🚀 go-pugleaf

Jason comments:


> Another vote from the "Saving Private Ryan does more harm than good"
> crowd:  The film lost me from the point where the secretary in the U.S.
> comes to the stunning realization that there are three, yes *three* death
> certificates with the last name Ryan on them.  How many of those does she
> look at a day?  What does she do with all the Smiths?  Is she the office
> lunatic, obsessed with collecting all like-named death certificates?
> "General, general!  Forty-seven Thompsons were killed in action today!
> I think they might be related!"  I'm sorry, my suspension of disbelief
> ended there, and it was downhill for the rest.  Maybe if it had been
> called "Saving Private Yanuszewski".

This part didn't bother me so much, considering that she's typing the
letters to the families of the deceased.  It's not just "Ryan" that
catches her eye, but the mother's name and address in the wilds of
Nebraska.  The concept of this massive cataloguing of regrets for the
dead was an effective image and leaves one to wonder if a computer
would be programmed to do as much, but then Spielberg didn't run with
that concept, of the massive thanatology.  Instead, he opted for a
moment of the man of honor who does the Right Thing in the person of
Gen. Marshall.  This undercut a good deal of the rest of the film for
me, since the GIs' doubts about whether the brass really know what
they're doing has been already effectively answered.

>
> My other moral quarrel with the film was the episode with the release of
> the German soldier, who of course (Hooray for Hol-ly-wooood) returns to
> shoot Hanks at the end of the film.  The message being...what?  Kill
> Germans when you get the chance?

A better objection, I think!  There was the chance to see the average
German soldiers as also being human, even if the film wanted to
demonstrate the ugly necessity of winning the war.  That character came
off like "Captain Nazi" in the Captain Marvel comics!

Don Larsson

>
> Final note to Steven Spielberg:  if you're trying to communicate the
> essential dignity and heroism of anonymous soldiers serving their country,
> don't cast Ted Danson.  Just a tip.

I do have to say that Danson's haircut was strange enough that I didn't
realize that he was the actor until the credits rolled!

Don Larsson

----------------------
Donald Larsson
Minnesota State U, Mankato
larsson@Mail.Mankato.MSUS.EDU

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