05 August 1999

A Look at... Saving Private Ryan - THE COMMENTARY

By Joseph Planta

Saving Private Ryan, doesn’t fail to disgust, highlight, inspire and evoke the harrowing images of war. In this case, World War 2. After the last 20 to 25 years where we’ve had cinema legends like Kubrick or Coppola recording the horrors of Vietnam, Steven Spielberg gives us one of the most, if not the most definitive record of D-Day. It’s a war that’s already over 50 years old and a war that is just part of a list of conflicts that have plagued our century. It’s a film that challenges our senses and most importantly gives us an almost first hand account of the terror involved in a conflict so huge. Saving Private Ryan takes us into the minds of these soldiers, it takes us into the conscienceness of those in the barracks, in command and in the battlefields.

After seeing the movie on television, earlier this week, I’m glad I didn’t see it in the theatre. It’s gross, morbid and disgusting, then again so is war. The images are so vivid, one is swept up in clamor of war. With Tom Hanks, the leader of brigade and of the film’s ensemble they land on Normandy on D-Day, only to have another mission in the wings, to save Private Ryan. The United States Army, to avoid embarrassment, commands the Hanks brigade to rescue a Private Ryan, as his 3 other brothers have perished in other battles during the 2nd World War. I’ll leave it at that, Ryan is played with courageous force by Matt Damon and the ensemble included Edward Burns and Tom Seizmore.

It’s a good movie. It is definitive of the era and the blood that gave us peace. Saving Private Ryan is powerful beyond belief. You can sense that in the dramatic and accurate depiction of the battles fought on Omaha Beach on D-Day. That in itself captures the essence of conflict and the challenges of bloodshed. Saving Private Ryan is arguably the best film of the decade and its loss at the Oscar’s was simply a calculated public relations upset orchestrated by Miramax. Rent it today and for those of you in the Lower Mainland it’s on Viewer’s Choice Pay Per View.

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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .