The story of eight men sent out to find one stranger in the midst of hell on earth is not what is important. Yes, it is unbelievable that a situation like this, which defies all logic, could actually occur. But nothing about war is logical. This is proved so brilliantly through Speilburg's film. Take, for example, the scene where Mellisch fights the nameless German soldier in hand-to-hand combat. It is, perhaps, one of the most brutal fighting sequences ever filmed, and in its brutality, Speilburg is showing us just how insane war can become. This situation, as is pointed out repeatedly throughout the film, is FUBAR - it defies all attempt to be processed rationally. Why should eight men be forced to risk their lives to save one? Why should eight hundred, or eight thousand, or eight million risk their lives fighting in a war to save the lives of civilians, total strangers? We are all indebted to these men - we are all, in a sense, "Private Ryan". By allowing us to view warfare through the eyes of the ordinary GI's who fought and died, Speilburg is giving us, as civilians, a window into the hellish nightmare that is modern warfare. It is a gift, of sorts - the chance to experience what those who sacrificed their lives for us went through. I, for one, am deeply grateful that these men found it in themselves to transcend themselves and risk everything so that I could be born in a country that is free. Not only is this a powerfully patriotic film for Americans, it also carries a message for humanity as a whole. We must, as a species, consider the costs of warfare, and decide whether another such sacrifice is necessary.