Blood...

...and guts.  And dismembered limbs.

Brutal turn on the AFI Top 100 (10th Anniversary Edition).

This one I actually saw in first run.

Film 63

63.  "Saving Private Ryan" (AFI Rank #71)

It is with no small amount of noted coincidence that I realized that I'd put two films back to back where the opening 25 minutes rush by in a moment.  Yes, it is almost eerie that the Omaha Beach sequence of this film ends at almost exactly the same number of elapsed minutes and seconds as "The Godfather's" wedding sequence.  It is also weird, in the history of the Academy Awards, that this film, like "The Godfather," only won one of the two major awards that are usually tied together, Best Picture and Best Director.  In this case it was Best Director, and in the case of "The Godfather," it was Best Picture.  I'm going to say that I think the Best Picture of 1998 was "Life Is Beautiful," and that it likely split votes with this one, vaulting the utterly forgettable "Shakespeare in Love" into the Best Picture Oscar.  I do, however, recognize this film's importance in film history, because this film matters, a lot.

This film marks the fourth Steven Spielberg film I've watched on this quest, the director who leads all others in films on that list, with 5.  I've got only "Jaws" left, and I saved that for the final 10, because, well, because it's fucking "Jaws."  Like "Schindler's List," this film comes from a more serious, less fantastical Steven Spielberg.  Its gritty realism, its gut-wrenching opening sequence, followed up by its shattering final battle, this is a decidedly anti-war film that celebrates the normal men and women who are thrust into the madness that can exist only in war. So much waste, so much potential, lying bleeding on battlefields, this film makes us think about what a man's life is really worth.

I'm a bit of a World War II history geek, and I've consumed a great bit of knowledge about the battles, about the personalities, and about the sheer volume of slaughtered humans that the war that followed the "war to end all wars" left in its wake.  One of those things is shown, but not really explained in the first moments of real action in the film.  In that moment, we see the door of the landing craft delivering soldiers to Omaha Beach drop, and guys just acting as bullet catching bags, cut down before even taking a step.  Now for your history lesson.  Did you know that a great number of the soldiers in the first wave at Normandy were seeing their very first action on June 6, 1944, and that when those doors dropped, whole boatloads of men were killed before even taking a step?  Yup.  They were trained, they were outfitted with weapons, given everything that the United States could give them, and they were fodder.  Nothing but fodder.  The cause was noble, and the sacrifices were worthy, but how much do we lose, as a humanity, when we spend our time destroying each other?  That's the theme of this film, and it's brilliantly illustrated in that one moment.

There are lots of places to read about how revolutionary the Omaha Beach sequence is, and it's among the most moving pieces of film you'll ever watch.  A lot of people can't watch this film twice, specifically because of this sequence.  A lot of veterans walked out of the film at this point, and a great number of others commented on how true and honest it was.  I want to talk about two other moments in that scene, the two photos I've put above.  The first is the one with Tom Hanks as Captain Miller looking in the mirror stuck on a bayonet.  What you may not have caught, and what is only shown by the leg of an obviously dead soldier being shown, is that Miller had sent 8 of his men to their deaths during this scene, as they try and knock out a German machine gun nest.  Tom Sizemore's character, Sgt. Horvath comments about blindfolds, and a "goddamned firing squad."  It's a brutal reality of the moment, and Miller not only ordering the men into this madness, but knowing them well enough to call them by name...it's awful.   Just awful.  The other moment is the blood running out of the canteen in the photo above.  The medics are working on a man, and one of them is shot in the canteen.  The liquid that pours out starts out clear, then is turned into blood.  And the man goes about his business.  Because that's what he's supposed to do.

I don't want to bog down in the beach sequence, as great as it is, because it represents only a small portion of the film.

The main thrust of the plot of "Saving Private Ryan" is the quest of Captain Miller and 7 other soldiers to fetch paratrooper Private James Francis Ryan of Iowa, who lost 3 brothers in battle, and send him home to his mother, before she gets another condolence telegram.  Along the way, 2 of the soldiers who left with Captain Miller are killed, one by his own stupidity, and one by the Captain's insistence at fulfilling the ultimate mission of any soldier, that of winning the war.  Following this second death, when the men are questioning Captain Miller's decision making, and getting ready to abandon him, he gives a big speech, identifying himself as an English teacher, and about whether or not Ryan's life is worth saving, if it's going to cost lives, and that his only objective is to get home, at all costs.  He also wonders how he's going to explain days like the one he is experiencing to his wife.  It's a standout, Spielbergian moment, with a lot of Hollywood schmaltz wrapped up in it, and we eat it up.

Without giving away too much, the search for Private Ryan costs all but two of the men sent to find him their lives.  The deaths depicted are brutal, especially a hand to hand combat moment that ends with a soldier slowly begging another man to go quietly as he plunges a bayonet through him.  All of these deaths occur in the final battle sequence, after Private Ryan ignores Captain Miller's orders to go with him, and pledges to stay with the soldiers who are facing unwinnable odds trying to hold a bridge in the fictional town of Ramelle.  Every one of these deaths could have been avoided, and I think, ultimately, that's what we're supposed to take from this.  This battle feels more personal than the opening sequence, as it is in much tighter quarters, and we know these people a little bit, having watched them for the previous 2+ hours.  It also feels more desperate, as we know the guys can't win.  We know that the allies broke through in Normandy from our history books.  What we don't know about are the number of towns like Ramelle there were along the way to the ultimate victory.  Spielberg really makes a compelling closing sequence.

The acting in this film is good enough.  The characters, however, wind up being tired tropes.  We have:  The Jew, the thinking Medic, the Coward, the Smart-Ass Brooklynite, the Tough-Ass Sergeant, the Righteous Sniper, the Stupid Tough Guy, and the Fish Out Of Water Captain.  Hanks was nominated for Best Actor, probably on the strength of his crying/speech.  Beyond that, it's just stereotypical stuff.  I've seen Edward Burns play Reiben in every film he's ever made.  I've seen Tom Sizemore do this turn before.  I've seen Jeremy Davies play a coward in "Twister."  Nothing in this film is particularly stunning in terms of acting.


No, this film is all about its ability to tap into our emotion through its gut-spilling technical aspects.  And that alone makes it one for the ages.  Yes, Spielberg is Hollywood to (sometimes) a fault, but the man knows how to make a film, and this is among his masterpieces.

Ebert didn't write about this one in his "Great Movies" series, but his original review is here.  It's possible Roger didn't remember Davies in "Twister."