500WOL Review of Saving Private Ryan
Original Review Can Be Found Here
For Memorial Day, makes sense to dedicate my next review to the greatest war movie in the history of filmmaking.
Saving Private Ryan isn’t a film as much as it is an experience. Steven Spielberg fascinates me because he doesn’t have a truly recognizable distinctive style, like a Quentin Tarantino, a Wes Anderson or a Stanley Kubrick. But that being said, he still creates gold from any potential blockbuster experience regardless of genre; whether its science fiction like Jurassic Park and Minority Report, or an adventure flick like the Indiana Jones TRILOGY (there is no fourth chapter) and the extremely underrated Adventures of Tintin, or even horror like Jaws and on a lesser scale Poltergeist. But Saving Private Ryan isn’t meant to be fun, even if its an engaging movie from start to finish.
PG-13 war movies always bother me because war is never ever PG-13 unless you want to gloss over details or censor the content. But even then, few war films feel as raw, as intense, as engaging as Saving Private Ryan. The cinematography gave it a gruesome documentary feel, the editing was sharp yet never shies away from the carnage, and the sound design deserves all the Oscars. This movie started the clichés of that ringing sound that comes after gunfire and impact, it predates the handheld camera movement you see in the infamous opening sequence, and essentially invented this color palate that you associate with wartime films—that dark gritty visual which enhances the details of the subjects while dictating the somber tone of the environment. The attention to detail makes it Spielberg-esque, but up to this point he never made a film quite like this.
Saving Private Ryan is a basic storyline with intense stakes, as an entire family line is threatened by the costs of war. Therefore, a team of soldiers are sent to find the last link before World War 2 eliminates yet another bloodline. With over 85 million people dead, its safe to assume the worst disaster in global history eradicated entire histories of families throughout the globe. You don’t really spend much time with one individual person, even if Tom Hanks as Captain Miller is the person you gravitate towards the most. But the cast, despite you more focused on the mission as opposed to character arcs, is downright amazing: Matt Damon, Paul Giamatti, a slew of good character actors, and of course Tom Hanks. God, that final act and heartbreaking ending, succeeded thanks to flawless acting.
It baffles me that the man behind Jurassic Park and E.T. can flip the script, direct a war epic and change the genre forever. I jokingly say I never watch war movies anymore because of Saving Private Ryan, but the reality is I doubt I will ever find a cinematic war experience like this one. This film is the best representative of the horrors of war, and the sacrifices made to keep the United States standing even as the world was falling apart.
Score: 10/10