The visual and the realistic arts in Spielberg’s best ever The critics all over the world with their holistic approach endeavor to find the pros and cons of a 3 hour classic masterpiece directed and created by the gods of the theatrical arts. The modern world tends to be sufficed by the major events and their results in History but no one understands that texts are just one form of expression. As actions speak louder than words, Steven Spielberg in his 1998 realistic and heart-pounding “Saving Private Ryan” portrayed the most deadly and the biggest invasion campaign in American history- Normandy and D Day campaign.
The realistic and graphic effects of this campaign made this the best movie scene from all of the Spielberg’s classics. Spielberg’s will to create a movie which soon became the voice and representation of the millions of gladiators who lost their lives in this tragic war for peace and democracy as coined by Roosevelt showed his wish to show the veracity of the war and the literal sensitivity of the soldiers.
The setting of the war scenes is so popular as the famous PC game Medal of Honor took their exact battle setting to give their gamers a chance to feel the war setting. These visual effects of the movie are enough to quell the rising viewpoints of the discrete historians on the issue of World War two and Spielberg’s realistic approach corroborates the fact that US had to undergo through copious hindrances in order to be victorious.
The one fact that makes this classical war movie as his best ever is that his previous thriller and fictional masterpieces like Jurassic park had the ability to amaze and enthrall the audiences but in this case the story and the plot is set in perfectly, to appeal to their inner emotions and is enough to give rise to a patriotic feeling similar to the 85’s majestic Rocky IV which was set in the stage of cold war. The first ten minutes of the movie is built up emotionally as first a war veteran brings his family to the American cemetery which is like a prologue to an emotionally eye-catching story.
Spielberg’s realism acts here as an evidence to the genuine war situation as history cannot be trusted through words but can only be trusted and felt through visuals. The plot of the movie is first set in a boat as forty men reach a shore and are exterminated in a matter of seconds which shows the intent to create a psychological effect on the minds of their audiences. Other monumental scenes are when Private Caparzo takes charge of a German girl from a German family in order to protect her. Scenes like these are illustrated to depict the intervensionalist side of US for a paternalistic cause similar to their control of Philippines.
Spielberg’s idea of risking lives of eight men for one man has overturned the idea of social Darwinism. As social Darwinism promotes the idea of “survival of the fittest” that same idea is applied here as, Private Ryan’s survival in the war should be dependent on his fitness but instead the fitness of eight men are put on the line for his survival. However, putting our superficial analytical approach beside and using our holistic approach, its quite evident that Spielberg tries to make this war look like all American as he ignored the contributions of other nations in the D Day landing on the Omaha beach specifically.
On the other hand, Spielberg’s best ever can also be criticized on the basis of violence as we get to see handless and legless soldiers which are enough to call this an adult movie. Spielberg’s classic realistic masterpiece can be juxtaposed with other war epics like “Inglorious Basterds”, “Valkyrie” and “Enemy Behind the lines” but “Saving Private Ryan” is one step ahead of them because of its realistic, graphic and non-fictional approach.