Saving Private Ryan is the last Spielberg movie to have a major cultural impact. Spielberg had tackled the World War II era several times already, but they were pulpy (Indiana Jones movies), comedic (1941), or dramas showing people overcome horrific conditions (Empire of the Sun and Schindler’s List). Saving Private Ryan was a full-fledged war film focused on the soldiers. The movie revived American pride in its soldiers, particularly of the Greatest Generation, and spawned several war films and shows. In the video game world it helped create a whole subgenre of historical WW2 shooters, with Spielberg himself helping to develop the Medal of Honor series. Several of these games were keen to feature the Omaha Beach landing, with obviously inspired by the start of Saving Private Ryan.
But
has the movie held up? General viewers love it, but many history buffs think it
has troublesome aspects. Well, let’s get into it. One of the aspects that made
this movie so important was how it handled the battle scenes. The one that
everybody knows is the Omaha Beach landing at the beginning. The historical
context was that the Western Allies, with the US and Great Britain being the
largest members, finally created a second western front in Europe when on June
6, 1944 they executed landings on five beaches along the Normandy Coast. Using
deception and the cover of bad weather, they were able to face relatively light
German resistance. However, this did not mean it was a cake walk.
Of the five beach landings, Omaha Beach has received the most attention. It was a long, horrid slog, with the American soldiers suffering the worst casualties of any Allied group that day. What struck me when rewatching the movie was how long the opening battle scene was. In reality it took hours for the Americans to finally escape the deadly beach and breach the German bunkers and pillboxes, but of course the movie has other things to get through. That being said, Spielberg really conveyed how difficult it was for the Americans to penetrate the defenses, using little tricks and tactics just to advance a few feet.
