SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

Part Two of My Examination of War in Film.

"This time the mission is the man."

In 1998, two war films came out, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, and that other one. RYAN was an event for a reason. While THE THIN RED LINE is a better film in my opinion, there is no denying the emotional punch that Steven Spielberg's bloody World War II opus packs.

Where THE THIN RED LINE starts off in a slow, euphoric, meditative state, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN opens with a bang. Maybe The Big Bang if we are talking about war movies. The opening sequence is one for the ages, showing the American invasion of Omaha Beach at Normandy on D-Day. The violence is brutal and emotionally shattering, and Spielberg isn't afraid to lay it on the audience heavy and often.

The Omaha Beach sequence introduces the audience to the main protagonists of the film. Tom Hanks is subtle and quiet as Captain John Miller, who leads his squad of seven men throughout Europe to find Private Ryan, a paratrooper who has lost his three brothers, all of whom were killed in action. Ryan is played by Matt Damon, in one of his first screen roles. The men in Miller's outfit can not fathom why the government considers one man's life important enough to risk those of eight others.

Where THE THIN RED LINE contemplated life and death (among many other things), SAVING PRIVATE RYAN focuses on the day-to-day battle for life that soldiers experience. While it is bleak and a soberingly realistic account of war, it is still an uplifting experience. Spielberg has always been an inspirational filmmaker, and he has always been able to find a light at the end of the bleakest of tunnels. The ultimate purpose of war is for peace and life, and Spielberg understands this, presenting it in a way that is sentimental but not hokey or sappy.

As different as the two films are, I can't help but compare RYAN with THE THIN RED LINE. While the former is a great envisioning of war, especially in its staging of battle and in its unflinching look at the graphic nature of it, it does not quite reach the poetic heights that its 1998 counterpart. It shows exactly what its audience wants to see: the Americans overcoming adversary in the face of their enemies to save the day. Does it present this idea well? Absolutely. Does it really challenge its audience, more than shocking them with graphic violence and pulling at their heartstrings? Not really. That said, it is an emotionally exhausting epic, and the attachment to its characters that it creates is undeniable. It is a great war film.

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