SAVING PRIVATE RYAN - DVD review

The summer of 1998 saw the release of two great war films, Terrence Malick's "The Thin Red Line" and Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan." Malick's film was the more intense, overall, and the more distanced. His detached, ethereal voice-overs made the film largely a series of philosophical queries on the meaning of life. Spielberg's film is more down-to-earth, more rooted in the here and now, its objectives more clear-cut; yet it, too, assumes universal themes. Both films merit being added to one's list of best war movies of all time.

My primary thoughts as I watched "Private Ryan" were ones of pride and thankfulness and sorrow. Pride in the selfless heroism of so many young soldiers to keep our world free; thankfulness for their courage and dedication; sorrow for the loss of so many of their lives. The story begins on June 6, 1944, D-Day, Omaha Beach, the allied invasion of Normandy. The first thirty minutes or so provide a vivid, almost documentary recreation of that ferocious battle, and for most viewers this part may be the highlight of the film.

Once having shown us the establishment of a beachhead, the film formally introduces its main character, Captain John Miller, played by Tom Hanks. Miller is assigned the unenviable task of leading a small squadron of eight men behind enemy lines to find a Private James Francis Ryan, who parachuted into German-held territory the day before. Private Ryan's three brothers having been recently killed in action, the War Department is determined to save the life of at least one of the siblings. The long, middle section of the film chronicles the squad's search for Ryan, who has become separated from his company. Here the film establishes the kind of group camaraderie found in other war films, most notably in one of my favorites, Lewis Milestone's 1945 classic, "A Walk in the Sun." Once Ryan is found, the story focuses on Miller and his squad keeping him safe while at the same time trying to destroy a vital bridge.

Hanks, as always, is ideally cast as the common man we all respect, admire, and relate to. He plays a good and decent man; a man who simply wants to get back to his wife; a man who feels that whether or not saving the life of one man is worth the risk of losing many others, if it takes him one step closer to going home, he'll do it. But as he says, "This Ryan better be worth it." Accompanying Hanks are Tom Sizemore as Sgt. Horvath; Edward Burns as Pvt. Reiben; Barry Pepper as Pvt. Jackson; Adam Goldberg as Pvt. Mellish; Van Diesel as Pvt. Caparzo; Giovanni Ribisi as Medic Wade; and Jeremy Davies as Corporal Upham. Matt Damon plays Pvt. Ryan. Other familiar faces one encounters are Ted Danson as Capt. Hamill and Dennis Farina as Lt. Col. Anderson. It is a fine ensemble crew, and although the film is rather long at nearly three hours, it utilizes most of its time well in establishing personal relationships among the men.

What, asks the film, is the worth of a single human soul? When we look at the billions of people encircling this globe, to say nothing of the endless worlds of our universe, is one life more or less so very important? In a special message, director Steven Spielberg says that he made the film to honor the men who fought at D-Day. Certainly, that is the film's clearest intent, but one cannot escape the import of the initial question. It's why the film begins and ends with an older Ryan of today revisiting the graves of those who fought so bravely to bring him to safety. He asks, "Am I a good man?" Have I led a life worthy of all those other lives? His family stands behind him in silent answer to his uncertainty. Perhaps he comes to represent all of us today who should ask ourselves how worthy we are to have had so many pay the price of their lives for our happiness. Like Spielberg's other distinguished war drama, "Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan" forces us to understand that every life is meaningful, and that every person can make a difference.

I read that at the time of "Private Ryan's" premiere, Spielberg invited groups of D-Day veterans to attend showings and provide comments. Two apparent discrepancies the vets noticed were ones that I suppose a little poetic license dictated. The first was that the captain would never have displayed his bars of rank so prominently on his helmet. It would have made him too easy a target as the group's leader.

The second inconsistency was that the men of the squad walking behind enemy lines would never have talked to one another as much as they do in the film; it would have alerted the enemy too easily to their presence. Malik in "The Thin Red Line" has his soldiers proceed more cautiously and quietly, their thoughts appearing in voice-over narrations. Spielberg prefers to create a group dynamic within his squad, to show us the bonds that unite these men in a mutual cause, and dialogue is the most expedient method he finds of doing so. I think we can forgive the director a minor oversight for the greater cause.

Video:
Needless to say, much of the dramatic impact of experiences like "Saving Private Ryan" and "The Thin Red Line" is lost in the transition from a big movie-house screen to a smaller, more intimate home theater. But DVD furnishes about as close an approximation as we could hope for, especially if one's home system is up to the task. The picture quality on this disc is excellent, and even the occasional background grain contributes to the general impression of combat footage. The 1.85:1 screen ratio conveys most of the action on a wide enough scale, although I don't know just how much has been added or subtracted compared to its original Panavision theatrical size.

Audio:
There's no question about the sound, though. Technically, it is the star of the show. The audio here should serve as a primer for every sound engineer in Hollywood. Frequency range, frequency balance, and dynamic response are all excellent, of course, but it is the directionality that is really superb. As in only a few other films, the Dolby Digital 5.1 sonics open up a true 360-degree surround-sound field.

(Yet a word about loudspeakers: If your rear speakers are of the kind that radiate sound in several different directions at once, that is, if they fire both to the front and rear or to the sides, they may create too diffuse a sound to take full advantage of the audio in a film like this. Side or rear-firing speakers are excellent for reproducing the ambient wall reflections of live orchestral music, but conventional front-firing speakers do a better job of pinpointing directional effects. In "Private Ryan," you should be able to hear a clear stereo spread across the front channels, across the back channels, and along the walls between the front and back channels. The sounds of things like gunfire, explosions, trucks, tanks, airplanes, even rain should arrive at the ear from specific locations around the room, realistically and authentically. As an aside, it is why I personally use two separate systems for different types of listening, one in the living room in two-channel stereo for music listening and a home theater in another, smaller room for movie enjoyment. Interestingly, I see that at least one amplifier manufacturer is now building into its units provision for two independent sets of rear-channel speakers, the best of both worlds. Forgive the digression.)

Extras:
In addition to the movie, the DVD's main attractions are a short message from the director and a twenty-five minute documentary titled "Into the Breach," featuring interviews and commentary on the making of the film. There are also production notes and cast and filmmaker biographies. There are two theatrical trailers. And there is an alternative Dolby 2.0 Surround soundtrack for those unable to take advantage of DD 5.1. Unfortunately, there are only English captions for the hearing impaired, no other subtitles; and English is the only spoken language included. The usual menu of scene selections completes the package, a list numbering a mere twenty chapter stops, rather few for so long a film.

Parting Thoughts:
"Saving Private Ryan" won five Academy Awards in 1998: Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Sound Effects Editing, plus a boatload of other honors from the Directors Guild, the American Legion, the USO, the Department of the Army, and so on. It deserved them all, just as the DVD deserves to be included in everyone's film library.