The horrors of war have never before been so vividly and graphically depicted as they are in Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg s welcome homage to WWII veterans. After a short prelude, the film flashes back to the casualty-laden invasion at Omaha Beach. For the next 28 minutes, we are assaulted with such a cacophony of aural and visual stimuli as to have a visceral effect upon us. This film is not for the squeamish.
War amply demonstrates the brutality that men are capable of inflicting upon one another.
Saving Private Ryan does not sanitize that brutality for us. Three of the four Ryan brothers were killed in military action within days of each other. Trouble is, with all the confusion of the multi-tiered invasion, no one knows exactly where young Pvt. He and his squadron set off through the battle-scarred countryside of France, encountering skirmish after skirmish as they search for Pvt. All of these actors are deserving of more praise than the length of this column will allow.