拯救大兵瑞恩英文影评

拯救大兵瑞恩英文影评

The soldiers assigned to find Pvt. Ryan and bring himhome can do the math for themselves. The

Army Chief of Staff has ordered them on the mission for propaganda purposes: Ryan's return will

boost morale on the homefront, and put a human face on the carnage at Omaha Beach. His mother,

who has already lost three sons in the war, will not have to add another telegram to her collection.

But

the

eight

men

on

the

mission

also

have

parents --and

besides,

they've

been

trained

to

kill

Germans, not to risk their lives for publicity stunts. ``This Ryan better be worth it,'' one of the men

grumbles

In Hollywood mythology, great battles wheel and turn on the actions of

individual heroes. In Steven Spielberg's ``Saving Private Ryan,''

thousands of terrified and seasick men, most of them new to combat, are

thrown

into

the

face

of

withering

German

fire.

The

landing

on

Omaha

Beach

was not about saving Pvt. Ryan. It was about saving your skin.

The movie's opening sequence is as graphic as any war footage I've ever

seen. In fierce dread and energy it's on a par with Oliver Stone's

``Platoon,''

and

in

scope

surpasses

it--because

in

the

bloody

early

stages

the landing forces and the enemy never meet eye to eye, but are simply

faceless

masses

of

men

who

have

been

ordered

to

shoot

at

one

another

until

one side is destroyed.

Spielberg's camera makes no sense of the action. That is the purpose of

his

style.

For

the

individual

soldier

on

the

beach,

the

landing

was

a

chaos

of

noise,

mud,

blood,

vomit

and

death.

The

scene

is

filled

with

countless

unrelated pieces of time, as when a soldier has his arm blown off. He

staggers, confused, standing exposed to further fire, not sure what to

do next, and then he bends over and picks up his arm, as if he will need

it later.

This

landing

sequence

is

necessary

to

establish

the

distance

between

those

who give the order that Pvt. Ryan be saved, and those who are ordered to

do the saving. For Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) and his men, the landing at

Omaha

has

been

a

crucible

of

fire.

For

Army

Chief

George

C.

Marshall

(Harve

Presnell) in his Washington office, war seems more remote and

statesmanlike;

he

treasures

a

letter

Abraham

Lincoln

wrote

consoling

Mrs.

Bixby of Boston, about her sons who died in the Civil War. His advisors

question

the

wisdom

and

indeed

the

possibility

of

a

mission

to

save

Ryan,

but he barks, ``If the boy's alive we are gonna send somebody to find

him-- and we are gonna get him the hell out of there.'' That sets up the

second

act

of

the

film,

in

which

Miller

and

his

men

penetrate

into

French

terrain

still

actively

disputed

by

the

Germans,

while

harboring

mutinous

thoughts

about

the

wisdom

of

the

mission.

All

of

Miller's

men

have

served

with him before--except for Cpl. Upham (Jeremy Davies), the translator,

who

speaks

excellent

German

and

French

but

has

never

fired

a

rifle

in

anger