Review of Saving Private Ryan (1998) by Gregory G — 17 Dec 2014

Steven Spielberg's gritty, realistic World War II epic was highly acclaimed and won Oscars including Best Director. After a prologue in the present day, there is a flashback to the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day.

The opening twenty minutes or so of the invasion contains the most intense, visceral experience of war I've ever seen. Shot with de-saturated colors reminiscent of photos seen in Life magazine at the time and relying heavily on hand-held cameras, Janusz Kaminski's cinematography captures the look and feel of battle to brilliant effect.

It has the effect of a combat photographer on the run as the camera even goes into the water with the soldiers. Spielberg also has scenes where the audio drops so that we feel the effect of a soldier's temporary hearing loss.

Unfortunately, the rest of the movie delves into more conventional territory and the film never lives up to the opening. Tom Hanks leads a platoon of soldiers on a PR mission to rescue a Pvt. Ryan (Matt Damon), whose brothers were killed during the war, so he can be sent home.

From a storytelling standpoint the purpose of the mission makes little sense. The characterizations of the platoon are mostly stereotypes. There is a scene involving the capture of a German soldier that leads to a cliche revelation so that we're supposed to see how evil Germans were.

Spielberg lacks the moral complexity of Kubrick or Renoir. It succeeds as an examination of the heroism of war but its too jingoistic to be an antiwar movie. The conclusion bogs down in sentimentality and we leave the theater feeling more manipulated than moved.

Won Oscars for Best Director, Cinematography, Editing, Sound, Sound Effects Editing. With Tom Sizemore, Ed Burns, Jeremy Davies, Adam Goldberg, Barry Pepper, Dennis Farina, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Deisel, Paul Giamatti, Ted Danson.

Selected for preservation by the National Film Registry.