Okay, here's the deal. A long time ago, there was a thing called a "war movie." They were a market unto themselves. They had their own cast of regulars, they all had basically the same plot, and they were all usually done with a maximum of flag-waving and patriotism. They were made to boost the morale on the homefront, to glorify the cause we were fighting for at the time. I've seem many of them, and I know you have too, because it appears that, come Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and all other patriotic dates, the norm is to trot out some of the better ones for an all-day marathon on some cable TV station. Maybe not the most fitting tribute you could want, but....
But, gradually, things started to change. The attitude changed. Suddenly, for every waving flag and fighting leatherneck, there was a movie that showed a different side to war. The first change was in 1946 with The Best Years of Our Lives, when we got to see for the first time that returning home from war wasn't as easy as we all wanted it to be. As the '70s arrived, even more daring things came to pass. Sure, Kelly's Heroes was set in WWII France, but, remember, it was basically about a bunch of guys robbing a bank. Patton came out the same year as M*A*S*H, and, wonder of wonders, M*A*S*H didn't win as many Oscars as Patton because it dared make fun of wartime and gung-ho soldiers instead of glorifying some half-mad general. Not too coincidentally, the country was torn apart over whether the Vietnam Was was a good thing or a bad thing. Hollywood establishment chose "good thing," and pumped Patton up.
Nowadays, the war movie is virtually dead. Oh, sure, you get Platoon, but, honestly, Platoon was more about an inner battle one young man had with himself more than it was about Vietnam. There were a host of other minor war movies about Vietnam, like Hamburger Hill and Full Metal Jacket, but nothing tried to capture the gung-ho spirit like they did in Sergeant York, The Sands of Iwo Jima, or The Longest Day. The best war movie to come out in twenty-five years was The Big Red One, and nobody paid it any mind until it hit pay-TV a year or so later.
Well, folks, the times they are a-changin', because somebody has found out how to make a war movie that keeps the spirit of the past while blending it with the spirit of today. Steven Spielberg's new movie, Saving Private Ryan, starring Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, and Matt Damon, is an old-style war epic that has a new and better look to it, namely, everyone in it is human. And it just may be as perfect as it gets this summer.
The film begins on D-Day, on the beaches of Normandy, where the Allied troops began their massive push to drive the enemy out of France and back to Germany. Among the survivors of the landing are Captain John Miller (Hanks) and his men. The rest of the squad is made up of the cross-section of America that made up every squad in the old war movies. One smart-aleck New Yorker (Edward Burns), a good-lookin' Italian kid (Vin Diesel), a tough-as-nails sergeant (Sizemore), the Jewish soldier who has vengeance against the Nazis in his head (Adam Goldberg), and a young kid from the Midwest (Barry Pepper), who also happens to be the sharpshooter of the group. And there's always one guy who's never been in combat before, a position held this time by a translator (Jeremy Davies).
This band of soldiers has an assignment. They're to find one paratrooper that took part in the invasion, a private named James Ryan (Damon). Ryan's family has lost three of his brothers in combat, and the top brass want Ryan found and sent home to his mother before she loses her last son to the Nazi horde.
Miller's squad is not particularly pleased about the mission, but, like true soldiers, they set out to follow their orders. They go to find Private Ryan, whether or not he survived the invasion. They run into a few dangerous situations along the way, but, led by Miller, they are dedicated to accomplishing the mission.
I'm not really sure where to begin here. I cannot say enough about Hanks' performance as Miller. His subtle approach to acting makes everything he's done these days look incredibly easy. His Miller is a tough, war-weary leader of men who's showing signs of being pushed as far as he can go. He is tired of the killing, tired of being afraid, but he knows what he is supposed to do. His hands may shake, but his heart is the heart of a leader. Watch Hanks' eyes throughout this movie, and you'll learn volumes about Miller as a man. Watch as he talks about his wife, his life, and his dreams. Simply amazing.
Credit Spielberg, too, with the crafting of this performance, as well as those from the rest of the cast. Sir Steve has always been one to get a lot from his supporting cast, but never has he tried to harness this much talent to pull one wagon. Sizemore is one of the most underrated actors around. Burns is as good an actor as he is a writer/director. Diesel, Goldberg, and Davies are all good up-and-comers, and Pepper and Giovanni Ribisi, here playing the company medic, will be around for a while too. I was pleased to see that Matt Damon's character, while important, was not able to overshadow the group, especially coming off his Oscar Night triumph. He's good in the movie, yes, but he is only one cog in a smoothly running machine.
And, yes, I know there's been a whole lot of preaching and harping on Spielberg's depiction of the invasion on the beach. He himself has said that it'd be very violent, and that kids should not be thrown into the seats to witness it alone. I applaud him for making such a statement, because it could have really blown up on him in the publicity field. But, what he said, he said for a reason.
The scenes on the beach are graphic. They are bloody and they are violent, and they are there to make a point. For too long, war in movies has been about honor and glory and banners whipping gloriously in the wind. Listen up people, war is about death, plain and simple. However honorable the intention, ultimately, death is the goal. Kill an enemy before they can kill you. Spielberg pulls no punches in showing this side of war, and especially what the Allied troops were being asked to do in this invasion. These men were dumped on an open beach, with little or no cover to hide behind or under, and told to charge until they made it off the beach and onto French soil.
Spielberg and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski create what is possibly the most powerful war sequence ever filmed. They show not only the heroics, but they show the victims. There is no red flower on the blouse and a drop to the knees to represent death. Death is violent, it is terror, and, worst of all, it is frighteningly random. No one person is aiming to kill another one person, no one can say who will live and who will die, and there's nothing to determine what one can do to stay alive longer than anyone else. This randomness is a main theme in this movie. Who can say who lives or dies? Should a group of people be sacrificed so one can live? Death is not vain or choosy, it takes what is offered and willingly accepts it.
This movie will come across to some as strangely callous to fans of Spielberg the fantasy-maker. Indeed, it acts as a further extension of the new genius of Spielberg that made Schindler's List. This movie is a work of poetry based in fear and survival, like List, but asks more questions and offers some answers. Sometimes the questions are not easy to hear, but then again, the answers are not easy to hear either. The question of how men fought the War is answered simply -- day by day, life by life, one act of survival at a time.
There's no doubt in my noggin' that this movie will be a major player come award time. Burns, Hanks, Spielberg, Kaminski, and the script and film itself will all be judged over and over. But, truthfully, it should already be considered a winner in every field, for finally telling a story without blinders on, and showing that, for every patriotic song and slogan, there is a human being putting his life on the line. Not a hero, but a human being -- scared, vulnerable, and trying to live through the day so he can risk it all again at sunrise.
Yes, you should go see Saving Private Ryan. Yes, you should go see it first without the kids, so you can prepare them for what they should be about to see when you take them. Because every person should see this movie, to know just what was on the line in the name of freedom.
Image copyright Dreamworks.
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