Many elements of greatness don't necessarily make a great movie ...

Rating: 6/10 (15 November 2010)

'Great' is such a big word, you can fill it with so many expressions like spectacular, thrilling, heart-breaking, gut-wrenching, emotional, inspirational etc. etc. My problem with "Saving Private Ryan" is that it has all these elements but still ... at the end, I have a big feeling of 'emptiness', it's like all these things cancel each other out.
The opening sequence is one of the most spectacular you'll ever see in a War movie, Spielberg knows how to deal with visual effects and the sound editing, the shaky movements of the camera gives a realistic depiction of the chaos dominating these battles, even the word 'battle' is too feeble to describe the intensity of the massacre. The sky is gray on this D-Day, the sea is reddened by the sacrifice of these young soldiers, the air is a vicious enemy that can send you a bullet where it feels like to. Your life is as worthless as money in a lottery. Indeed this opening sequence was very promising, but I had mixed feelings after. I hoped the movie would stay in the same level of realism and greatness on one side. On the other side, I wished it wouldn't contain other sickeningly violent sequences. Unfortunately, none of these wishes were satisfied.
The film flirts with fantasy right after the battle sequence, where the mission of Captain Miller's men is finally exposed. They will have to save one soldier, Private Ryan, the only one left to a family who already lost 3 sons, his brothers. To spare a tragedy for one soldier's family, eight of them will try to find him and risk their lives. We don't know this Ryan yet, he's only a name, a quest, but we get used to these characters, we follow them and have sympathy for them, but at each step of their odyssey, one will be killed. It becomes almost a routine. We're not supposed to think of their family, or the loss caused by this mission. They just die and the mission must go on. It seems that Ryan's life has more value. At this point, I remember "Schindler's List" beautiful statement "Whoever saves one life, saves the humanity" but the people who were saved, didn't choose their destiny, they were victims, the alternative was death. Ryan wanted to be a soldier, to fight, he never wanted to be saved, isn't the movie about duty, wasn't Ryan accomplishing his? So what's the point of risking the lives of soldiers who want to fight instead of looking for a man who's not a prisoner, to save one who didn't ask for it. Nonsense, and dangerous reasoning implying that some 'external' elements make your life more valuable than the others.
Which in fact, brings me to the biggest problem I had with the film. Life's value. The movies tries to be inspiring by making these soldiers heroes, but to make them heroes, it creates villains by totally dehumanizing the enemy, when a War movie makes me cheer for one human being killed, I feel manipulated, and I become distant ... when a coward like Upham becomes Rambo at the end, and when Steamboat Willie revealed himself as the sneaky bastard they thought he was ... I said, okay, Spieleberg is pushing the Manichean button a little too far. Of course, when you consider the atrocities committed by the enemy, it's impossible to root for the soldiers equally, but that's the challenge when you make a war movie, you can make a Manichean blockbuster (easy choice) or a disturbing masterpiece (challenge) ... I disliked "Saving Private Ryan" for the same reason I loved "All Quiet on the Western Front", "Paths of Glory", "Apocalypse Now", "Platoon" or "Das Boot".
This movie is great in all the meanings of the word and that's the problem, it's "too great", it tries too much ... I loved the opening scene, and another one will torture me forever, it's the scene where Melish begs for his life when he lost the fight, that part killed me ... it felt so real, I couldn't breath ... literally. To conclude, a solid block-buster movie with some unforgettable scenes but not the inspirational masterpiece they claim it to be.