Rating: 2.5/5
Anti-Criterion Challenge 2024 | 9/52 | 1990s
CW // Violence, Blood, Viscera, Homophobia
A family reverently trails behind a shambling war veteran. Through bleary eyes, he glazes at the waving American flag. He hikes up the grassy knoll through the ocean of identical crosses — memorials to those lost in World War II. He collapses in front of one cross in particular. The family puts their hands on his back and imagines a bunch of shit that didn’t happen to him.
After the brutal Normandy invasion, we watch the brilliant and resourceful John Miller (Tom Hanks) lead a troop of survivors. General George Marshall gives them their orders — they must save Private Ryan so that at least one mother has a son who comes home.
This movie is not anti-war but built to worship the Greatest Generation. The gore and viscera, perhaps designed to inspire disgust, instead satisfy a blood lust demanded of war movies. The stirring patriotic score scans over the sea of bodies. Here, the price of victory is high but necessary.
This film, when contrasted with those depicting the Vietnam War, further reinforces the cultural stereotype that Vietnam veterans are cowards who lost us the war, and they could learn a thing or two from WWII veterans.
This movie led to the development of the Medal of Honor games, which led to the Call of Duty games, one of the most potent recruitment tools in history.
The film is self-aware — Spielberg knew that a mission of 8 men to save 1 is reckless sentimentality on behalf of the higher-ups. But if you want to have a nuanced argument with your audience, you don’t make Tom Hanks your misguided hero.
The Matt Damon Aging meme ruined the final reveal for folks like me who hadn’t seen it — that the veteran at the beginning is not John Miller, but the titular Private Ryan. His visit to the grave is a reverent outpouring for the sacrifice that led to his survival.
This movie is a highly influential technical marvel, and I don’t feel great about that.