Saving
Private Ryan (1998)
"Saving Private Ryan" is a rawk show! Definitely the
best film I've seen this year. It will win a lot of
Academy Awards, trust me. When they storm the beach
at Normandy in the beginning of the film, it is like
you are there. I kept thinking of that line from "Patton"
where he talks about when you "stick your hand in a
pile of goo that used to be your best friend's face..."
that's what a lot of this film is like. The battle sequences
are just like what war must have really been like in
that time. The combat segments are the most realistic
scenes of WWII action you will ever see in a movie.
Period. It's awesome. (I couldn't also help from thinking
that Sam Fuller would love this movie!)
And the acting in the film is top fucking notch! Tom
Hanks is Oscar bound again. He continues on his path
to be the finest screen actor we will ever see in our
lifetimes. His character here blows us away and he's
the kind of guy we would all pray to have as a leader
if we were in war. It's remarkable. Edward Burns, Giovanni
Ribisi, Matt Damon... they are all awesome in their
roles. I don't think it could get much better than this.
There is one character in the piece that fails. He lets
his fellow soldiers down. There are deaths because of
his cowardice. It's frighteningly realistic. We pray
that we would not be so crippled by fear during the
intense moments of battle. We hope that we would somehow
muster up the courage to act. But how can we be sure?
We don't hate this character. We pity him.
Spielberg does a fantastic job and this might be his
finest film ever... Yes, even better than "Schindler's
List" or "E.T." His camera swoops along with the action
in documentary fashion with most of the shots taken
with the camera low to the ground. He never ever lets
the tension of the war evaporate. Even in the quietist
moments, we can feel the battle going on in the background...
in our subconscious. And the film is filled with some
many wonderful little moments that the whole scope of
the film is impossible to encompass in written dissertations
or verbal communication. The moments where the soldiers
talk, about home, about life, about their unspoken uncertainty.
It's riveting. The little stories they tell, the moments
they share, make us feel like we know them. This is
all the more troubling and affecting when their climactic
moments come. The film never ceases to involve us, whether
in battle or dealing with human emotions and frailties.
A particularly odd and poignant scene comes when Adam
Goldberg, as a soldier, taunts a defeated group of German
soldiers as they are marched by him. He does this by
holding a Star of David Medallion out toward them and
shouting in German that he is a "Yuden," a Jew. It's
small moments like these, a pixel in the big picture
that Spielberg presents here, that make the piece as
a whole so effective.
Spielberg bookends the film with a present day setting
that is a little hokey and cinematic, but it doesn't
matter. The meat of the film is simply awesome. With
the closing scene, we are forced to remember all that
these men who fought in the war did for us. All that
they sacrificed. They were our fathers and grandfathers,
our Uncles and brothers and sons and neighbors. Thanks
to Spielberg and this remarkable film, we are reminded
of all that was given so that we could be free, so that
we and others would not be persecuted. Even in today's
troubling and confusing times that still means something.
It may mean everything.
When Hanks tells Private Ryan to "earn this," to earn
all that we as people have recieved by the courage and
the bravery and the lives of soldiers, he is reminding
us we all must earn this. Everyday in every way.
Note:
Also with Tom Sizemore, Jeremy Davies, Vin Diesel,
Dennis Farina, Ted Danson, Barry Pepper and Harve Presnell.
Script by Robert Rodat; Also by Frank Darabont and
Scott Frank (both uncredited). Cinematography by Janusz
Kaminski. Score by John Williams. Edith Piaf's music
is played and interpreted. Spielberg also acts as a
producer.
Spielberg thought of casting Damon after seeing him
in "Courage Under Fire" but thought him too skinny.
Robin Williams brought the director to the set of "Good
Will Hunting" and changed his mind.
The filming switched from the UK to Ireland after
the British Ministry of Defense reneged on providing
soldiers to act as extras in the film. Filmed also in
England and France.
Many of the actors in the film have directed their
own movies, most notably Burns, but also Hanks, Goldberg
and Diesel.
Ribisi appeared in Hank's "That Thing You Do" and
Goldberg's "Scotch and Milk." Goldberg and Ribisi also
appeared in TV's "Friends."
Note: Review written in 1998
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