The costs of war; the worth of the individual

Rating: 9/10 (4 May 1999)

Spielberg was shunned by the Oscar nominations last year in large part due to the controversy over who deserved the writing credit for "Amistad." (Then of course there's the whole white-director-black-story issue, for which he's been paying ever since "The Color Purple".but don't get me started on that.) It may have been the best possible move for him to work with Tom "He Can Do No Wrong" Hanks this time out. This is definitely a five-hankie picture: I wept continuously for the first twenty minutes and was on the brink of tears for almost the entire remainder of its three-hours-plus running time. Spielberg has an uncanny ability to confront us on film with things that require our social and individual attention--consider "The Color Purple," "Empire of the Sun," "Schindler's List," "Amistad," and now "Saving Private Ryan." That these films were made by the same man who directed "Jaws," "E.T.," and the Indiana Jones movies is astonishing. No other filmmaker working today produces this variety of films, from those intended to prod and provoke thoughtful adults to those that speak so clearly to our children and to the child in each of us. "Saving Private Ryan" is a devastating depiction of and meditation on the costs of war, a heart-breaking but ultimately affirming examination of individual human worth. Tom Hanks is Everyman, with whom we can all identify, and Matt Damon is the titular Private Ryan, a beaming, scrub-faced, bright-eyed beautiful boy whom we all want to save. What is one man's life worth? What are the consequences of inhumanity? What is the value of integrity? This film shows us that society cannot answer these questions; the answers lie inside, and must come from within.