ok so i finally saw saving private ryan. and as
usual during 'important' films such as these i couldn't resist
the temptation to turn around and smirk at the audience as they
were 'experiencing' this 'powerful drama'. but unlike the last
great picture show (amistad) i didn't hang around after the film
to watch them exit the theatre in a stunned and mumbling state. i
just got out quickly to return my pages. but considering the
subject, i did put my pager on vibrate. herds can be dangerous
when provoked.
spielberg has invented the next version of
shaky-cam. it's the full screen vibration, and the
deaf-from-the-blast scene. in this, spr is landmark, bravura and
all that. his vision of the chaos of battle is profound, uncanny
and resolutely realistic. not once, during any of the
earth-rending destruction was there the slightest hint of
artifice. there will be, after this film, no turning back. no
gasoline fireballs, no baking-powder enhanced cannon shots, no
public library sound-effects record ricochets, no tracerless
bullets, no stuntmen falling forward from heights. all that is
cheese and all that is in the past. the war movie is dead, long
live the battle movie.
i know what a soldier is, today. and i have a
vague idea of what kind of soldier i might be. besides scared to
death, i believe i'd be a humorless maniac. so to the extent that
a film can inform as well as entertain, i found myself quite
upset that spielberg sought to lighten with anything but the most
perverse humor. no matter what was said, i could not bring myself
to laugh - except once - when the fay soldier, upham i believe,
failed to find 'fubar' in his phrasebook. there was no lightening
my mood as i imagined myself wrestling with the john miller's
dilemmas of leadership, futility and irony. indeed i even
considered whether or not today in my own job, i am adequately
open to my peers and associates. but these are passing fancies,
and i simply thank god that i am not a soldier, today.
spr gives us some insight into the constriction
of time to an ever present now. it becomes clear exactly why the
soldier's mind must be that of a human weapon - disciplined to
the point of instinct. considering that battles and skirmishes
may last for hours or days, and death comes in split seconds, the
battle realism works against the plot. i am glad that the human
drama in this film is reduced to bare bones - that the battle
scenes win - for there are few things as disappointing as the
recognition in mid-film that 'somebody has to live to tell this
tale'. thus the tale is simple and gets adequately lost in the
melee. our memory becomes a soldier's memory. we remember the
midget who walked on his hands and pissed his initials. and it's
ok to accept that one day we care about what somebody's mom
thinks, and the next day we don't. thus is private ryan saved -
for no good reason at all, just soldier's work.
there is an american flag flying peacefully at
the beginning and closing of this film. i've never seen it in
quite that way - its very physical being indicating an absence of
flying shrapnel, of peace. for that alone, i am grateful - yes
grateful. for we are at peace, and i thank god that i am not a
soldier, today.
(btw. i give it a 92% - it's spielberg's best
movie.)
