I overcame my Steven Spielberg prejudice (haven’t liked one of his films since Duel or Jaws) to watch this World War II epic. The battle scenes are extremely dramatic – bloody and terribly tense – and he deserves credit for these. What I didn’t like was the “present day” segments that top and tail the film. I don’t think these were needed at all. (Titanic suffered from the same slightly naff device.) Also unnecessary was the soupy music that is laden onto so many scenes. This is intrusive and emotionally obvious, undercutting the realism.
The other fundamental flaw is that the film can never explain why the life of Ryan (Matt Damon) is important enough to be worth rescuing at such a high price in terms of human sacrifice, just as Miller (Tom Hanks) can never explain it to his men. (General George Marshall decides that Ryan should be saved because all three of his brothers were killed.) What about all the other men who were not favoured? Or is the point precisely that life and death decisions are always made arbitrarily by those in the upper ranks?
It’s a shame because there is so much that is remarkable about this as a war film. In particular, the recreation of the Omaha Beach battle (part of the Normandy landings) is astonishing in the way it depicts the merciless brutality that both sides faced. Knowing that this slaughter actually happened makes it genuinely painful to sit through.
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