Jun. 20, 2004 - 11:25 am
ok, so it only took a week to watch another movie. i did a lot of Mr. Bean watching this past week. and talking to Jill on the phone. both very worthwhile activities if you ask me. anyway, yesterday morning in my ethics class we somehow began talking about the ethics of warfare for more than an hour and for a few minutes we talked about a few things that happened in this movie. that made me realize that i had not ever watched my copy of this film since i got it for Christmas a year or two ago. this was a good opportunity to see it again.
the movie takes place during the Norman invasion of WWII by American forces. it follows a group of 8 men and their company as they storm the beach and successfully defeat the German forces there. after that mission is over, they are asked to go off on their own to attempt to find a certain private somewhere in France. Private Ryan's brothers have all been killed and the army doesn't want to have to tell his mother that all of her sons are dead, so they intend to save Ryan so that she'll retain at least one son.
a wonderfully done film. i love the color reduction that was done by Spielberg on the film. he reduced the color saturation to 60% on the entire film. it makes it look somewhat historical i suppose. it also makes you see the sort of colorless, dying nature of war.
i think this movie does a good job of showing the reality of war. i know everyone says that, but that's because it's true. not that i have ever fought in a war, but everything is very gory and not at all sugar-coated. it feels like you're really there fighting with the men. it shows you many different sorts of predicaments that you might find yourself in while fighting a war and asks you what you might do if placed in a similar situation. Spielberg does a good job of stalling action just long enough to let you think about what you would do if you were in the actor(s)' shoes. it's a wonderful film and i'd have to say that it's my favorite war film i think.