08:28 AM ET 07/20/98

REVIEW/FILM: War is hell, 'Ryan' is swell

	 
	    Saving Private Ryan (WWII Drama, color, R, 2:49)
	    By Todd McCarthy, Daily Variety Chief Film Critic
	    HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - ``Saving Private Ryan'' relates the
kind of wartime stories that fathers never tell their families.
	    A searingly visceral combat picture, Steven Spielberg's
third World War II drama is arguably second to none as a vivid,
realistic and bloody portrait of armed conflict, as well as a
generally effective intimate drama about a handful of men on a
mission of debatable value in the middle of the war's decisive
action.
	    This grim, sometimes moving and just occasionally windy film
is unusually demanding and serious for a mainstream midsummer
attraction, as well as a questionable bet for some women and
more conventional thrill-seeking teens. Backed by strong
reviews, DreamWorks' gamble could as easily pay off handsomely
as a shrewd piece of counterprogramming as it could land in a
commercial middle ground.
	    Plunging the viewer headlong into battle in a manner akin to
some of the more intense Vietnam films, such as ``Platoon,''
``Full Metal Jacket'' and ``Hamburger Hill,'' but quite rare for
a World War II drama, Spielberg wrenchingly presents combat from
the grunt's point of view as it is fought inch by inch, bullet
by bullet, in all its arbitrariness and surreality. Whatever
else there is to say about the picture, what remains in the mind
is the transforming fear, the sound of ammunition ripping into
flesh and metal, the sight of bodies being blown apart, the
relentlessness of the pressure and tension, the immense
suffering, the feeling of always being on the brink. In
retrospect, qualities such as heroism and bravery can be
ascribed to the actions of soldiers, the film suggests, but in
the moment there is only necessity.
	    After a brief prologue featuring an older man silently
leading his family into the vast military cemetery at Omaha
Beach in Normandy, the picture drops the audience onto a U.S.
landing craft getting ready to unload the first GIs to hit the
beach on June 6, 1944. From the opening moments, the anxiety and
fiercely discomforting conditions are underlined, and as soon as
the gate opens, the German artillery comes raining down.
	    Many men are mowed down before they can take three steps,
but Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks) and his squad -- Sgt. Horvath
(Tom Sizemore), Pvts. Reiben (Edward Burns), Jackson (Barry
Pepper), Mellish (Adam Goldberg) and Caparzo (Vin Diesel) and
Medic Wade (Giovanni Ribisi) -- painstakingly make it past the
many obstacles and are finally able to take one of the enemy's
concrete pillboxes on top of the bluff. The nonstop action lasts
24 minutes, and each minute is infinitely more intense than
anything in the standard work on D-Day, ``The Longest Day.''
	    But no sooner do Capt. Miller and his men pause for a smoke,
than they are ordered to try to locate a certain private, James
Ryan, who parachuted into France the night before. The reason:
his three brothers have all recently been killed in combat, and
government policy dictates that he should return home lest his
family be deprived of all its male offspring.
	    Robert Rodat's original screenplay thus transforms to a
mission format. Taking on a skinny, timid translator, Cpl. Upham
(Jeremy Davies), who has never seen combat, the group, which has
previously seen action in North Africa and Italy, treads
gingerly through territory that is still riddled with Nazis, as
they discover when they come upon a bombed-out village and the
first of them is killed.
	    After the rest of them slaughter a bunch of Germans, there
is a bit of down time in a church for the men to argue the
merits of their needle-in-a-haystack mission. Why, one argues,
should several men risk their lives in the outside chance of
saving a single man, even if he is the last left in a family?
How is one to judge the value of some men sacrificing their
lives for the sake of saving many others?
	    Such tentative attempts at philosophizing and stabs at
profundity succeed in raising some issues that aren't often
considered these days, but they still don't begin to lend the
film the kind of weight in the intellectual arena that would
match the action of its purely physical sequences.
	    Unquestionably, the picture strives to delineate a morality
of decency and righteousness in a context defined by hate and
inhumanity, but the speechifying here can't compare in power to
the brute force of warfare, which is sufficient commentary by
itself.
	    Even if its thematic elements are not as richly developed as
they might be, and the story itself somewhat irksome in its
far-fetched, even contrived nature, the film packs a heavy
emotional punch at many moments, as the tenuousness of life and
the abruptness of loss assert themselves. A key skirmish occurs
at a German radar station, resulting in another American death
and a fractious argument over what to do with a Nazi who has
surrendered and begs for his life. To the disgust of some, Capt.
Miller lets him go, a decision that, unsurprisingly, has fateful
implications later on. Interestingly, this soldier is the only
German shown up close and given any kind of personality
throughout the picture.
	    Finally, nearly two hours in, the squad locates Pvt. Ryan
(Matt Damon), who complicates the mission even further by
refusing to return, insisting that he has orders of his own to
continue fighting. As it happens, a devastated village nearby
contains a bridge that must be held, and Miller orders Ryan to
stay by him as they try to prevent the Nazis from taking it.
What follows is yet another ferocious and protracted battle
sequence, small in scale and numbers but gripping in its
details, surprises and the way the chaos of fighting is
strikingly conveyed. The epilogue connects once again to the
personal tribute being paid by the contemporary visitor to
Normandy.
	    Using his technical virtuosity to the utmost, Spielberg is
pushing here to claim new ground for himself and for a revival
of the World War II film, and scores strongly on both counts.
Opting out of the black-and-white of ``Schindler's List'' and
the long-standing images of the war, Spielberg and
cinematographer Janusz Kaminski have desaturated the color in a
way that strikingly emphasizes the pale greens of the uniforms
and landscapes, blue-grays of the water and skies, and flesh
tones; in this context, the red of the blood always jumps out.
Frequent hand-held shots add to the intimacy and impact, while a
shuttering device makes some of the action appear a bit jumpy,
even pixilated, creating an effect that is both ultra-vivid and
somewhat jarring.
	    Essentially, Spielberg has made an amazing piece of pure,
visceral cinema, akin to a great silent film, in which the words
are basically superfluous.
	    Of almost equal note is the sound, which emphasizes the
frightening noises of war but occasionally shifts gears to blot
out anything realistic in order to create subjective impressions
of disorientation and detachment. Michael Kahn's editing
maximizes the power of the story and visuals, while John
Williams' score is sparing, with music avoided entirely for long
stretches but coming into its own elsewhere, notably over the
final credits. Production design, costumes and wartime ambiance
are all on the money, and extra effort has clearly gone into the
explosions, stunts and military details.
	    In a performance that has parallels with James Stewart's
move into more complex, conflicted and bitter characters -- in
his case, after his World War II experience -- Hanks
impressively flexes his acting muscles once again. His Capt.
Miller deliberately conceals most personal information from his
men, as well as from the viewer for most of the running time,
yet one comes to see clearly a decent man of the sort that
America was theoretically meant to produce, and perhaps did
during the generation in question.
	    Of the supporting cast, which consists largely of young
actors generally associated with independent films, Sizemore
best fits with one's idea of a gritty, tough and capable Yank
soldier of the era, while Davies impresses as the proverbial
brainy weakling who is toughened by facing up to battle and
difficult decisions. The others all have their moments: Pepper
as a lean-and-mean Southern sharpshooter, the kind of guy you
definitely want on your side; Goldberg as a personally motivated
soldier who likes to flaunt his Jewishness at captured Nazis;
Diesel as the likable Italian-American hulk; Ribisi as the
considered medic; and Burns as the cynical New Yorker. Damon
forcefully handles his limited but crucial scenes.
	    Perhaps realizing that there was no avoiding the old truism
that war is hell, Spielberg decided to underline, italicize and
boldface it in startling terms that no one could miss. No
further commentary is needed when the raw brutality of combat is
presented as indelibly as it is here.
	   
	    Capt. John Miller .......... Tom Hanks
	    Pvt. Reiben ................ Edward Burns
	    Sgt. Horvath ............... Tom Sizemore
	    Cpl. Upham ................. Jeremy Davies
	    Pvt. Caparzo ............... Vin Diesel
	    Pvt. Mellish ............... Adam Goldberg
	    Pvt. Jackson ............... Barry Pepper
	    T/4 Medic Wade ............. Giovanni Ribisi
	    Pvt. James Ryan ............ Matt Damon
	    Lt. Col. Anderson .......... Dennis Farina
	    Capt. Hamill ............... Ted Danson
	    Gen. George Marshall ....... Harve Presnell
	    War Dept. Colonels ......... Dale Dye, Bryan Cranston
	    War Dept. Captain .......... David Wohl
	    Sergeant Hill .............. Paul Giamatti
	    Paratrooper Michaelson ..... Ryan Hurst
	    Ryan as Old Man ............ Harrison Young
	   
	    A DreamWorks Pictures (in U.S.)/Paramount Pictures release
(foreign) of an Amblin Entertainment production in association
with Mutual Film Co. Produced by Steven Spielberg, Ian Bryce,
Mark Gordon, Gary Levinsohn. Co-producers, Bonnie Curtis,
Allison Lyon Segan.
	    Directed by Steven Spielberg. Screenplay, Robert Rodat.
Camera (Technicolor), Janusz Kaminski; editor, Michael Kahn;
music, John Williams; production designer, Tom Sanders;
supervising art director, Daniel T. Dorrance; art directors,
Ricky Eyres, Tom Brown, Chris Seagers, Alan Tomkins; set
decorator, Lisa Dean Kavanaugh; costume designer, Joanna
Johnston; sound (Dolby digital/DTS/SDDS), Ronald Judkins; sound
designer, Gary Rydstrom; special effects supervisor, Neil
Corbould; special visual effects, Industrial Light & Magic;
stunt coordinator, Simon Crane; senior military adviser, Capt.
Dale Dye; associate producers, Mark Huffam, Kevin de la Noy;
assistant director, Sergio Mimica-Gezzan; casting, Denise
Chamian, Priscilla John (U.K.). Reviewed at Harmony Gold, L.A.,
July 1, 1998.
	    Reuters/Variety
	 ^REUTERS@