"Saving Private Ryan" Finds Hope in the Horror of War

This review was originally published in 2007. Except for cleaning up spelling errors, it is presented as it was originally published.

Veterans tell me all the time that no matter how hard a movie tries, it will never, NEVER be able to portray war the way it truly is! Most filmmakers never went to war themselves, and so whatever war they film is usually a fantasy. Well, if Saving Private Ryan is not an accurate portrayal of what war is, and if that portrayal still fails to show how it “really was,” then I swear to God I will never protest another war ever again. How could I after seeing this movie? Our soldiers go through so much hell in this movie that I was sobbing through most of it. To protest war, or worse, question previous wars, would be a great insult to what these soldiers had to go through.

Thankfully, though, Saving Private Ryan paints a very positive image of soldiers. They are portrayed as human, heroic, and most of all, they are portrayed as fragile. Fragile human beings who can die in an instant, without warning and without reason. As we learn when a frantic government employee bursts into the General's office with bad news: three brothers named Ryan have all been killed in combat. Their mother will be receiving all three letters informing her of their deaths in one day. The discovery of a fourth Ryan brother who may still be alive prompts the General to give Captain John H. Miller a new mission: find Private First Class James Francis Ryan and bring him home to his mother.

Captain John accepts this mission because it will also get him back home to his wife, and he drags along a squad of men who are reluctant to take on the assignment. After all, why risk the lives of eight men to save that of one? Why does this one get to go home to his mother when everyone else has a mother waiting for them to come home, too? It’s certainly a bit of a conflict, but orders are orders, and the men eventually follow through on them. Prior to seeing Saving Private Ryan, I had heard a lot about the famous opening battle scene on the sands of Omaha Beach. Many people cite this twenty-four-minute opening as the main reason to see this movie, as it portrays war in its ugliest, grimmest, and most violent form ever imagined on film.

I must admit, after hearing all the talk about how graphic this scene was, I was still not prepared for the massacre I witnessed unfolding before my eyes. It felt like walking into something you knew the dangers of, yet you weren’t really prepared for. The reputation that surrounds this scene is well deserved, but I would be a fool to base my recommendation of the film on this one scene alone. Powerful as it is, it is still only a quarter of this two-hour-and-forty-seven-minute movie. There is a great story in this movie. There are wonderful characters that you empathize with and feel for. It sweeps you up in the emotional conflicts, and the overall story of risking it all so that a mother can have one son who comes home is very relatable.

If I’m to recommend this movie, I’m going to recommend it based on the film as a whole. That’s how it should be, and that’s how I’m going to do it. Saving Private Ryan has earned its right to be called a classic. It was truly one of those rare “instant classics” that was loved by audiences, hailed by critics, and evokes the same emotional responses today as it did eleven years ago. A groundbreaking film in every regard, this is one of those movies that should be required viewing for anyone who loves film. And remember, I’m basing that recommendation on the whole film. If you rent this to watch the first half hour of the film and then turn it off, then you should be ashamed of yourself.