Saving Private Ryan

Rating: Null/10 (12 November 2012)

A war film unparalleled in almost every respect, Saving Private Ryan is framed by a present-day story about an elderly man visiting a military cemetery with his family. He reaches a nondescript gravestone and falls to his knees, uncontrollably weeping. Within this frame of reference is another set of bookends: two unforgettable battle sequences. Like its epic World War II film predecessors—The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far—Saving Private Ryan features a long list of key and supporting actors, including: Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, Matt Damon, Ted Danson, Paul Giamatti, Dennis Farina, and Bryan Cranston. Also like its predecessors, the featured actors, who may or may not have served, do justice to the material and pay tribute, with earnest portrayals, to the men who helped make their comfortable American lifestyles possible. The first battle, at Omaha Beech during the landings at Normandy, is staggeringly realistic in its brutal recreation of June 6, 1944. The omnipresence of Spielberg's documentary-style camera assures us that the relentless intensity of that violent confrontation does not escape our attention, even if no single viewpoint could have witnessed the totality of the carnage. Back in the States, a woman in a government office, typing sympathy letters to mothers of soldiers killed in action, notices what appears to be a discrepancy, but reveals itself as the premise of the plot: a soldier named James Ryan has lost all three of his brothers in battle. The order to find Ryan and secure his safe return home falls to Captain John Miller (Hanks) who, along with those members of his squad who have survived the landing, embark on a rescue mission, the value of which they question every step of the way. Writer Robert Rodat makes a valiant attempt to weave character development, philosophy, and humor into the action-oriented middle. Much of it succeeds; some of it rings false. The more effective moments of character revelation are in those scenes that are divorced momentarily from the action, like the one that takes place in the ruins of the church, or the one on the steps. Easily the most heart-wrenching (and gut-wrenching) scene finds Medic Irwin Wade (Ribisi) downed by gunfire, surrounded by the group trying to tend to his wounds through his guidance. He asks them for clinical descriptions of what they are seeing and feeling, and then becomes anguished when he deduces that he has been hit in the liver. They beg him to tell them how to fix him. Resigned to his fate, he just asks for more morphine. When we finally meet up with Private Ryan (Damon), he refuses to abandon "the only brothers he has left." There is some talk about conflicting orders and impossible decisions, but it seems obvious what has to happen: Miller and his men will assist Ryan's squad in securing the bridge before sending Ryan home. The development of Ryan's character is, to say the least, disappointing. I have two brothers of my own, and I find it hard to believe that a man, even after two years of displacement, would not be able to picture the faces of any of his brothers, and the only story that he chooses to relate about his brothers (and the only one we witness) is frivolous, emotionless, and unfunny. I also find Upham's cowardly hesitation a bit difficult to comprehend, as genuinely moving is his moment of redemption. In the end, what we learn about these men is that they are ordinary. The emotions we feel at their passing are not for distinctly drawn, sympathetic characters that we have come to know and love—without whom we can't bear to endure; these overtaking emotions stem from our projections onto those real men who lost real lives in defense of our own. Therein lies the successful failure of Saving Private Ryan: whether intentional or not, the non-commanding presence of its fictional characters, paralleled by John Williams' brilliantly simplistic three-note theme, leaves room for the audience to ponder and appreciate the quiet, commonplace heroism of those average people who fought the actual war. When Captain Miller tells Private Ryan to "earn this," in a sense, he is asking us to live our lives in a way that will earn the price paid by those bands of brothers who sacrificed it all.