"Quite A View"

Rating: 9/10 (1 January 2004)

Is "Saving Private Ryan" the greatest war movie ever made? I don't think I've seen one better. If there is one better, I don't think I could manage to sit through it, anyway. Though it is intense, violent, and bloody, it is also entertainment, albeit of the profoundest kind. Even those viewers who normally pass up opportunities to be shocked and appalled by on-screen violence should not deny themselves the chance of seeing this great film at least once.
People discussing this picture tend to agree on one thing: The Omaha Beach sequence that starts the story proper is the high point of the picture. I concur. It throws some awful imagery at the viewer, making you feel like you are a part of the landing. As bullets rip into the innards of men around you, you almost feel like you are in mortal danger. But the sequence works not because of the bloodiness, but because of the pacing. Despite the objections of some, director Stephen Spielberg doesn't push your face in gore unrelievedly, but creates a story in this sequence that has a clear beginning, middle, and end. Spielberg makes you feel the human cost of the battle in some small way (he never pretends to be capturing all of it) but keeps the camera focused on characters like Tom Hanks's Cpt. Miller and Tom Sizemore's Sgt. Horvath who you feel are going to make it through at least this fight. Much of the carnage is shown in small flashes, or in the corners of the frame. At the risk of trivializing the actual conflict, the result is like a rollercoaster ride, a mighty daunting one that you feel some measure of achievement after you sit through it once, and actually grows more powerful with repeat viewings, which is not as horrible once you have seen it once and gotten a good idea who lives and dies.
The rest of the film can only pale in comparison, and is often unfairly dismissed for losing some of the momentum of Omaha. But how could any director, however great, sustain such momentum? And who would want to?
Instead, the film goes into a section that I think is even more affecting, when we see the typing pool where female clerks rattle out pro forma letters from "Joes" who speak in male voices about how each casualty was the finest and best soldier they ever had the privilege of serving with. Then one woman notices her letter is addressed to the same mother as another she just finished typing, and the central plot is set in motion. Three brothers have been killed in action, it turns out, and a fourth is missing in action and must be found. Harve Presnell as George C. Marshall, U.S. Army Chief of Staff, recites from memory a letter sent by Abraham Lincoln nearly a century ago, in the process giving one of the most powerful performances in a movie full of them, and then we get a sequence that visually quotes Norman Rockwell as Mrs. Ryan wordlessly gets word of `the sacrifice she has laid on the altar of freedom.' Watching her collapse on her porch as the priest emerges from the black sedan is not easily done with dry eyes, because we understand by then how commonplace this sort of thing was.
There are moments of humor in "Saving Private Ryan," too, much of it from Tom Hanks' central performance. His laconic comment when a German on a loudspeaker announces "the Statue of Liberty is kaput" is priceless, and even as the body count mounts, there is a sense of this somehow being made endurable by the company of Miller and his men. Hanks keeps his schtick in harness most of the time, but when he does allow for some jocularity, we are actually grateful.
The film slips a couple of times, but not in any major way. The biggest misstep for me was when Miller goes off and cries after losing one man. It's the one episode of actorly indulgence in a film that otherwise steers clear of such theatrics, though it may work for others.
Even the final battle for the town of Remmel, though fictional, is done in a realistic and committed way. Some of the most violent and gruesome moments occur here, and they are all the more difficult to endure because we now know the soldiers fighting and dying in a way we didn't at Omaha.
The music by John Williams and the cinematography by Janusz Kaminski are simply brilliant, neither calling your attention as they serve their scenes in an efficient manner. The sound, the editing, all are of a high order and will no doubt inspire moviemakers for generations to come.
People who say `Saving Private Ryan' is not war but Hollywood are right, but miss the point. This is an example of Hollywood getting it right, and creating something enduring. I will always be thankful I managed to sit through "Ryan" once, because it made me want to see it again. Give this film the same chance, and I bet you will agree.