Perhaps American film consumers aren't ready for Cinema Verite in its truest sense, but this movie matches that form and antes up. Saving Private Ryan fires off in reckless honesty, irrespective of the same Spielberg devotees who love their dinosaurs and spaceships big and neat. War is inconsiderate and ruthless, and this film nearly hits that target.
Although many people walked out of the chaotic mutilation in the opening assault on Omaha beach, this unmitigated recreation of battle immediately became the most realistic anti-war statement in American film history.
The first third of this movie is powerful in the sense that we experience firsthand how human perspectives are so random and meaningless during combat; and it is successful in disorienting and upsetting people--some to the point of nausea--with hand held camera shots and extremely graphic displays of exploding bodies.
One problem with this film is Spielberg's appeal to common audiences' craving for sentimental relief: sympathy notes read through voice-overs, graveyard laments, and Hanks's character spelling out the justice in the mission can all be done without.
Saving Private Ryan is quite unique in its raw treatment of war, but Spielberg let up for fear that entertainment value might be entirely lost on such a true document. Oh well, some people still want their wars as video games on CNN.
Seen through the eyes of a squad of American soldiers, the story begins with World War II's historic Omaha Beach D-Day invasion, then moves beyond the...More at HotMovieSale.com
Director Steven Spielberg's World War II tour de force chronicles the journey of a GI squad on a dangerous mission behind enemy lines. Led by Captain ...More at Family Video
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