MasterChugs Theater: 'Saving Private Ryan'
Another holiday themed review by Chug? Who would've guessed other than Ron Howard, the CIA, and the ghost of Joseph Stalin?!!?
OK, review time: devastating. If, for some reason, I was asked to write a one-word review of Saving Private Ryan, that would be the term I would use. No other film quite does as. .. realistic of a job of portraying the "horrors of war." The release of Saving Private Ryan generated a massive hype due to Steven Spielberg having also directed that other Second World War opus, Schindler's List. Now that Hollywood has moved on and the fuss has subsided, it's clear that an important movie remains.
If that were all there was to Private Ryan, it would be an amazing film. But the story that follows is emotionally engrossing. In Washington, Army Chief Gen. George Marshall (Harve Presnell) decides that Private Ryan (Matt Damon), a paratrooper whose three brothers all have been killed, must be pulled from combat and sent home. Tom Hanks plays Capt. John Miller, leader of the squad assigned to collect Ryan. As they pick their way through the enemy-infested countryside and toward a second battle, the soldiers also battle their resentment at being imperiled for the sake of one lousy private, a stranger to them all. This conflict lies at the heart of everything the movie represents and could easily have been overplayed. But the filmmakers pull back and press on, exactly like the men they are chronicling.
The mostly youthful cast is committed and intense. Hanks reasserts his claim as the successor to Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart. His performance is restrained, even dignified, yet magnetic. Capt. Miller keeps his emotions packed tight, not so much to stop himself from feeling, but to guard his ability to feel at all in the face of what he sees.
Much has been written and gasped about the opening 20 minutes as the GIs land on the beaches, only to be mowed down by the Germans. Some recoiled at the graphic violence, others praised the realism, while some questioned whether war is really like that at all. The percentage of an audience who can accurately comment is surely small. What is abundantly clear is that in the massive body of films that deal with World War II, this is one that pulls no punches. It consistently explores the unpredictable and random violence that engulfs and blinds the men within it. This is not a film that will please everyone and quite rightly so. But no movie about any war can seek to provide answers to every question. What Spielberg does is create a world of frightening carnage in which a small story is played out. As such, this is an important film that deconstructs war machines into separate, frightened men as it so likely was.
OK, review time: devastating. If, for some reason, I was asked to write a one-word review of Saving Private Ryan, that would be the term I would use. No other film quite does as. .. realistic of a job of portraying the "horrors of war." The release of Saving Private Ryan generated a massive hype due to Steven Spielberg having also directed that other Second World War opus, Schindler's List. Now that Hollywood has moved on and the fuss has subsided, it's clear that an important movie remains.
If that were all there was to Private Ryan, it would be an amazing film. But the story that follows is emotionally engrossing. In Washington, Army Chief Gen. George Marshall (Harve Presnell) decides that Private Ryan (Matt Damon), a paratrooper whose three brothers all have been killed, must be pulled from combat and sent home. Tom Hanks plays Capt. John Miller, leader of the squad assigned to collect Ryan. As they pick their way through the enemy-infested countryside and toward a second battle, the soldiers also battle their resentment at being imperiled for the sake of one lousy private, a stranger to them all. This conflict lies at the heart of everything the movie represents and could easily have been overplayed. But the filmmakers pull back and press on, exactly like the men they are chronicling.
The mostly youthful cast is committed and intense. Hanks reasserts his claim as the successor to Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart. His performance is restrained, even dignified, yet magnetic. Capt. Miller keeps his emotions packed tight, not so much to stop himself from feeling, but to guard his ability to feel at all in the face of what he sees.
Much has been written and gasped about the opening 20 minutes as the GIs land on the beaches, only to be mowed down by the Germans. Some recoiled at the graphic violence, others praised the realism, while some questioned whether war is really like that at all. The percentage of an audience who can accurately comment is surely small. What is abundantly clear is that in the massive body of films that deal with World War II, this is one that pulls no punches. It consistently explores the unpredictable and random violence that engulfs and blinds the men within it. This is not a film that will please everyone and quite rightly so. But no movie about any war can seek to provide answers to every question. What Spielberg does is create a world of frightening carnage in which a small story is played out. As such, this is an important film that deconstructs war machines into separate, frightened men as it so likely was.
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