Reviewed by Martin Liebman
No film before has ever captured the destructive nature of war to this magnitude, and few have exemplified the rousing spirit of man to a degree that encapsulates the essence of the human condition through both the complexities of the soul and the base elements of his very existence via the prism of the crisis that is the firsthand experience of the most destructive of forces. Saving Private Ryan perfectly displays both, Director Steven Spielberg's 1998 epic World War II picture a heartbreaking portrayal of the horrors of war but also an uplifting saga of the dedication to duty; the value of life; the unwavering spirit of freedom; the brotherhood amongst men; the courage to overcome all; and perhaps most importantly, the willingness to make the greatest of sacrifices in the name of honor, principles, and friendship. Indeed, Saving Private Ryan proves itself to be, perhaps, history's most important film, not only for its graphically-realistic portrayal of combat but for the touching storyline and pertinent thematic elements that only reinforce the purpose behind the bloodshed and lend weight to the true price of freedom so that others could in the years, decades, and hopefully even centuries to follow enjoy in life what the men who fought purchased with their heroism, their unwavering commitment to their ideals, and for many, their deaths.
Following the devastatingly bloody but ultimately successful Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, a select squad of U.S. soldiers -- led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump) -- are given a critical assignment directly from the Army's top brass: to locate and return safely Private James Francis Ryan, whose three brothers have all died within days of the invasion, two at Normandy, the third in combat around New Guinea. Ryan, a member of the 101st Airborne Division who dropped into France the night before the invasion, has become lost behind enemy lines, and the jumbled French countryside becomes a deadly haystack through which Miller and his men -- Sergeant Horvath (Tom Sizemore, Heat); Corporal Upham (Jeremy Davies, Rescue Dawn); Medic Wade (Giovanni Ribisi, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow); and Privates Reiben (Edward Burns, Echelon Conspiracy), Jackson (Barry Pepper, We Were Soldiers), Mellish (Adam Goldberg, D้jเ Vu), and Caparzo (Vin Diesel, Pitch Black) -- must navigate to locate Ryan and, along the way, ultimately come to better understand themselves, one another, their place in the war, and the value of saving Private Ryan and reuniting him with his devastated mother, all in the name of finding some silver lining in the hell on Earth that they endure at the hands of a determined and tough enemy.
Beginning with a discussion on Saving Private Ryan's technical attributes, Director Steven Spielberg has crafted the most potently-aggressive and visually-arresting wartime picture ever made. His purpose is not to devastate his viewers but to instead instill inside them a sense of the terrible struggles and absolute deadliness of combat while also immortalizing all those who gave their lives for freedom. His picture has engendered a new appreciation for "the greatest generation," a term used to describe those who fought in World War II but also one that should encompass all those who have worn, do wear, or will don the uniform and bravely face whatever dangers may come their way as they protect with their lives the advancement and perpetuation of freedom. Still, Spielberg's intense visuals only reinforce the underlying themes and purposes of the film, and the director employs what has become the de facto style for shooting wartime pictures, evidenced in later films like 2001's Black Hawk Down and 2008's The Hurt Locker. Spielberg visually accentuates the grittiness of war and gives the picture something of a handheld, personal, up-close look and feel; the movie is sometimes excessively grainy and sports a washed-out color palette that allows shades of green, gray, and brown to dominate the frame, and while splashes of color are readily evident throughout, Saving Private Ryan does indeed capture a more vintage era-specific feel throughout. Spielberg demonstrates an ability to perfectly entwine the superficialities of the film -- its primary plot and action sequences -- with a broad swath of emotional depth and thematic undercurrents, giving the film a classic wartime era feel while also injecting the movie with modern filmmaking techniques and special effects to give it a unique character that's only been mimicked and never quite equalled, much less surpassed, in the years since its release.
Although Saving Private Ryan proves a far deeper film beyond the horrifying wartime images it so disturbingly portrays, there's a reason why the picture -- particularly compared to its genre brethren -- is best remembered first as a tour-de-force of grittily-realistic combat while its more substantial dramatic and emotional themes often seem to go at least partially unrecognized amidst the chaos and directorial brilliance of its combat sequences. Certainly Hollywood had, with the Vietnam era of movies from the late 1970s through the mid 1980s, moved away from what was often a more reserved, heroic, and perhaps even "gentle" look at the horrors of war; while some films crossed over and proved thematically darker -- The Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front from all the way back in 1930, for example -- the years during and that followed after World War II saw something of a glamorization of combat; it was never pretty, but never seemingly all that honest to the experience, either. For whatever reason(s) -- war fatigue, the physical and emotional pain incurred from the substantial loss of life and property around the world, the perceived importance of painting the war effort as clearly-cut and black-and-white as possible, and the effort to prove war as a necessary evil without showing just what a hellacious creature it is and can be -- Hollywood chose to play it safe, offering a string of films like The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far that depicted "historical events" but never really demonstrated "war." With the era of Vietnam, studios and filmmakers began to find value in promoting more realistic pictures that entwined anti-war messages (hinting back to the era of Erich Maria Remarque and All Quiet on the Western Front) through the emotional, psychological, and physical turmoils of soldiers. Films such as The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now used the Vietnam War and the resultant negative effects on the psyche to look deep into the long-lasting implications on a man's very being both on and off the field of battle. Platoon and Full Metal Jacket also used Vietnam as a prism through which to explore the traumas of war, the former taking into question the identity of the true enemy during wartime, the latter offering something of a more complete experience that looked at the transformation of a man throughout his military career. Finally, Director John Irvin's grossly overlooked 1987 masterpiece Hamburger Hill follows in Platoon's footsteps by examining the fruitlessness of war, but the picture also proved one of, if not the most, graphically-intense pictures of its, or any, generation. Saving Private Ryan encapsulates the best of all worlds; it's visually realistic almost to a fault and captures the horrors of war like few others, but unlike the Vietnam pictures of yore, it doesn't necessarily speak out against war. Steven Spielberg's film doesn't glorify war in any way, but it recognizes what is sometimes its necessity while paying tribute to those that gave their lives for a purposeful and worthy cause.
Indeed, Saving Private Ryan proves a singular achievement in filmmaking by capturing a broad array of emotional themes while also demonstrating an unflinching portrait of the terrors of combat. It manages to do what War films before it consistently failed to accomplish, weaving several themes and styles together -- the gritty realism of Hamburger Hill, the patriotism and demonstration of honor and courage of Hollywood's "golden era" of World War II films, and the understanding of the effects of war on man's inner being as was often the primary element in the string of incredibly-powerful and Oscar-winning Vietnam pictures from years ago -- into a one-of-a-kind masterpiece of cinema. The result is a picture that's often difficult to watch on any level. Even those viewers who have seen the picture countless times may find themselves openly weeping even as the film begins as the foreknowledge of what's to come on not only a visual and physical level but, more importantly, on an emotional one, takes shape. The picture's themes of courage, honor, and sacrifice engender in the viewer a sense of the heartbreaking reality that is the carnage of war and an appreciation for those who laid down their lives in the name of freedom, both then, now, and into the future. Director Steven Spielberg -- once known as something of a cuddly filmmaker who crafted family pictures like Always, E.T., and Close Encounters of the Third Kind or rough-and-tumble and flat-out-fun adventures like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park -- proves himself with Saving Private Ryan to be, arguably, the greatest filmmaker of all time, and certainly its most capably diverse. No other picture in history has proven as relevant as this; it transcends its R-rating for violence and language as a movie that should -- yea must -- be seen by all at a time of proper emotional and mental preparedness, even by those with an aversion to its graphic visual elements. Saving Private Ryan is chaotic, bloody, frightening, and oftentimes emotionally overpowering; the picture's scenes that show secretaries typing notifications of death and the delivery of three such letters to Ryan's mother prove the picture's most devastating even beyond the most gruesome of combat scenes. Saving Private Ryan never fails to engender an emotional response -- and a broad array of them at that -- with every viewing that proves a unique but no less powerfully moving experience.
Spielberg and Writer Robert Rodat (The Patriot) lend further weight to the violence and emotional undercurrents through a wonderfully compelling collection of characters, each coming to life with a seamless performance from each member of a perfect ensemble cast. Among them is the mysterious leader, the stout and dedicated Sergeant, the devout sniper, the confused infantryman, the frightened translator, the devoted medic, and the Jewish trooper, each of whom lend a unique perspective to both the war and the mission to rescue Private Ryan. Practically each character in the film is written so as to lend them tremendous depth; while the nearly three-hour runtime grants the space needed to adequately develop them to a point, the strength of the picture in this regard is its use of non-combat "downtime" to allow them to reflect on and philosophize about life, their bond, and the war, notably as they recover from a rainy and intense day within the confines of a darkened church in the town of Neuville. Indeed, for as brutal as the picture can be, it's often equally tender. A blood-stained letter home. Frank discussions of lives past. Reflections on friends lost. Regrets. Expectations. Hopes. Dreams. Jeremy Davies' character, Upham, is the film's best, the antithesis of most everyone else in the movie. He's far removed from combat not only on a physical plane but from an emotional and mental perspective as well. He's a translator and mapmaker, not a soldier; his skills fit the mission and fill a niche in the overall objective of the Allied plan to win the war, but as to a more crucial element to the film rather than the war effort depicted therein, Upham represents the viewer. His is the most emotionally-unbalanced character in the film, and his frightened countenance and self-doubt but also budding understanding of the bonds of brotherhood, the agony of war, and the triumphs of the spirit even in the face of the failures of the flesh all come together to build a character that could be anyone in the audience suddenly faced with the terrors of combat as it grates on the body and disturbs the balance of the soul. It's not Upham's ability to, through the course of the film, find his place in the war -- it's questionable as to whether he does or does not -- but it's rather the character's ultimate understanding of its importance, his witnessing firsthand of its dangers, and his coming to terms with a realization that "the right thing" in the face of destruction and despair does not always point in the same direction as a moral compass shaped by years of a more traditionally-educated life in what can be assumed to have been a relatively peaceful environment, paradise, even, compared to the terrors he witnesses along the journey to find Private Ryan. Less crucial to the dramatic elements of the picture but certainly helping in its pacing and structure is Spielberg's keen sense for comic relief through the Upham character; the director manages to earn an honest laugh in several places even amidst the bloodshed of combat through Upham's shy and fearful ways, whether his failure to understand the significance of "FUBAR" or, in one scene, cling to Caparzo as would a small child.
Certainly a War film at its most basic, Saving Private Ryan's deep characterizations nevertheless engender a deeper sensation that can become lost under the intensity of the combat and the staggering attention to detail found throughout, but further examination proves the movie to be of far greater significance than its bloody and bullet-riddled fa็ade might otherwise suggest. In the years following its release, Saving Private Ryan has become a de facto memorial not merely of World War II veterans of but of heroes before, after, now, and tomorrow who sacrificed their lives for the righteousness of liberty and peace. Abraham Lincoln's words quoted in the film -- "[the] costly...sacrifice upon the altar of freedom" -- encapsulate what not only the picture, but the purpose behind it and the significance of the heroes who perished in the war, is all about. Indeed, Saving Private Ryan seeks to honor those that have given all and, through their actions, demonstrated a bravery and courage rarely before or since matched. Saving Private Ryan is, at its most basic and most important, a human drama, a film that examines one of the most basic guiding principles of life and that for which so many fought and died: the importance of leading a good, wholesome, honest, and free life. The picture reinforces the notion that the sacrifices of these men cannot and should never be taken in vain; every day must be a reminder of their struggle to build a better world for those who would come after, who would rebuild, who would go on, who must remember. Abraham Lincoln again says it best in another address: "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom."
Video
Saving Private Ryan's Blu-ray release is going to become the go-to disc for reference quality audio, but chances are those familiar with the film will find just as much -- if not more -- to love about Paramount's positively gorgeous and impeccably faithful 1080p transfer that retains the picture's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, not to mention Director Steven Spielberg's and Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski's intended gritty, washed-out look. This high definition transfer brings with it vastly increased detailing, even underneath the rough-and-tumble and faded look the film employs; even during the bright, bloomy opening and closing scenes in Arlington National Cemetery, viewers will note the increased resolution on tree trunks and a character's light blue jacket that's almost always in the forefront of the sequences. The bulk of the picture's wartime segments, too, sport strongly-raealized detailing and texturing, even through the most minute of objects: small bumps or netting on helmets; stains and gunk on uniforms; scratches on weapons; and grains and clumps of dirt and sand scattered throughout the movie, notably during the Normandy invasion sequence that opens the film's World War II segments. More obvious throughout the film is the eye-catching detailing as seen on the rough building fa็ades that have been incessantly shot and bombed out, where bullet holes, chunks of concrete, and random debris strewn all over the rainy village of Neuville or the tactically-crucial town of Ramelle that represents the primary location seen in the picture's final act offer a wonderfully yet disturbingly realistic texture. Additionally, close-ups of characters reveal a stunning level of detail in facial pores and hairs, dirt and grime on skin, and even beads of sweat and blood, all of which seem almost constant companions throughout the film.
Additionally, Saving Private Ryan's desaturated color palette is afforded increased resolution in this superb transfer. While the picture de-emphasizes color and lends to the image a tone that's consistently heavy in grays, browns, and greens that gives the movie something of a bleak look, the Blu-ray remains faithful to the intended appearance of the picture and only accentuates the visual scheme for which the movie's become known. Still, there are places where splashes of brighter color manages to come through; the green grass as seen during the squad's assault on a machine gun emplacement at an old radar station stands out as perhaps the most intense color in the film. Paramount's transfer also remains sharp and crisp throughout; backgrounds remain nicely detailed, and the picture's intentionally heavy grain structure -- beautifully retained throughout the movie -- creates a consistently awe-inspiring film-like texture, allowing for every nuance captured by the film elements to remain intact. There are a few random speckles seen throughout the picture, but they only add to the gritty, throwback look that Speilberg and Kaminski so successfully capture. Blacks are pristine, deep, enveloping, and never overwhelming, and flesh tones are spot-on accurate in every scene as they carry over the elements of the picture's overall intended visual tone. Paramount has recently demonstrated with their major releases -- Star Trek, Braveheart, Minority Report, and The Lovely Bones, for example -- that when they put in the effort, there might not be a better studio out there in terms of delivering the most faithful, gorgeous, and film-like Blu-ray transfers on the market, and Saving Private Ryan may very well be the best of the lot.
Audio
Saving Private Ryan's DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack is everything fans of the film and Blu-ray enthusiasts hoped it would be. Certainly the track's primary source of energy and astonishment stems from the combat scenes, but it's the more subtle effects that truly bring the film to life. For all of the up-front gunfire and close-in explosions, there are countless effects -- the rattling of a flag against the pole in one of the film's first scenes, a slight breeze, the crunching of typewriters churning out notifications of death -- that all excel in terms of enveloping the listener into the film outside its primary wartime segments. Also impressive -- as much as any other sonic element in the film -- is the sound of distant gunfire and explosions that seems an almost constant companion throughout the picture, notably inside the Neuville church or, later in the movie, the assault on the radar station machine gun nest where Spielberg focuses on Upham observing the combat from a safe distance. Still, the track will undoubtedly be recognized and long remembered for its extended bookend action segments, and neither falter in any area. Beginning with the hum of the landing crafts' engines and the water pounding against their hulls and into their interiors, the Omaha beach segment submerses the listener into the pending invasion and engenders an anticipation, a fear, an adrenaline rush quite unlike anything else. Once the German MG-42s open up, however, all bets are off; the soundstage practically becomes the sandy and blood-drenched beach as rounds zip around every speaker and clank off metal obstacles scattered along the waterline and sand, while explosions in every direction incessantly punish the listening area. The low end is tight and invigorating; it's powerful but not excessively so. It's honest and heavy, but not overbearing. Indeed, this may represent the most natural low end yet to grace Blu-ray.
If there's such a thing as a soundtrack being too intense and even somewhat frightening in its realism, this is it. In fact, it almost doesn't feel right handing out superlatives to something that recreates an event that was in real life so positively devastating as the Omaha Beach landing. Suffice it to say, though, from a purely detached perspective, this is an incredible sonic achievement that places the listener in the midst of the war. Is that a good thing? In this case, yes. This track comes alive quite unlike any other in name of creating the complete Saving Private Ryan experience -- and reinforcing the picture's many themes beyond the gritty visuals of war -- and this track accomplishes all that's required of it. The movie -- and the history it represents -- deserves nothing less. If there's a misstep in the track, there appears to be a slight lip synch issue before the battle of Ramelle, found around the 2:06 mark in the film as a character shares a story about one of his brothers' girlfriends and their encounter in a barn. The effect was blatantly obvious when viewing the film with a combination of a Panasonic DMP-BDT300 Blu-ray player and Denon AVR-3808 audio receiver connected via HDMI (with the audio stream sent through a separate HDMI cable from the video stream), but seemed to be less of an issue when the Denon was paired with a PlayStation 3, also connected via HDMI. Otherwise, dialogue is accurate and crisp, never garbled or lost save for when it's supposed to be underneath the chaos of the wartime segments. Ultimately, despite what may or may not be a lip synch issue, Paramount's DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack for Saving Private Ryan is a rousing success and is easily in line to be a top contender for Blu-ray soundtrack of the year.
Supplements
All of Saving Private Ryan's special features are found on disc two, spread out between two categories: Saving Private Ryan and Shooting War. The latter (480p, 1:28:05), narrated by Tom Hanks, is a fascinating documentary that chronicles World War II through the lens of the film camera, the first war to be so extensively be captured on film. The piece begins with the U.S.' unpreparedness for Pearl Harbor and the unpreparedness of cameramen to shoot the coming multi-front war. The documentary looks first at Director John Ford's Oscar-winning short films on Pearl Harbor and the battle of Midway and follows to look at the history of the war through both black-and-white and color combat footage and still photographs on land, sea, and air, and the role of combat cameramen in the war effort, all the way through to the end of the war in the Pacific theater in 1945. The piece examines combat photography in both the Pacific and European fronts, and like Saving Private Ryan, it features several disturbing and graphic scenes.
The Saving Private Ryan tab opens up a long list of additional extras. An Introduction (480p, 2:35) features Director Steven Spielberg sharing scenes from the World War II films he shot as a child, his fascination with the era, and the picture's place in film history for the veterans who fought in the war. Looking Into the Past (480p, 4:40) again features Spielberg, this time discussing his research for the film, the events on which the film is based, and his approach in making the film an authentic recreation of war. Miller and His Platoon (480p, 8:23) examines the collaboration between Spielberg and Hanks and continues on to look at the additional characters and the attributes they display in the film. Boot Camp (480p, 7:37) examines the contributions of Military Advisor/Actor Dale Dye and the difficulties of the cast's physical and military training in preparation for the film. Next is Making 'Saving Private Ryan' (480p, 22:05), a solid examination of the process that was the construction of the film, featuring Director Steven Spielberg speaking on his style, the film's place in his career, and how the shooting experience differed from other pictures he's made; an examination of the shooting locations used in the film and the authenticity of the sets, props, and wardrobes; the work of Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski and the look of the film; and the importance of creating an authentic World War II chronicle.
Re-Creating Omaha Beach (480p, 17:58) begins with a brief historical overview of the Omaha Beach invasion and moves on to look at the authenticity of the sequence, shooting in Ireland, the use of Irish troops in support roles in the film, the collection of weapons issued to the actors, shooting the landing scenes, the realism of the shoot and the chaos of the set as an authentic military engagement recreation, the stunts of the sequence, the importance of safety and capturing the finest of details for the sequence, and more. Music and Sound (480p, 15:59) features Composer John Williams speaking on the role of music in the film and how it fits within the realm of the Spielberg/Williams collaborations, while Sound Designer Gary Rydstrom speaks on how the absence of music enhanced the realism of the battle scenes, his research to create the most realistic period sound possible, the process of editing the sounds together, and the construction of the sound design for the film's epic climactic battle in Ramelle. Into the Breach: 'Saving Private Ryan' (480p, 25:01) is a quality behind-the-scenes piece that features cast, crew, World War II veterans, and Historian Stephen Ambrose speaking on the real-life events surrounding the Normandy invasion; stories of brothers killed in combat; the story and themes of Saving Private Ryan; the picture's realism; Steven Spielberg's early films, inspirations, and fascination with the World War II era; the actors' physical and military training for the roles; the picture's legacy; and more. Some of the material in this supplement repeats parts of other extras found elsewhere on the disc. Parting Thoughts (480p, 3:43) features Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg sharing a few final thoughts on the picture's themes and importance. Rounding out this collection of extra content is the Saving Private Ryan theatrical trailer (1080p, 2:16) and the film's Re-Release trailer (1080p, 2:05).
Final words
It wasn't just bullets and bombs that cleared the way for freedom, but also, and just as crucial to the war effort, the selflessness, courage, honor, and bravery of the men who fought. That selflessness, courage, honor, and bravery was for those in generations later who would view their actions with an understanding of the scale on which these men sacrificed all in the name of liberty and the hope that their descendants would be influenced to lead better lives, to do right by others, to stay true to themselves, and to demonstrate personal valor in all areas of life, in their hearts and souls, words and actions, principles and values. For all the books and memorials and movies, Saving Private Ryan is perhaps the most obvious but also most important tool through which one may see their courage, sacrifice, and purpose to the greater good not only as it applied to the world in 1942, but in the years following the film's release and, if there is any justice in the world, in the decades -- yea centuries and millennia -- to follow. Indeed, Saving Private Ryan is absolutely one of, if not the most, important pictures ever made. It's also quite possibly the best. Compared to those of its genre, perhaps only Glory -- a film that shares with Saving Private Ryan themes on the importance of freedom, respect, courage, and personal sacrifice for the greater good -- may be seen as its equal, and for as many other exceptional War pictures as there are, from All Quiet on the Western Front to Platoon, from Sergeant York to Das Boot, no other quite proves the equal of Saving Private Ryan, not only in terms of the importance of the raw grittiness or violence, but the far more crucial elements of humanity that truly convey what the film and its purpose is all about. Paramount's Sapphire Series Blu-ray release of Saving Private Ryan is the definitive edition of the film, and a necessary edition to every movie library. Boasting a sparkling 1080p transfer and a mesmerizing lossless soundtrack, the technical presentation is just as good as the movie. A strong-in-quality but somewhat underwhelming-in-quantity collection of extras rounds out what may very well be the must-own Blu-ray of 2010. Saving Private Ryan earns my highest recommendation.
from - blu-ray.com
