On its surface, Saving Private Ryan is one of the most intense and unglamorous portrayals of war in history. But underneath this, Saving Private Ryan actually supports war, showing the soldiers as heroic and brave, fighting to make the world a better place. And no matter how horribly war is depicted, when you depict the soldiers fighting it as heroic (as the allies in WWII definitely were), you are not making an anti-war statement.
Movies Under The Surface is a series of video essays that explores what makes great films great. The videos are about understanding movies at a deeper level, beneath plot and story, at their heart.
For educational purposes only.
Footage from:
Saving Private Ryan (1998), Dir. Steven Spielberg
Battleship Potemkin (1925), Dir. Sergei Eisenstein
Triumph of the Will (1935), Dir. Leni Rienfenstahl E
Nation's Pride (2009), Dir. Eli Roth - Part of
Inglorious Basterds (2009), Dir. Quentin Tarantino
Top Gun (1986), Dir. Tony Scott
Fury (2014), Dir. David Ayer
Call of Duty WWII TV Spot (2018), Cre. Activision
Lone Survivor (2013), Dir. Peter Berg
The Patriot (2000), Dir. Roland Emmerich
Glory (1989), Dir. Edward Zwick
The Pianist (2002), Dir. Roman Polanski
Schindler's List (1993), Dir. Steven Spielberg
That Justice Be Done (1945), Dir. George Stevens
Paths of Glory (1957), Dir. Stanley Kubrick
The Hurt Locker (2008), Dir. Kathryn Bigelow
Das Boot (1981), Dir. Wolfgang Peterson
Apocalypse Now (1979), Dir. Francis Ford Coppola
Catch 22 (1970), Dir. Mike Nichols
The Pacific Part Nine (2010), Dir. Tim Van Patten
Nazi Concentration and Prison Camps (1945), Dir. George Stevens
Music from:
Saving Private Ryan Soundtrack - John Williams
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Full Transcript:
US COMBAT ENGINEER: Fire in the hole!
SERGEANT HOROWITZ: Fire in the hole!
US COMBAT ENGINEER: Fire in the hole!
T4 MEDIC WADE: Fire in the hole!
Hi, my name is Gabe and in this video I’ll be looking into Saving Private Ryan.
SERGEANT HOROWITZ: We’re in business! Defilade, other side of the hole!
Saving Private Ryan is another film I think is very misunderstood, mainly because its depth and meaning run contrary to its surface layers. Specifically, while on the surface Saving Private Ryan may seem anti-war, deep down it is actually a supportive-of-war film.
Before I get into this, you should know that spoilers are ahead, and so are some pretty graphic clips, not just from Saving Private Ryan but also from other related films.
Alright, let’s begin. To start, we should probably go over what a supportive-of-war film is. When most people think pro-war they think propaganda: Battleship Potemkin, Triumph of the Will, the film-within-a-film in Inglorious Basterds, stuff like that. There’s no questions these films support war, but for the most part, minus the first and last shots, Saving Private Ryan is not this.
But propaganda is not the only way to make a film that supports war.
MAVERICK: I got a good lock. Firing!
Films can also glamourize war, or show it as cool.
MAVERICK Woo! Splash four!
Top Gun, Fury, and almost every videogame today does this.
ANNOUNCER: Make like a landlord, and evict the bastards!
Saving Private Ryan however, doesn’t. It actually does more to deglamorize war than just about everything.
US SOLDIER: Mama! Ahhh!
This is that anti-war surface layer I mentioned earlier.
But there is a third category of supportive-of-war films: films that show that the fight was worth it. Lone Survivor does this,
IRAQI KID: ???
showing Navy Seals fighting for the Iraqis who believe in them, as does The Patriot, where revolutionaries fight for independence, and also for justice against a comically evil enemy, and also Glory, which shows black Americans fighting not just to end slavery, but also for respect and dignity.
It is in this last category that you can add Saving Private Ryan. This is because, no matter how awful war is depicted, at the end of the day the film is about defeating Nazis. War may be terrible but there are things that are worse:
CAPTAIN MILLER: Live gun twenty millimeter! Take it out!
like this, or this, or this. These are the very things the soldiers in Saving Private Ryan are fighting to end.
Compare this to actual anti-war films, ones that show war as purposeless in addition to terrible. Examples include soldiers dying solely for their superior’s egos, soldiers in situations where it is impossible to achieve victory,
STAFF SERGEANT WILLIAM JAMES: There’s too many locks!
soldiers who don’t even believe in their cause, or who the hell even knows what these soldiers are fighting for.
CAPTAIN WILLARD: Tell them to hold their fire! They’re just throwing sticks! They’re just trying to scare us!
Even in a war as black-and-white as WWII, you can still show war as purposeless, by showing soldiers facing bureaucracy or in no-win situations,
YOSSARIAN: In order to be grounded I’ve got to be crazy, and I must be crazy to keep flying, but if I ask to be grounded that means I’m not crazy anymore and I have to keep flying.
or trying hopelessly to avoid their own destruction and devastation.
PRIVATE FIRST CLASS EUGENE SLEDGE: We were all sent here to kill Japs, weren’t we? So what the hell difference does it make what weapon we use? I’d use my Goddamn hands if I had to.
But you don’t show it by showing soldiers defeating Nazis. I can’t think of a single greater purpose for war than that.
If there’s anything anti-war in this regard in Saving Private Ryan, it’s the fact that the film is about eight soldiers fighting to save one, not necessarily to defeat Nazis. This could have built to an anti-war statement, but it doesn’t, because the film bends over backwards explaining why this mission is important and how it is part of the overall war effort.
Take, for example, this sequence: eight minutes whose sole purpose is to explain the importance of this mission. The women back home tell us, colonels tell us, captains and lieutenants and even General Marshall himself tells us. Even Abraham Lincoln is quoted, with lines like:
GENERAL GEORGE C. MARSHALL: Died gloriously on the field of battle.
and
GENERAL GEORGE C. MARSHALL: Laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
And notice how Marshall isn’t even reading anymore? He has the letter memorized, that’s how important these ideas are to him.
And after all this, just in case you still don’t get it, the film tells us again, here:
CAPTAIN HAMILL: I understand what you’re doing.
CAPTAIN MILLER: You do?
CAPTAIN HAMILL: Yeah, I got a couple of brothers myself.
CAPTAIN MILLER: Oh.
CAPTAIN HAMILL: Good luck.
CAPTAIN MILLER: Thank you.
CAPTAIN HAMILL: No, I mean it. Find him, get him home.
And they also remind one more time at the end.
GENERAL GEORGE C. MARSHALL And the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Abraham Lincoln. Yours very sincerely and respectfully, George C Marshall, General Chief of Staff.
This Marshall sequence, a sequence so important the film actually leaves Normandy to show it, is the most significant supportive-of-war sequence in the film, but it is not the only one. Another sequence is the climax. This mission to save Ryan could have taken our squad anywhere, including the middle of nowhere, i.e. removing them from the fight, eight soldiers doing nothing to help defeat Nazis. Instead, the mission takes them to one of the most important battles in the Normandy campaign, a battle the allies would have lost had they not been there.
PRIVATE MELLISH: Find the Captain, this place is gonna fold!
Because of this, when it’s all said and done, you don’t even have to moralize the Ryan mission; you see its significance directly.
And let’s not overlook the sequence that starts the film. This battle, while horrifying, is also one of the greatest and most important accomplishments in US history. It is something Americans are and should be proud of; it is not an anti-war statement, no matter how horrifyingly it is depicted.
Moving away from sequences, even the specifics in this film are more supportive-of than anti-war. Like the film’s brotherhood-of-war dynamic, or the idea that war can be good for those fighting it. This second idea is brought up by Upham
CORPORAL UPHAM: War educates the senses, calls into action the will, perfects the physical constitution, brings men into such swift and close collision in critical moments that man measures man.
and Miller and Horowitz,
SERGENAT HOROWITZ: Like you said Captain, we do that, we all earn the right to go home.
and we see it with Reiben, who at first hates Ryan,
PRIVATE REIBEN: Fuck Ryan.
then grows to respect him. And also with Wade, who in the middle of war finds motivation for self-reflection.
Finally, the last supportive-of-war aspect I’ll bring up is how the soldiers are depicted. Specifically, all the characters in this film are depicted in an incredibly positive way. Well maybe not Upham, but eight out of the nine are. We have the all-American New Yorker, the cocky-in-a-funny-way and super-talented sniper, the Jew who fights Nazis,
PRIVATE MELLISH: I’m Juden. You know? Juden.
the likeable medic, the guy tough enough to take a bullet and keep fighting,
SERGEANT HOROWITZ: Son of a bitch!
another tough guy who is also warm and caring, the soldier who views his fellow soldiers as family,
PRIVATE RYAN: You tell her that when you found me, I was here, and I was with the only brothers that I have left.
and leading them all is an honorable everyman, one played by arguably the most likeable American in history. In short, every soldier is depicted as brave and heroic specifically for what they did in World War II.
This is true of the supporting characters as well. Minus Upham, the only soldiers not depicted heroically are these two, who are in the film for thirty whole seconds, and this single moment. That’s it, in a film three hours in length. To be fair, there’s also this guy,
“STEAMBOAT WILLIE”: Betty Grable!
whose storyline shows how morality and war often cannot co-exist, a message that is echoed in this battle
T4 MEDIC WADE: I don’t wanna die.
and here as well.
CAPTAIN MILLER: We’re not here to do the decent thing, we’re here to follow fucking orders! Sarge, take this Goddamn kid!
[gunshot]
CAPTAIN MILLER: Cover! Cover!
But excuse me if this doesn’t change my opinion, as the injustices here are nothing compared to the injustices the allies are fighting to end.
But here’s the thing. None of what I’ve said makes Saving Private Ryan bad. In fact, this is all part of what makes the film great. The allies who fought in WWII were heroes, and they deserve to be depicted that way. The allies fought, and many died, to make the world a better place. We have this idea that anti-war films are good and films that support war are bad,
PRIVATE JACKSON: Parker, get out!
but that just isn’t true. It’s all about context. And when your context is WWII and your soldiers are fighting Nazis,
PRIVATE RYAN: Panzers right!
that is good. War is hell and there are few reasons to fight one, but stopping the Nazis without a doubt was one of them. In context like this, war should be supported, not through propaganda, but in an honest and respectful way. Saving Private Ryan does this; it gives an honest depiction of war, from the perspective of a side who was right for fighting it. This is why the film is not anti-war, and it is also what makes it a great war film.