Saving Private Ryan is two films -- one terrific, the other just okay.

Rating: 8/10 (23 April 1999)

Saving Private Ryan was two films, for me. The opening Omaha Beach landing sequence of 'Ryan' produced the most intense feeling I've ever experienced while watching a movie. Spielberg manages to trap history in a bottle and the sights and sounds -- especially the sounds -- are terrifying. Like the car chase in Steve McQueen's 'Bullit', Spielberg sets a marker that will hard to duplicate. After it was over I fully felt deserving of a campaign ribbon to wear on my polo shirt.
Having thus been promised a peek into history, I was overly disappointed with Part II which degenerates into just a good action flic. Spielberg junks historical accuracy for post Vietnam sensibilities. Captain John Miller (Hanks) and his squad of Rangers are portrayed as post Vietnam philosophers who dwell on the unfairness of having to risk their lives for a political necessity -- saving the fictional Private Ryan. In point of fact, the loss of the five Sullivan brothers when their ship, the USS Juneau, was sunk in 1942 resulted in changed Navy policy about allowing brothers to serve on the same ship. The public wanted (but never got) a law to that effect. So, the idea of saving Private Ryan would not have struck these 1944 Rangers as particularly odd. The movie, though, portrays Gen. George C. Marshall as a callous political hack for recognizing this exigency. While the World War II grunt fought for the same reason all grunts fight -- honor (cowardice, at least in 1944, was still viewed as more distasteful than death), these guys need fulfillment.
Other lapses continued to shake me out of my trance. A cameo appearance by Ted Danson, for instance, seemed out of place and I found myself thinking about Normy and Carla on Omaha Beach, and the pre-production Hollywood party when Spielberg says, "say Ted, if you're not doing anything tomorrow... ." Later, this squad of savvy Rangers is seen marching in file on the crest of a ridge, fully back-lit by the moon. Hardly something out of the Ranger survival guide. The action sequences, as always in a Spielberg production, were terrific, but by the end of Part 2 I was cynical about Spielberg's motives. Rated 8 out of 10 overall.