War is hell

Rating: 9/10 (12 June 2011)

In the late-90s there were two particular films that redefined their particular genres. Saving Private Ryan was one of them (the other, unfortunately, was The Matrix). Almost every war movie that followed SPR, right down to 2008's Rambo, seemed to be no more than a pastiche of Spielberg's hectic style.
SPR proves what an inconsistent filmmaker Spielberg can be. The man has had his fair share of misfires (Hook, anyone?) but this was his last truly great effort. War of the Worlds and Munich were good, though hardly as revolutionary, but The Terminal, Catch Me If You Can, and the movie that called itself Indy IV were all just too gutless and inoffensive. You'd never believe they were from the same director if you didn't know better.
A lot of critics have repeatedly praised SPR over the years, but they all praise the same things (the documentary style, the realism, etc.) Simultaneously, a lot of people have dismissed it as shallow, badly-written, and void of any thrills beyond the 30-minute mark. But look beneath the surface and you'll find that SPR does actually have a tight screenplay, despite going through the motions on few occasions. The wide and diverse cast (including Paul Giamatti, Ted Danson, Dennis Farina, and Dale Dye) do good with the material. It's refreshing for a war movie to move beyond the 'point of view of one man' cliché.
Janusz Kaminski's desaturated, gritty, high-shutter-speed photography is full of deep blacks and high contrast. This look has been imitated to death over the years, but coupled with Spielberg's hurried, almost unscripted approach to the action it adds an element of authenticity to the film that the copycats have not been able to emulate.
You really have to feel for all those poor soldiers who were massacred on Omaha Beach (all men, I should point out). But what a badly planned mission. No flack jackets, no smoke screens to cover their landing...warfare has come so far in 65 years, it would be insane to send so many hundreds off to die like that now. Many of them were pure cannon fodder and the Military knew it. The film certainly does not hold back on the bloody carnage. Most WWII movies up until that point were sanitized and bloodless. Hardly realistic at all!
The 169 minute running time passes fairly quickly. The film certainly doesn't deserve the criticism that nothing interesting happens after the beach invasion. As it has been imitated many times since, some of then innovative moments (such as the silent 'war is hell' amid battle chaos - which this film does three times!) have become clichés, but don't judge SPR for it.
The film won 5 Oscars, but lost the Best Picture award to Shakespeare in Love, which is absolutely insane. I mean...what were they thinking??? SPR is most certainly a classic, and one of the most innovative and important war films of the past two decades, while Shakespeare in Love is largely forgotten.