The Impact of “Saving Private Ryan” on War Films

A New Benchmark for War Cinema

When Steven Spielberg finally got around to directing Saving Private Ryan in 1998, he permanently raised the bar for the war picture genre. This came a full 12 years after Oliver Stone established a new benchmark for modern war cinema with his epic Vietnam War piece, Platoon, which was released in 1986.

The Blueprint for Cutting-Edge Wartime Movies

Its seamless integration of heart-pounding action moments, such as the opening scene in which American troops attack Omaha Beach in 1941, and the development of a cast of smart and multifaceted characters, lead by Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, and Edward Burns, made it the new gold standard almost immediately. It is the model around which nearly every subsequent war film produced in the past quarter century has been based.

There have been quite a few outstanding movies made over the years about the horrifying and brutal nature of war, such as Black Hawk Down, Dunkirk, 1917, and Hacksaw Ridge, and each of these films owes a debt of gratitude to Spielberg and his crew for providing what is undoubtedly the blueprint for cutting-edge wartime movies. Some examples of these films include Black Hawk Down, Dunkirk, and Hacksaw Ridge.

“Saving Private Ryan” Destroys Any Romantic Gloriousness That War May Have Had

What renowned director Steven Spielberg and Oscar-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Schindler’s List, Amistad) accomplished with the film Saving Private Ryan was remarkable. Put out of your mind the fact that it was one of the most financially successful war movies ever produced, taking in close to half a billion dollars (yep, that’s billions with a “B”) from audiences all around the world. That was a happy accident that occurred due to all of the things that he, together with his cast and crew, were able to deliver from the first moment the movie began.

The assault on the beaches of Normandy during World War II, which lasted for 25 minutes, is widely considered the most gripping and dramatic video of combat ever filmed and seen in a movie theater. Any romantic conceptions you may have had about the glory of war should have been smashed and put to rest for good by the time the horrific events of the D-Day assault occurred. These events are so horrible that they should have ended any romantic notions you may have had. Sitting in the theater for that half an hour and witnessing everything from grisly disembowelment to graphic dismemberment to the shell shock of a salty soldier and the film’s lead, Captain John H. Miller (Hanks), in the midst of all of the blood-soaked upheaval is something that all of those who watched it will never forget. To this day, it is the moment that brings those of us who have not been in the military the closest we will ever be to the experience of being on a battleground. The majority of us needed a moment to catch our breath after that.

Spielberg skillfully brought our blood pressure down just enough to establish a wonderful and diverse group of soldiers tasked with retrieving Private James Ryan (Matt Damon), the only survivor in a family that includes three brothers who have been killed in action. Along the way, he keeps piling on new layers of complexity to each of the participants to ensure that he maintains full command over our feelings. It is an exhilarating thrill ride and an art form that we celebrate and pay a significant amount of money to enjoy.

The Cinematography in ‘Dunkirk’ Is Very Similar to That of ‘Saving Private Ryan’

One of the most impressive parts of “Saving Private Ryan” is how, from the very first second of the very first scene of the movie, we are entirely submerged in the experience of American involvement in World War II. You can practically put your tongue to the test and taste the terror written all over the young men’s faces as they ride on those boats. One soldier is overcome with anxiety, another is praying, and the third is sick to their stomach out of sheer horror at what they are about to go through.

The narrative of the horrific struggle that took place on the shores of northern France and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of stranded British men is told in the film Dunkirk. The acclaimed writer and filmmaker Christopher Nolan create well-written characters that are about to enter a battle that they have already lost, but you feel more of Ryan’s impact in the superb, if not more, wet cinematography. Spielberg had already demonstrated to Nolan and his cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Ad Astra, Nope) how to use a beach line battlefield in a film set effectively. And while Nolan deserves full credit for adding some of the stylized and disorienting aerial shots that we’ve seen in his Dark Knight films and Interstellar, which were specifically shot for IMAX viewing, Saving Private Ryan’s fingerprints are all over the bloodied bodies on the beach and the attacks on the approaching boats carrying terrified soldiers. And by the time this project was released in theaters in 2017, we already knew to anticipate a harmonious union of character growth and gorgeous shooting because we had already witnessed it 20 years earlier. Dunkirk is one of Ryan’s most worthy proteges chronicling the efforts made by the British during the war.

The Plot Devices of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ Were Borrowed for ‘Black Hawk Down

Black Hawk Down, released in 2001, was the first in a series of war movies influenced by Saving Private Ryan over the next several decades. The film tells the story of the United States military’s fateful decision to send troops into Somalia, a country ripped apart by warlords, to destabilize the already precarious situation in Mogadishu in 1993. The circumstances couldn’t be more different from one another. However, Ridley Scott, a master filmmaker in his own right, was still able to take a page out of Spielberg’s playbook when he dedicated the first forty minutes of the film to delving into the backstories of the doomed soldiers that would take up arms in the conflict, and the brave men that would fly the Black Hawk helicopters in and out of the dangerous airspace. This allowed Ridley Scott to take a page out of Spielberg’s playbook.

After the release of Saving Private Ryan, it was no longer necessary to choose between producing an action-packed war movie or one that focused on character development to tell a compelling story. Spielberg demonstrated that we can have emotionally engaging individuals and highly charged gunfire exchanges during the fight. These characters had our investment in them go beyond the flag sewn onto the sleeve of their uniform. The process of getting to know the main characters in Black Hawk Down, such as SSG Matt Eversmann (Josh Hartnett), SPC John Grimes (Ewen McGregor), and LTC Danny McKnight (once again, Tom Sizemore, which is not by accident), amps up our emotional investment in the movie and makes the whole thing more relatable. The firefights in the streets of Mogadishu are weightier when we care about the soldiers behind the gun in the midst of the whirlwind of hellfire. Because of this, the scene in which Hartnett’s character aids in an improvisational open surgery on a dying Private is more tragic.

Both ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ are Extremely Gritty Films

The siege to take the Japanese bastion Hacksaw Ridge in the war of Okinawa during World War II has got some of the same gory battlefield videos as the war that took place in a country that is almost halfway around the world from where it took place. The 2016 film starring Andrew Garfield as Private First Class Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector who refused to carry a gun because of his religious beliefs but saved 75 men from the jaws of certain death as they lay bloodied and dying on the battlefield, is every bit as gory as Saving Private Ryan. You can see that director Mel Gibson and his cinematographer Simon Duggan (who will be working with George Miller on Furiosa) employ a lot of the same camera lines and rotating points of view as Spielberg and Kaminsky did to get us in the middle of the destruction on the beaches of Normandy in the film that is still influencing the way that we experience the modern war film.