SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

Saving Private Ryan Movie Critique

Saving Private Ryan Movie Critique

Introduction

Saving Private Ryan is a Great War movie and has the best depiction of the D-Day invasion that has ever been presented on film before. The part of Saving Private Ryan that makes it an excellent war movie is its authenticity, and the same goes with the D-Day invasion. The realism and complete truthfulness of war has never even remotely been attempted by another movie.

Saving Private Ryan is somewhat based on a true incident, and this makes it easy to accept the characters and events as real. The well developed and believable characters are essential in the making of an excellent war movie. Small battles, where men are lost at war assist in developing the characters. The question that is asked the whole movie is if one man's life more important than another man's life. As the movie ovals, you learn the answer to the question from the actions and comments of the soldiers. The viewer is brought into the hearts and souls of the soldiers, as they battle their selves to find a reason to save Private Ryan. This rhetorical question truly develops the characters (Bodnar, 2001).

Most war movies fall into the category of heroic tales of glory or different trends such as glamorizing or condemning the war. Saving Private Ryan veers away from the both of these downfalls. Instead of being a heroic tale of glory it is a tale of human courage and sacrifice. There is no one hero, yet the men come together as a band of brothers. The men do not attempt superhuman feats, but show their courage and sacrifice in the line of duty. These characteristics are essential for their survival during the war. Saving Private Ryan neither glamorizes or tries to condemn war, it clearly shows the truth of war. Saving Private Ryan also stays away from the stereotype in a classic war movie that it is you versus the enemy. During this movie, it is the men versus war. The enemy is not so much the Germans, but the real evil is the disastrous war (Basinger, 1986).

Analysis and Critique

The D-Day invasion of Normandy is presented by a soldier's eye view. This is certainly the most violent and gory depiction ever shown on screen. The invasion shown in the movie leaves visual pictures stuck in the mind of bloody images, bodies being cut to pieces by bullets, limbs being blown off, and guts spilling out onto the sand. In one scene, a soldier gets his arm blown off, searches frantically for the missing body part, and then as he finds it the soldier carries it off as if he can use it later. This is a great example of the confusion during the war. The battle scenes show the most prevalent emotion felt in combat, like no other before, fear. Some people may say that the invasion during the movie is overlong, confusing, and exhausting to ...