Like everyone else in the theater, I spent most of three hours wincing involuntarily in my seat, shocked by the unrelenting mayhem of a daylight amphibious assault across a barren killing field, sickened by the sudden hash that light artillery can make of human bodies, groaning at the grotesque wounds and the grisly mutilations of whimpering casualties, and-in the end-twitching at even the slightest clatter of mechanized warfare. But as my wife and I filed out of the theater, I wondered what they were applauding, exactly, this darkened room full of veterans and their spouses. Moved to tears by the powerful film, the audience gave it an ovation as the final credits rolled.
Along with 6.5 million other Americans, I saw Saving Private Ryan its opening weekend back in 1998, joining a mostly elderly crowd of the "Greatest" generation at a suburban multiplex. The New York Times even devoted a respectful editorial to "Spielberg's War."Īnd I knew that almost everybody else agreed with them.
War of beach critic movie#
Historian Stephen Ambrose, author of D-Day and Citizen Soldiers, thought it "the finest World War II movie ever made." The Secretary of the Army presented the filmmaker with the military's highest civilian decoration, the Distinguished Civilian Service Award.
The most serious students of the Second World War shared the enthusiasm for the film.
0 kommentar(er)
