War has always been a favorite subject of filmmakers, not only because it supplies such great stories, but also because it sells. From the patriotic films of the ‘50s to the heroic epics of the ‘60s, war films often double as Hollywood shoot-em-ups, attracting audiences with their stylized portrayals of violence and an overly aggrandized attitude toward the fight. Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg’s 1998 World War II film is easy to lump in with these epic war blockbusters, but its shining qualities come from its subtle sensitivity to issues commonly dealt with by the war film’s sister genre — the anti-war film.
Saving Private Ryan certainly bears elements of classic World War II action cinema. After all, battle scenes and tense showdowns bring in big audiences, and Spielberg is never one to let his viewers down. They want to see the good guys beat the bad guys, and _Saving Private Ryan _does deliver on that front to some extent. The plot, a search and rescue mission for a single soldier, seems to be structured so that all the action can be justified by a noble and righteous cause, allowing the audience to root for someone all along. Still, while the soldiers often rationalize what they do by appealing to honor and a soldier’s duty, it is very clear by the end that their belief in these constructs is only skin deep.
The big question here is whether or not the gratuitous violence is an attempt by Spielberg’s to make his film sellable to his action-thirsty audiences. The answer can be found not in the loud scenes, but the quiet ones. At the start, the soldiers are stoic and uncaring. They show disturbing insensitivity to their actions, such as shooting enemies who have already surrendered. By the end, however, the men are pushed to their breaking points, culminating in Tom Hanks’ otherwise stone-faced character breaking down in tears. This pairing of incredibly produced war scenes and the expertly acted reactions to the violence reveal that the formerly emotionless warriors eventually lose faith in the worth of their orders, their mission and the war itself.
The war film genre is distinct from other areas of modern film in that it has become less oriented toward entertaining audiences and more concerned with making a statement. While films like Zero Dark Thirty and _In the Valley of Elah _have made use of a heavy-handed approach in achieving this end, it is interesting to see how Spielberg’s film critiques war itself through more subtle and nuanced means. The ingenuity of this film is that without using any of Kathryn Bigelow’s brand of anti-war propaganda, _Saving Private Ryan _is able to pose an open question about the morality of fighting for a cause that is not one’s own.
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