An emotional and timely masterwork

Rating: Null/10 (10 August 1999)

It's easy to see why those who have not yet faced the task of grieving departed ones might see Saving Private Ryan as sappy and feel manipulated by it. There is little doubt that Spielberg wants to impart strong feelings of tragedy and loss in this film - the same authentic tears that surface each day at the Vietnam War Memorial. To my mind he evokes these feelings with as much, if not more intensity than he did in Schindler's List.

Few directors block a shot to serve feeling, story and characters as well as the mature Spielberg. And in Private Ryan, he scores emotional bullseyes with devasting power. Unlike George Lucas, whose narrative skills have gotten rusty with disuse, Spielberg continues to work hard at his narrative thoughtfulness, economy and authenticity. In Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg shows his mature pacing and mastery in numerous scenes - most notably in his shot coverage of the wordless scene in which Private Ryan's mother realizes she's about to be notified about her sons.
Spielberg's model here is not "Kelly's Heroes" or other war films, but "The Best Years of Our Lives", the late-forties academy award winner that best enshrined and exorcised the post-war experience for WWII vets and families. (Unlike that epic, Private Ryan deserved but was denied the best film Oscar.)
Many cinematic virtues have been attributed to Private Ryan that are to my mind unremarkable. Gritty, realistic action is to be expected from any eight figure 90's battle film. I award Spielberg no points there. Subordinating plot momentum to explore characters episodically is risky, but it's still not a stretch.
What is a stretch, and would be for any director, is achieving the utter respect, reverence and quietude the average viewer leaves the theater with just fifteen minutes after the sense-numbing climactic battle scenes are over. This is primarily because Private Ryan's opening and closing scenes bracket the cinematic tour de force with a much quieter and still-current personal reality. How many were saved in similar sacrifices? How did my own father or grandfather survive? When we realize what is truly owed, we're all humbled.
The open and pliant soul who has known grief and loss first-hand and who watches this masterwork cannot help but reconsider the sacrifice of a generation of young men - and the connection between those young men on the screen and the very real 75 year old men still walking our streets.
It is this accomplishment, this bridge that Spielberg built between three generations of twentieth century Americans that impresses me. It's a film that had to come when it did - for us living now. Although future generations may benefit from watching Private Ryan, by then the generation portrayed on screen will have passed away. For now, they are still with us and have stories to tell. Private Ryan awakened my gratitude to them.

Call Private Ryan sappy if you like. I know it left a fingerprint on my heart deeper and more meaningful than ET ever did. For those of you who don't get it, I hope you'll ask your grandparents and listen to their stories while they're still alive. Maybe you'll relate more personally to the material.