I just had my 23rd birthday recently, and naturally with age comes retrospection (not to mention depression). With that in mind, and also as a way of helping you all get to know me a little better, I'll be running through my three favourite movies of all time over the coming weeks, delving into just what it is that makes each of them so dear to me.
Which brings us to this one first up. You see as much as I've always loved movies, it wasn't until 1998 when Saving Private Ryan came out that I truly began this downward spiral of all out obsession with film culture.
Barf-O-Rama
| The look of Ryan is about as authentic as you could get without a time machine |
|
A horny young 17 year old at the time, wise many years less than my age, I had absolutely no interest in America, Tom Hanks, or World War II, and thus had no clue whatsoever what I was about to let myself in for as I took that cinema seat, sweaty hotdog in hand. As a result, the experience actually caught me quite off guard, and I must admit to hitting dangerously close to chucking up at a few choice moments throughout the film.
Sure, I'd seen horror film gore-fests a million times before that. I'm one of many young men of my generation that grew up watching Bruce Campbell chainsawing his wife's head in half, and seeing ED-209 blasting poor Kenny all over that top floor at OCP. And I ate it all up, laughing hysterically every time. But the experience of seeing American kids zapped and pinged by machine gun fire on that damn beach for 20 harrowing minutes, entrails all over the sand while they cry for their mummies, was a whole other horror unlike anything I'd ever seen. You know I can even vividly remember my dad showing me Taxi Driver at the tender age of 8, with the pimp shoot-out at the end still ringing around in my head to this day (which some might consider child abuse), yet nothing could compare to this.
The Time of Times
What I owe to Saving Private Ryan more than anything is how it opened up my eyes to just what people went through during that nightmarish period from 1939 to 1945. It planted the seeds for an interest and passion in World War II that lives with me to this day. Now never do I go a single 24 hour period without picking up a book, reading an article, having a discussion, or just playing a video game centered on the war.
I have read what feels like every damn World War II book in existence and been endlessly fascinated by each and every one, the whole time unable to figure out whether this is some kind of morbid fascination, or simply my way of paying respect to the grand-generation before me and everything (or everyone) they sacrificed.
Moving Paintings
| One of the film's many iconic snapshots |
|
In a future update I'll go into some details about my own trip to Normandy which I took in 2004, and what it was like to see those sites in the flesh, but setting the war itself aside for now and looking at Ryan primarily as a piece of entertainment, the real praise can begin. Saving Private Ryan is just about the most impeccably produced piece of visual film making you will ever see.
Every single frame could be freeze-framed and hung on a wall as a work of art. Whether it be the glorious site of the rolling Normandy hills bathed in sunshine, or the bleak rain drenched rubble of once-glorious French villages, it just all looks so incredibly authentic, you never for one moment even realise you're watching a period piece...it's all just so real, you buy it unconditionally.
| The recreation of war-ravaged Normandy is unparalleled |
|
And that's really the most amazing achievement of Spielberg's here. I mean I could go on about the endless action scenes, mind-blowing set design, inventive use of colour filters, incredible lens effects, and the much hailed hand-held camera work, but at the end of the day it's ultimate accomplishment is simply unadulterated visual authenticity.
Never before, and never since has a film transported me so successfully to a time and place. When those waves crash against the Higgins Boats on their way to Omaha beach, I shiver at the coldness. When those MG42s open fire and all hell breaks lose, I duck for cover. When the opening battle is over and we see soldiers tucking into corn beef sandwiches as if they are the first meals they've eaten in years, my stomach rumbles every time. There's just so much time and effort and detail jammed into ever single shot.
Defending Private Ryan
I'm not a particularly enormous fan of Spielberg's films, certainly not as much as many of my generation, but I can't help but admire his unadulterated love, if that's the right word, for the subject matter here. It shines through from beginning to end and it's quite clearly that which makes Saving Private Ryan and Shindler's List the bravest and most impressive of all his flicks.
The film is, I feel, unfairly maligned for both its "God Bless America" mentality, and its supposedly shallow script, but I can't help but feel both arguments are unjustified. After all, for a film about
American troops, and their role in the invasion, what else would you expect? British patriotism and a stiff upper lip? As far as I'm concerned, after seeing everything we see during those 170 minutes, they can wave that flag as much as they want.
| The one Oscar Tom Hanks did deserve went to somebody else that year |
|
This is similarly Tom Hanks best work to date I feel. While I can take him or leave him in a lot of his roles, he's pretty much flawless here from start to finish. Whether he be sharing a joke with comrades late at night, or in a state of shell shock at seeing his men getting gunned down and showered in bloody beach water, it's all gloriously splendid stuff.
Still, I can't help but feel that going with unknown actors would have further enhanced the realism and danger, something which Spielberg went on to do prove in his Band of Brothers series (which I will indeed get to at another time).
Still, Hanks and company do what is important, and that's make you care about the people taking those bullets...they do give the film more of a soul, and not just fill in the blanks between the various set pieces.
Ooh Guns, Guns, Guns
| The tide turns on Omaha Beach |
|
But fuck it, I just have to talk about those action scenes never the less. Back in '98 nothing like these had ever been seen on film previously - I mean bloody war scenes were nothing new, but Ryan went so far beyond that the excessive violence became but a small piece of the pie.
The most important part is how these sequences were shot; nothing appears to be framed or even planned, it feels more like Spielberg's team threw hundreds of extras onto a beach rigged with explosions and blood bags, and just let all hell break lose, subsequently filming it with hand held cameras just as if it were the real thing.
There's a randomness there that gives it that authenticity, and when it's coupled with the bleached colours and enhanced film grain, we get this wonderful almost-documentary style that has since become the trademark for realistic based action sequences throughout Hollywood (see Black Hawk Down or Pearl Harbour for ripe examples).
These sequences still maintain their edge and brutality six years on though, and I for one find myself usually underwhelmed and bored with the majority of shoot-out scenes in films ever since.
Closing Argument
| Private Jackson inspiring a thousand Medal of Honor sniping wannabes |
|
It's this culmination of exquisite film-making techniques, intense action scenes, historical respect, and still its ability to maintain good old fashioned entertainment throughout that makes Ryan one of my favourite films of all time. My love for the subject matter enhances every element of the film for me, which may explain my endless gushings to some degree, but I only hope others who don't share such an interest in the war can gleam even a fraction of its beauty for themselves.
I'm just so happy that such a film was made, and that it opened up my eyes to an experience and an event that really puts all the materialistic and redundant crap that my generation considers important into perspective.