SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

REVIEWED BY SHANNON H.

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: extreme gore, violent battle sequences, profanity

Rated:  

World War II has been a source of Hollywood material in the past 50-60 years. Films such as The Sands of Iwo Jima, The Longest Day, and Pearl Harbor all bring to life the humanity, romanticism, and the realities of one of the major international conflicts in the 20th century. Steven Spielberg's motion picture Saving Private Ryan is not a romanticized version of war as seen in films that were made in the 40s and 50s.  It is as realistic as it can possibly be, depicting the human condition, brotherhood, and the desire to risk one's life so that others may be free.

Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) and his company of enlisted men prepare themselves for what may seem like a suicidal mission: to infiltrate the beaches of Normandy in France (during D-Day) and take out the German bunkers. Once they arrive on Omaha Beach (a code name), they are met with a barrage of bullets and machine gun fire. Immediately, soldiers from other companies are already falling dead and some actually drown in the ocean from their heavy backload of weapons and supplies. Capt. Miller manages to take his men from the blood-soaked French shoreline to the base of the bunkers where they promptly kill enemy soldiers. Even arriving from the beaches of Normandy, Capt. Miller barely flinches as he swims from the bloody water while grown men cry and shiver in fright while watching others get maimed or killed.

Capt. Miller and his crew immediately get orders from their superiors (more specifically, George C. Marshall) about their next assignment. They are to go and find a private from the 101st Airborne Division named Private James Francis Ryan of Iowa. Apparently, Private Ryan's three brothers had all died during the D-Day Invasion and the U.S. government was giving him a ticket home. The soldiers in Capt. Miller's company balk at the idea of risking their lives to save one soldier out of the bunch, especially Private Reiben (Edward Burns), who thinks the whole assignment is pointless. In order to help keep Capt. Miller's crew in line, Sgt. Horvarth (Tom Sizemore) is often put to the task of telling the soldiers to "shut up." Eventually, Sgt. Horvarth points a gun to Private Reiben's head as he decides to turn his back on his comrades. Another soldier who questions Capt. Miller's motives is Cpl. Upham (Jeremy Davies) who has been through basic training but has never seen combat. He was quickly assigned to Miller's group because of his ability to speak French and German (the other translator was killed on Omaha Beach). 

After days of searching and accidentally mistaking a soldier for Private Ryan, the men get a lead as to where Private Ryan might be (his drop off point on Omaha Beach was confused so he was safe from enemy combat). On their way to find the prospective soldier, Capt. Miller manages to lose two men: Private Caparzo (Vin Diesel) and their only source of medical help, T-4 Medic Wade (Giovanni Ribisi). When they finally find Private James Ryan (Matt Damon) to tell him the news, he is less than willing to go home and desert his company, especially when German tanks and infantry are on the way and reinforcements aren't in sight.

Saving Private Ryan is rated R for two very good reasons: excessive profanity and violence. There are about 10-15 f-words, about 5 abuses of deity, and scattered profanities. The majority of the gore is in the first 30 minutes of the film. There are men being shot at point-blank range.  oldiers are mowed down by German gunfire on Omaha Beach. Other soldiers are seen with their legs and arms blown off. One man lies in agony, crying for his mother as his entrails are spilled out of his body after being shot. Capt. Miller wades through water soaked in blood to get to the shoreline of Omaha Beach. Two main characters are shot in the stomach and die of their wounds. Medics on Omaha Beach are seen performing "surgery" to close up huge gun wounds and excessive blood is spilled all over the place. There's more violent content that might just barely toe the line between an R and a NC-17 rating. There is no nudity or sex but a group of soldiers are heard talking about breast size and Private Ryan shares a comical story about his brother's poor attempt to seduce his girlfriend in a barn.

One of Capt. Miller's soldiers, a sniper named Private Jackson, claims that God blessed him with the talent to use a sniper rifle and is seen reciting a paraphrased Psalms 23 as he takes aim at German soldiers running toward a church bell tower. Some soldiers are seen kissing cross necklaces they were wearing in battle. Others are seen praying with rosary beads. Cpl. Upham replies to a soldier (while the company "camps out" in a church damaged by shelling) by saying "If God is for us, who can be against us?" In life's tragedies, if we have God on our side, we will always win, whether or not we will lose our lives in the process. If the odds are stacked against us and God is on our side, we cannot lose. To illustrate Cpl. Upham's statement, my pastor occasionally tells us that if life is like a bad football game, we still win because "Jesus kicks the field goal." One of the soldiers in Miller's company, Private Mellish (Adam Goldberg) is Jewish and he flaunts his faith in front of captured German soldiers passing by.

Saving Private Ryan is the best film I have seen on World War II so far. It is incredibly realistic and shows that the glories of war come after all the fighting is done, rather than during battle. I learned so much from watching this movie, especially about the sacrifices these soldiers made so that others may have freedom from tyranny. The sacrifice that Capt. Miller and his soldiers made so that Private Ryan may go home seems to replicate the fact that Christ died so that we may go home to Heaven. It took 3 days for Christ to unload the sins of Mankind so that we may have the free gift of Eternal Life.  Despite the gore, it's a great film and I highly recommend it to those who are hard-core history buffs (and have a strong stomach). The DVD version is mediocre with brief commentary by Steven Spielberg, trailers, and production notes, but I would recommend watching it on DVD anyway because of the surround sound and the widescreen features. Oh, and by the way, make sure you have a box of Kleenex handy and make sure you don't eat anything for the next three hours. 

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