Saving Private Ryan
Steven Spielberg's 'Saving Private Ryan' is an action world war two drama that follows the search for Private James Ryan, who's brothers have all died during the war. To ease the mothers grief The United States Army Chief of Staff, George. C. Marshall orders for him to be brought home. The main story follows the eight men who have been assigned this task.
Having won 5 Oscars this film sets itself up but certainly does not disappoint.
The opening scene is spectacular, starting with the D - Day landings. The loss of life in just the first 10 minutes is horrifying and sets the audience up for the rest of the film, which is in comparison pretty quiet. Although personally never having been in the war I believe this opening scene to be one of the most realistic war scenes of any war film I have seen. Though the harsh brutality of war is harrowinly present throughout the film.
The film deals with some of the officers personal issues aswell, which added a new dimension to it for me. Especially Tom Hanks character Captain Miller. He portrays a normal school teacher thrown into extraordinary circumstances with subtle brilliance. Also unlike some frustratingly annoying films where the name in mention is never seen or heard of we do get to meet the famous Private Ryan and for quite a bit of the film too, which I thought added a more realistic edge to the plot.
Though at times throughout the film I felt I was watching a predictable teen horror flick as one by one the main eight officers get picked off and blown up. Sometimes I found the script to be a little cheesy and trying to hard to pull on your heart strings. Also the actual plot I felt to be a little unbelievable, as eight officers lives are put at risk to save one, for really no reason other than to spare one mothers pain.
Overall I believe 'Saving Private Ryan' to be a excellent film, that dips itself into the officers lives and feelings towards war with some epic scenes of death. Although Spielberg's budget had a huge impact on what the film was capable of I find its not only the big special effects and desirable locations that leave the imagery of this film imprinted on your mind after the t.vs turned off but the simplicity of the raw idea of war that he creates. We live through the film and therefore suffer, laugh and experience the conflicting emotions of all that fought, at most, for something they did not understand.
Georgina Hayworth
