Saving Ryan's Privates

Enticed by the flashy ad campaigns and looking for a bit of respite from the heat of El Nino (Spanish for carbon emissions), I found myself at the movies quite a bit this summer. But after repeated exposure to the reek of putrid inanity emitting from these stinkers, I’m a little apprehensive about returning to the local multiplex.

When the lights come up on a film whose ad campaign consisted of huge billboards proclaiming "Size does matter," I leave my thinking cap off and set my standards to ‘bearable.’ Unbelievably, many films this summer managed to sink even further below my already minimal expectations.

I understand the concept of entertainment, I understand how film can satisfy our need to escape. Some of my favourite films of the last few years have been "Starship Troopers," "The Rock," and "Face Off." But films like "Armageddon," "Godzilla" and "54" take vacuity into as yet uncharted territories. Dear Hollywood: if you’re going to embrace a cliché, don’t cling so tight it dies in your arms; those changing colours you find so mesmerizing are not inspired filmmaking, they’re the results of fatal asphyxiation.

It’s quite clear these films are nothing more then cash grabs, harmless distractions from the daily din of Rentfamilybillswork. The feminine frailty of Liv Tyler or the masculine martyrdom of Bruce Willis is an easy sell. It comforts us to know that if there’s trouble, we can sleep easy because straight, good-looking white people are going to save our sorry asses.

I’m even more troubled by the Hollywood ‘issue’ film. Take "Saving Private Ryan" for example: an ‘anti-war’ film unable to pull itself out from the wreckage of its own contradictions.

As the credits rolled I left the theatre in awe at the opening sequence, closing my eyes during it didn’t help--the shrill sound of the bullets was inescapable. A technical marvel and certainly the work of a great craftsman - an experience akin to a tumultuous roller coaster ride. "Wow! That was so much fun I had to pick my arm up off the floor and my brain off my lap!"

I like roller coaster rides they make me want to blow chunks and I think that’s really fuckin’ cool.

So because this seemed so real, that makes it OK? Because it’s in a film about the ‘horrors of war’ no one mentions desensitization to violence?

I suppose Doom and Quake would be a much better games for children if they took place during World War II.

A couple shots of a bleached American flag are supposed to suggest something about misplaced patriotism. But before you can say "un-American" we find out Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) is an elementary school teacher and Private Ryan (Matt Damon), resembles a walking piece of apple pie. He’s going to stick around to fight cause it’s the right thing to do.

Then the most powerful scene. Two soldiers in hand-to-hand combat, a third sits paralyzed with fear just outside, unable to intervene and save his American comrade. Later when he is being taunted by the same German soldier he exacts his revenge with a bullet. As the audience expels a collective "Alright!" the point is lost and it becomes another film about Americans and their guns.

Finally as Miller lay dying he tells Private Ryan: "Earn this." As an old man Ryan stands over Miller’s grave and asks his wife if he’s earned it, behind him his adult children watch. Are we to understand that he earned it because his pretty Aryan children are so well dressed? If the horror of war drove him to alcoholism or left him unable to have a relationship with a woman would that mean he didn’t earn it?

Recently in an interview with Now magazine, Todd Solonz (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness) said, "I just don't like to underestimate the intelligence of my audience, and they don't need to be told what is bad."

Taking out the colour and adding a brutally violent opening sequence doesn’t make a film great.

There’s something disturbing about asking moral questions in the arena of a Hollywood film where the opening weekend gross is the real mark of success. Can tough questions be asked when the primary concern is separating people from their money?

I think they can in some cases, but "Saving Private Ryan" is not one of them. It’s too afraid of pissing people off. The brutality of the opening battle leaves us feeling uneasy, but we leave the theatre satisfied that Miller and the rest of them died so Ryan could have the freedom to make babies.