Saving Private Ryan (Film Review)

1998 Dreamworks/Paramount Pictures
Directed by: Steven Spielberg; Written by: Robert Rodat
Starring: Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Matt Damon, and Tom Sizemore
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 170 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 10/10

Captain Miller leads his troops through the hell of Omaha Beach on D-Day, taking massive losses, though the Allies victoriously rout the Germans from their beachhead position. He's immediately assigned another mission: he will select seven other men from his unit, and take them deep into the French countryside in search of Private James Ryan. It seems all of Ryan's brothers have been killed in combat, and army headquarters back in America want Ryan rescued and brought back home to his grieving mother. However, Ryan was part of an errant air drop, and no one knows exactly where he is. On top of that, Miller has privately been cracking, experiencing tremors in his hands, becoming disillusioned with having to constantly order men to their deaths. Until now, Miller has been able to justify that for every man he's lost, he's helped save the lives of many back home...but how can he justify putting his men's lives on the line for the life of just one man?
Great films are often timeless, but I'm starting to find that they also change with you over time. I first saw 1998's Saving Private Ryan in a darkened movie theater a few months before my 17th birthday, identifying easily with the young soldiers who were thrown into the maelstrom of D-Day, portrayed with stunning realism in Steven Spielberg's virtuoso opening D-Day sequence. As the men fight to stay and alive and take Omaha Beach, and then to stay alive while attempting to locate and save Private Ryan, I had no trouble putting myself in their shoes. Now, 25 years later, I identify with their commanding officer.
On a surface level, Saving Private Ryan is technically perfect, the ultimate example of late 90s cinematic excellence. Spielberg shoots the battle scenes in a thrilling cinéma vérité style that makes the viewer feel like they're inside the film perhaps better than any film ever made. The production values are higher than top-notch, with everything, from bullets and explosions, to sand flying at the camera, to the cries of soldiers, to blood and gore, all feeling real. John Williams' score sits out the battle scenes, then hums to life with incredibly emotional symphonic punctuations in the moments in between, perfectly complementing the film's weary, desaturated visual palette. Matching the filmmaking aspects, the actors involved here bring their A-game, from Tom Hanks as the struggling Captain Miller, to Tom Sizemore as his loyal second, to a murderers row of Ed Burns, Giovanni Ribisi, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Vin Diesel, and Jeremy Davies all doing career-best work as the soldiers under their command (these eight men went to boot camp together to prepare for the film).
As the years pass, I appreciate Saving Private Ryan's filmmaking excellence more and more, but I've also grown more fond of Robert Rodat's screenplay, as well. This year, I'm the same age as Tom Hanks when he starred in Saving Private Ryan, and the character Rodat wrote for the storied actor feels strikingly real. Miller is a man looking for meaning amidst absolute chaos, suffering from doubts and ailments, while having to somehow lead a group of men under the guise that he is struggling with none of those things. When the cost of the mission becomes too high, the only thing Miller can do to keep his men from mutiny is essentially confessing to them that he's just as lost as they are. Spielberg and Rodat imbue the film with a multitude of themes and through lines, but Miller's underlying narrative, that of a struggling, mastless leader, circling a nihilistic drain, who regains meaning and purpose in his life, has become my favorite.