*CONTAINS SPOILERS*
I caught Saving Private Ryan in a DVD sale recently and decided to watch it again for the first time in ages.
First thing that struck me is how powerful the film remains all these years later. There are scenes all the way through that will shock, sadden and occasionally also intrigue and uplift.
Most of all, though, it is great in the same way that Touching the Void is - it shows us the incredible hardships human beings will endure for a cause, whether that be survival or something else entirely.
The opening scene shows an aged man approaching a white cross (from the familiar harrowing seas of white crosses used as war graves). He becomes emotional as he looks down at it, and the camera zooms to his eyes to take us back in time.
Next, the Omaha Beach scene occupies the first 30 minutes of the film. It gives us a mere hellish taste of how horrific such a scenario would have been. Men are cut down again and again, mortars severing limbs of those trying to hide from the bullets. There is a non-stop chorus of screaming and shooting.
Tom Hanks plays the captain of a squad of Rangers landing there, and he is "lucky" enough to survive the initial landing. We see the rest of the destruction from his viewpoint more or less, but the filming style is chaotic and disjointed.
Several scenes really stick with you, as I still remember them from the first time I saw the film years ago. In one, a soldier missing an arm staggers around the beach in shock, paying no attention to the bullets all around him. Eventually, he picks up his severed limb and wanders slowly off-screen with it, apparently unsure what he was going to do with it.
Hanks himself said that even though he knew that everything he saw on the set was comprised of special effects, even he found himself shocked when actors nearby were suddenly collapsing all around.
The film is commendable for it's portrayal of both sides. While seen from an Allied perspective, both sides are seen to be capable of equal cruelty and mercy. Allied soldiers execute surrendering German soldiers at several points throughout the film (and in fact, one of the film's largest moral dilemnas hinges on this). Germans kill the wounded without hesitation. It's a huge moral grey-area, frequently crossing into ugly and very murky territory.
I think a very interesting statement is made by Wade, Hanks' squad medic, played by Giovanni Ribisi. He announces he has "stopped the bleeding" on a casualty, only for the wounded man to be killed by more bullets seconds afterwards. "Just give us a fucking chance!" he screams. It's peculiar but understandable that "fairness" be expected in warfare, but it's interesting to wonder at just where the line should be drawn, or if there is a line at all.
After the beach is taken, we see the squad progress on a new mission to bring home the titular "Private Ryan", whose 3 brothers have all died in service, in order to save his mother an absolutely horrendous blow and the US Government a public embarrassment.
Barry Pepper, one of my favourite actors for this role in particular, plays Jackson, a very religious sniper in Hanks' squad. Jackson is quite poetic in voicing his opinions and has a tendency to kiss his cross and begin religious prayers whenever looking through the scope of his gun.
That a character takes comfort from God when seemingly violating the Commandments is the obvious point of interest for the role. However, it's also compared in the film to the "God is on our side" propaganda of the time, and how appropriate or inappropriate that was to the war situation.
Medic Wade was perhaps my favourite character of the film however. The film makes time for even the more "minor" characters, which contributes to the idea that all these men are equally valuable both to the plot and to us as an audience.
He has a quiet reflection upon his past in one of the film's quieter moments, describing how his mother would always work late, and he would try to stay up as a child to talk to her, but often fall asleep. Then he mentions that sometimes she would get home early, stand in the doorway, but he would pretend to be asleep.
There is a long pause, and then he says "I don't know why I did that."
I think there's something we can all identify with in that line - something we did or even still do to deny ourselves what we actually want in order to prove some kind of "point" perhaps. When it comes to what's important, we suddenly realise how foolish and petty that was. Wade realises that he was denying himself something very important at that moment, just with that simple line of dialogue, and indeed that he might never see his mother again.
Later in the film, Wade is fatally wounded off-screen. His death is perhaps the most high-impact of any in the film. As a medic, he tries to assess his own injuries while the others attempt to stop him bleeding, eventually crying out with horrendous despair "Oh God, it's my liver!"
He asks for more morphine to "fix himself", and the squad realise that he simply wants to dull his pain and die. As he fades away, he cries out for his mother, tragically highlighting his past musings.
This desire for the presence of a mother figure apparently occurred a lot when men really died during the war (in fact, a man is seen shouting the same thing on Omaha beach earlier in the film). The film reflects that in much of the character's speech.
As an example, I think another one of the most touching bits of dialogue comes from the rebellious Private Reiben (Edward Burns), who describes a mischievious and rude encounter with an older lady. He mentions how he was helping her try on a dress he knew was too small for her, and laughs when recalling her breasts.
His story builds up to be more and more crude, with his colleagues laughing at the situation, until he retells what she said to him upon noticing his wandering eyes:
""Now when you're over there, if you see anything that upsets you, if you're ever scared, I want you to close your eyes and think of these. You understand?" So I said, "Yes, ma'am.""
Instantly the mood changes - the laughter and grins drop immediately and the soldiers suddenly become self-conscious and silent. Spielberg masterfully turns something apparently shallow and without meaning into something that really hits at human vulnerability in an oddly poignant manner.
The film presents many other fascinating characters, and I have merely scratched the surface with my observations here, but it's a thoroughly rewarding and expansive film that will make you think that maybe you now understand just a tiny, tiny bit better the terrible struggle soldiers went (and still do go) through.
5/5
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