Summing Up "Private Ryan"
An Entry of The Aisle Seat by Andy Dursin
There's a lot to discuss this week at the movies, so I won't waste much
time diving right into a pair of films currently playing across the country.
As for this coming weekend, the Drew Barrymore romance EVER AFTER looks
fairly good, and has some promising word-of-mouth going for it. The movie's
trailers are filled with Loreena McKennitt and techno tracks, but thankfully
George Fenton is providing what could be a lovely fairy-tale score (to
this point, Fenton has written the most memorable and replayed score of
the year in my collection, DANGEROUS BEAUTY). Also out Friday is the spoof
BASEKETBALL (music by "James Ira Newborn"!) and the well-received
Disney remake of THE PARENT TRAP (score by Alan Silvestri). Coming next
week are HALLOWEEN: H20 (music by Marco Beltrami plus whatever cues they
left in by John Ottman) and the oft-reedited Brian DePalma thriller SNAKE
EYES with Nicolas Cage and score by Ryiuchi Sakamoto.
*NEW IN THEATERS
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (***1/2): Steven Spielberg's SAVING PRIVATE RYAN,
which graphically, vividly, and horrifyingly plunges the viewer into combat
right from the start and only intermittently lets up for substantive dialogue
exchanges, is not quite a masterpiece (like Kubrick's PATHS OF GLORY),
but it does come very close to being the "definitive war film"
of WWII. Certainly as a depiction of war, the movie is as realistic as
you'll ever see, though many viewers may ultimately be put off by the film's
often detached emotional range and generally limited character development.
However, on the level that the film is principally intended--a full-fledged
reenactment of D-Day and the horrors implicit in all forms of combat--PRIVATE
RYAN certainly achieves that ambition.
In the straightforward, almost simplistic plot written by Robert Rodat,
Tom Hanks gives a commanding performance as an Army Captain assigned to
seek out a missing Private (Matt Damon) whose brothers have all been killed
elsewhere in combat. Hanks's platoon includes, among others, a meek interpreter
who hasn't witnessed first-hand the nature of the fight (Jeremy Davies),
a wise-cracking Private (Edward Burns), and a tough-nosed Sargent (Tom
Sizemore), all of whom question self-sacrifice for the greater good of
one individual. However, Hanks is pretty much the whole acting show here,
portraying one of the few characters whose persona is fully delineated
in the film.
The film's advertising would have you believe that this is an emotional,
even sentimental, story of sacrifice and heroism, and while it has those
elements on the surface, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is more concerned with the
physical nature of combat, of death and destruction, than it is in the
story of how Hanks's platoon finds Private Ryan to return him home. Viewers
turning out to see a feel-good movie with Tom Hanks and Matt Damon will
certainly be surprised by the bold violence and striking pseudo-documentary
footage that Spielberg and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski have captured
throughout the film. In fact, had the movie been made by any other director,
RYAN would have justifiably received a NC-17 rating--the shots of dismemberment,
decapitation, and even intestine-oozing victims are shocking and certainly
will repel any squeamish viewer, yet the violence is necessary because
Spielberg has aimed to capture the sacrifice of a generation of men whose
stories in the cinema have often taken a backseat to countless Vietnam
movies in the recent past. Here, finally, is a film that realistically
illustrates the story of many Americans in WWII, a war that paved the way
for freedom through the sacrifice of so many lives. The cause is never
questioned but the price suffered is unquestionably, and shockingly, recounted.
Unsurprisingly, given the raw nature of the material, Spielberg's virtuoso
filmmaking is evident throughout. Handheld camera and high-speed film are
brilliantly used to place the viewer in the middle of combat--explosions,
shells, and the ominous sound of approaching tanks whirl and whiz by the
camera, which takes us into the fire like we're one of the characters.
The filmmaker's pacing is so brisk that when Private Ryan turns up about
an hour and forty-five minutes into the movie, it feels more like just
a half-hour has passed. The opening D-Day sequence ranks right up there
with any other memorable set-piece from Spielberg's canon, and the story's
fast-moving momentum is sustained both by the gritty look of the picture
and Michael Kahn's rapid-fire editing.
Ideologically, the film presents arguments about the good of saving
one individual very early on, but soon abandons any subtext for the purpose
of explicitly illustrating the battles Hanks's group becomes immersed in.
Again, those looking for deep emotional exchanges and a fully developed
collection of characters will be disappointed by the picture, yet it's
clear Spielberg has--for the most part--stripped the film of sentimentality
and heavy doses of emotion, even heroism, for the purposes of recreating
the actual experience of being in war. It's closer to a documentary than
a "movie" as such, with the set-pieces overwhelming what few
breaks from the action there are.
Given that, there were still a few things that I found disappointing
in the film. The Hollywood-ized bookending sequences, showing one of the
characters as an old man visiting the cemetery at Normandy, are cornball
and certainly play at odds with the rest of the picture. It is surprising
that Spielberg exactly repeated the device of the SCHINDLER'S LIST finale,
yet the way these scenes are shot, they come across as especially manipulative,
like the director is trying too hard to push our buttons to elicit audience
tears. It's unnecessary for the movie to end on such a pedestrian note,
especially since what has come before feels so realistic, so painful--the
movie is haunting enough to have such a standard, weak finale thrown on
top of it (in fact, these scenes tend to adhere to the sentimentality of
the film's trailers, which would have been appropriate only if the movie
itself was made along similar lines). To think of the more restrained ways
in which the film could have ended only magnifies the cliches inherent
in those sappy scenes, which feel as if they've come from an entirely different
movie.
The other area that could have been more impressive is the music, and
particularly the use of John Williams's score. For the second straight
time, Spielberg has under-utilized Williams's talents, spotting only sequences
necessitating noble, reflective strings instead of multi-dimensional musical
accompaniment. The choice to leave the battle scenes unscored was surely
as much of a case of not wanting the music to be buried under the elaborate,
effects-dominated sound design as it was a dramatic decision, but just
as he did in AMISTAD, Spielberg's use of music becomes so predictable that
it's all too apparent what Williams's function is in this movie. The sequence
where the Army hierarchy discusses Ryan's predicament is also over-scored,
just as all of Anthony Hopkins's scenes were in Spielberg's last picture.
I can certainly understand Spielberg's decision not to sentimentalize the
picture by over-using Williams's music, but he certainly didn't do Williams
any favors by not allowing him to probe into the darker musical spectrum
this material begs for. This had the potential to be another masterwork
along the lines of Williams's complex BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY score,
but falls far short of that mark because the composer wasn't given the
chance to substantially contribute in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.
Those quibbles aside, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is another triumph for Spielberg
in that he has accomplished something few, if any, filmmakers have done
before. The evocation of time and place, and what comprises all forms of
combat--be it in groups, tanks, or even hand-to-hand fighting--are stunningly
depicted in a film that will surely be remembered as one of the most realistic
recreations of war ever placed on celluloid. As a Spielberg movie in the
traditional sense, however, the undernourished screenplay places it on
a par with the underrated AMISTAD, a movie that had its share of detractors
but, for me, was just as powerful and even more resonant than this film.
(166 mins, R; **1/2 score as it works in the film)
THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY (***): Partial as I may be to the Farrelly
Brothers, who happen to be fellow Rhode Islanders (and who make that known
often with references only southern New Englanders would understand), I
don't feel too prejudiced by admitting that this is the funniest movie
of 1998 so far.
Just as outrageous but perhaps not quite as offensive as the movie's
word-of-mouth would have you believe, MARY defines and improves upon the
Farrelly formula established in DUMB & DUMBER and its follow-up, KINGPIN:
set-up the basic plot, develop a handful of leading characters, and then
throw in as many alternately comedic and horrific situations as one could
think of on top of it. With laughs that often scrape the bottom of the
barrel of good taste, it'd be easy to be put off by the Farrelly comedy
if their timing wasn't so perfect and their movies made in such good spirits.
How else, then, to accept this tale of a Rhode Island high-school nerd
(Ben Stiller) who falls for the beautiful Mary (Cameron Diaz) but never
gets to accompany her to the prom because his you-know-what gets stuck
in his zipper. Years later, a friend (former Letterman regular Chris Elliott)
convinces Stiller to seek out Diaz through a Providence investigator--the
shady Matt Dillon--and it turns out Diaz is alive and well, living and
working in Florida. Not that Dillon tells that to Stiller, since Dillon
can see himself hooking up with Diaz, however improbable that may be (their
sequences together provide some of the movie's biggest guffaws). Eventually
Stiller and Diaz reunite, but only after a series of R-rated circumstances
that should have most audiences in stitches. Of course, numerous sight-gags
abound through it all, not the least of which involve alternative singer
Jonathan Richman crooning the movie's plot in and out of every other scene
(leading to one great final shot, no pun intended).
The Farrelly movies are longer than the pictures from the Zucker-Abrahams
school of comedy, mainly because they attempt to establish character and
build up to chaotic laughs instead of pacing the gags at a rapid-fire clip.
That, however, doesn't make their films any less amusing than THE NAKED
GUN, mainly because nothing is out of bounds for these filmmakers. Any
scene that culminates in a ridiculous punchline is thrown in for the sake
of getting a big laugh, and that includes having the obnoxious Dillon beat
up on Diaz's mentally retarded brother's teammates during a flag football
game, or having Diaz's mother (Markie Post) married to a street-talking
black man.
Diaz and especially Dillon are both perfect for this material, though
I found Stiller's nebbish to be a bit whiny and obnoxious, particularly
as the film goes along. Still, they play the Farrelly's manic predicaments
to a hilt, and the movie hits the mark more often than not. When it does,
THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY provides as enjoyable, engaging, and downright
funny a comedy as we're likely to see this year, and proves--when it comes
to craziness--nobody does it better than the Farrelly Brothers. (R, 115
mins., *** soundtrack includes original score-songs by Jonathan Richman
available on Capitol Records).
*NEW ON VIDEO & DVD
DARK CITY (**** for movie, *** for extras): Alex Proyas's visionary
sci-fi fantasy is a noir-tinged puzzle worth unraveling, and New Line's
DVD (out Tuesday) includes two audio commentaries and a theatrical trailer
in addition to several still-frame supplements. Alas, the promised isolated
score track by Trevor Jones didn't happen, but the commentaries alone--the
filmmaker track is filled with fascinating insights (and a few shots at
the studio!)--more than justify picking up this deluxe DVD release. $19.95
in most stores.
SPHERE (**1/2 for movie, *** for extras): Not nearly as much of a disaster
as many reviews would lead you to believe, this is an intriguing sci-fi
thriller that falls short of the mark but at least aims high enough to
make the trip worthwhile. Dustin Hoffman and Sharon Stone are not very
impressive as scientists investigating a newly discovered spaceship on
the bottom of the Pacific Ocean floor, where director Barry Levinson stages
a claustrophobic but consistently watchable sequence of predictably unusual
Michael Chricton twists and turns. Warner's DVD is listing as low as $15
in many outlets, and the disc includes a brief FX featurette, trailer &
TV spots, a crisp widescreen transfer, and a surprisingly frank commentary
by Hoffman and co-star Samuel L.Jackson, both touching upon the various
re-shoots the movie went through (including the compromised ending). Worth
a look for sci-fi buffs.
THAT'S IT from here. See you next time at the movies! Until then, send
all bricks and comments to dursina@worldnet.att.net
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