Saving Private Ryan

Blood and Guts

In the aftermath of D-Day, a war-weary platoon, decimated after landing on Omaha Beach, are ordered to find a Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), whose three other brothers have been killed within the space of a few days. Ryan's division has parachuted behind enemy lines, as part of the invasion. The mission is to find him and bring him to safety, thus sparing the last surviving member of the Ryan family.

The mission is fraught with potential danger, and when the leader of the platoon, Captain Miller (Tom Hanks), explains the mission to his men, they are resentful that they should have to risk the entire squad for just one man. As their mission progresses, the men become more and more doubtful of the value of the mission, and some of the soldiers begin to lose faith in their captain.

First of all: the hype. There has been some controversy in the United States over the claims of realism in this movie. First of all, there are no Europeans (other than Germans ) featured in the movie. Some British commentators are a bit upset that the only reference to a British character is a derogatory one (about Field Marshall Montgomery). Other complaints include the fact that the actors are far too old for their roles, that in reality, soldiers didn't quite face the non-stop action portrayed in the movie, and so on. These claims are a little unfair. The movie never claims to be the definitive WWII experience; rather, it is a specific tale set against the background of a particular part of the Normandy landing. For example, there are no black soldiers in the movie either (the treatment of whom was not a particularly glorious chapter in the story of the US army in WWII), but it is not relevant to the story. For the same reason, we don't see any of the battles from a German viewpoint either (though presumably the German troops at Normandy were every bit as frightened as the Allies). And it is reasonable to assume that the special forces troops did face a lot of action in the first few days of the invasion, since they were at the front, pushing forward.

The much-hyped opening sequence features the U.S. soldiers landing on Omaha beach into murderous machinegun fire from German fortifications. Soldiers are killed in the landing crafts, drown as they jump into the water, and are slaughtered as they struggle up the beach. It is a grim, brutal sequence, and is probably the most effective of the movie. Soldiers, already terrified, face almost certain death as they attempt to first seek cover, and then to destroy the German bunkers. The action is graphically portrayed; soldiers are dismembered, disembowelled, spout blood and die screaming before our eyes. The whole scene is complete chaos.

It is also a scene not for the fainthearted. If you're not a fan of gore, you are not going to enjoy Saving Private Ryan one little bit. After the initial battle, there is a very brief respite before the action begins again, and pretty much continues to the end of what is a very long movie. Between the main battles which open and close the movie, there is also a series of skirmishes which take their toll on the platoon. Unfortunately, it means that the movie tends to become relentless in its message of "War is Hell!!! Got it ??", and the story suffers at the expense of the non-stop fighting.

The story itself is loosely inspired on a real-life case, where four brothers were killed. And though the platoon cast (particularly Hanks, Tom Sizemore and Edward Burns) are uniformly excellent, the story contains little mystery or originality, other than wondering which members of the squad will survive. Given the huge number of war movies that have already been made, "Saving Private Ryan" follows a well-trodden path. There is a sniper clearing sequence, very similar to the one in Full Metal Jacket, and the climactic battle (which occupies about a third of the movie) is eerily similar to A Bridge Too Far. The Germans don't seem to be as good a shot as the Yanks, either, particularly in the final battle, allowing the platoon to kill hordes of Germans while running around in plain view.

The main theme of the movie is courage; the courage to face death and to conquer fear. Unfortunately, Spielberg is a little heavy-handed in his handling of this theme, and the movie suffers accordingly. Though undoubtedly thought-provoking and well-meaning, the film's humanity is overwhelmed by the action. Spielberg insists that we see every gory detail, and in a movie this long, that means a lot of blood and guts. Less could have been so much more.

Directed by Stephen Spielberg.

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