Saving Private Ryan
directed by Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg and Bill Gates have it rough. They have done everything while they are young. To say they achieved success beyond their wildest dreams is a gross understatement. Gates is trying to beat the U.S. Government and own everything. What is Spielberg to do? Spielberg still wants to be considered more than a master showman and build a reputation as a serious filmmaker. Schindler’s List was a great achievement. Can he ever top that, and how?
Saving Private Ryan, starring Tom Hanks and a cast of thousands, is about an assignment to find one soldier after the assault on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion of Normandy in World War II. The challenge for Spielberg was to make this film different than any other. The solution was to make a World War II film that was brutally honest, real, and most of all, sickening. The violence is as graphic and stomach turning as anything in the most juvenile horror film. This time the purpose is to counter the propagandistic and upbeat war films of the past. There is also a strong, emotional, human story, but that is secondary to the impact of terrifying reality.
