War film in America

美国似乎是最需要战争电影的国家。好莱坞界定与美国的战争电影有关。有些影片反映了一个事实，有些是关于哲学的反思，一些显示的武器，一些描绘艰巨的任务，和其他一些歌颂勇气。在这不平凡的丰富，一个问题出来。为什么好莱坞喜欢战争片那么多呢？鉴于票房的数据表明战争片是最赚钱的电影类型，人们可能会发现，这个问题应进一步明确美国人为什么喜欢战争电影这么多？

Saving Private Ryan as the Catalyst of Americans’ Social Identification

America seems like a nation that need war films most. Hollywood bounds with American war films. From The Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far, Courage Under Fire, to Black hawk down, casts changed, techniques developed but the theme ever-remains. Some of these films reflect the fact, some are about reflection of philosophy, some display weapons, some depict arduous mission, and some others eulogize courage. Within this extraordinary abundance, a question comes out. Why Hollywood loves war films so much? Given that the data of box offices which indicates that war films are the type of most lucrative films, one might find that the question should be further specified as why Americans love war films so much? According to Bernard Beck from the Sociology Department of Northwest University, war films contribute greatly to the shaping of people’s collective understanding of the spirit of America. From a multi-culture perspective, he believes the background for social identification is an important factor. Because all individuals in America come with certain cultural background that consists of ethical history, customs, languages and etc., and even those long-settled Americans have their community cultures. (19) This situation has something to do with the history of America. Different from other countries with long history and rather stable making of culture and ethnic groups, America has neither long history nor a clear combination of ethnics, because it is a country built by later coming colonist from varied countries on the old continent above the history of those American Indian folks, and colonist separately occupied America and developed different areas which later called “states.” This historic distinctions of culture and ethnic and lack of long historical bond urges a collective value of America to bring people together, and the emphasis on very freedom does not help in shaping the country as whole. In this sense，the need underlines the importance of Hollywood war films, as they can advertise the pursuit of a communal goal.

Saving Private Ryan is a good representative of successful Hollywood war films. One of its success is that the film has combined three main themes of all war films: heroism, humanism, and trend of anti-war, and has formed a collective reflection of war that allows people to think deeper and further about what war is, and what a nation is—in this film which means what American is. Therefore, it even could be seen as the catalyst in the process of America’s social identification.

It is hard to tell what is the theme of Saving Private Ryan，just as it is almost impossible to separate the three themes of war films from each other. It casts a question about how Americans should identify themselves with their countries and the American ancestors at the beginning scene, and leaves the audiences the time of a complete film to beckon on the question “Am I a good man?” The film starts with the very end of the story, far behind the end of that war, when old Ryan walks into the cemetery in companion with his families. It was a nice day, cozy weather in soft sunshine. This picturesque scene might be a metaphor of nowadays America where wars are long gone and all trades thrive and develop. However, SPR is such a film that it would throw you a question like “Am I a good man?” in this extremely peaceful and innocent scenery, leaving a thread for American viewers to discover in themselves. It is a question not only meaningful to Ryan but also to Americans who is sitting in front of the screen. It is an enquiry of Americans identification—as the martyrs sacrificed for America, are you good enough to take over this country from them? Here, this “good” is a moral concert as well as a judge of values that Americans are proud of and later represent inside the film.

First value is anti-war. All war films truly reflecting the cruelty of war are anti-war, and therefore SPR, which is famous for the royalty to the cruelty of battles, is anti-war. Among all human activities, there is nothing more violent and cruel than wars. The wars are a collective exhibition of human actions in a circumstance without ordinary social constrains. Nowadays, aimed with the development cinematic technologies, war films become showcases of how far theatres can go to represent the in-the-field experience towards audiences. In this light, SPR has fulfilled the outer expectations for a war film. In the film, Steven Spielberg was almost like burning money for warfare spectacles and bursting bags of artificial plasma. After the calmness in the cemetery, the camera gradually zooms into that landing—the he Normandy Invasion started. With the peculiar manipulation of camera, the film in a sense forms a cinematic realistic for the audience. When the vessels come closer, soldiers dump out from the vehicles into the water, and the scenes switch from portraits of army men to the struggles in water. This turning is a smart invention that adds to the movie-going experience as scenes in water is definitely not something of daily life, and it also starts a possibility of another part of story telling—the sudden change from dialogues to deaths. Coming with the switch, the sound tract changed. Bombs, machine gun, and bullets gave way to “silence” where only the sound of water is clear, and the sound of war goes out of the scene—just like from a distant place. However, in the picture are still soldier falling death into the water, bullets shot into the water, waves come with struggle inside the water. This silence creates break for audience to react with what has just happened in a few seconds and this later reaction allows people to feel what the war is—the war is something that nobody can get away with it. In the jungle of bullets where even the soft water could not protect bodies from the sharp movement of mass destructing weapons, two soldiers who are just about to untie their belt are shot down and their blood turns the water into red. A soldier is trying so hard to stretch away a belt around him, struggling painfully inside the water. Once, twice, the third times, and gradually loses fight. Yet, the camera has not spare this “calmness” for long and goes back to the heart-tearing battlefield. Within 30 seconds, the film creates a contrast of chaos outside the water, and the “silence” inside the water. The chaos is how war destroys people without mercy, and the silence is how powerless people are in the war. This parallel narration of one scene reveals the cruelty of war without extra description. This inconsistency of cinematic narration accomplishes what normal camera cannot do, enriching the scene of a war. All the blood and bodies, and even the silence are wrenching people’s heart and all of them are the accusation of cruelty of war.

Second value is humanism. War films might be films about wars but not necessary shooting the war fields. In the end, war films are about how the good part in human overcomes the evil half. The story telling of war film has to go down to the characters making. The shining point of SPR also lies in its view of people, which it depicts a group of soldiers who are just ordinary people like you and me. The character best depicted is the translator, Upham. He is the one that takes the least time to identify with. He is so “weak” that even cannot kill a bounded German soldier. He is also peacockery that when the other says letting the German soldier go is bullshit, he only repeats as if he could give the captive execution. He lacks courage. At the very time in the battle with German soldiers, he pied in his pants. Even the death of his mate can be blamed on him. However, after all when he sees the German soldier he released, he shoots. It is hard to say whether the change in Upham is a kind of growing up, but what is for sure is that the film reflects the conflicts inside these characters and between one individual with the others. Though depicting the destruction of these soldiers psychologically and physically, SPR underlines the sparkles within humanity. They are courage, sympathy, and perseverance. In the film a scene repeats—soldiers are copying what those sacrificed mates’ letters to their family, and the original ones already are tinted with blood of their brothers. This simple act is very touching and leaves spaces for further stories. Its natural that viewers would start to imagine what will happen when these letters are received, and how it would be like to hear this heart-wrenching news. This concern from both audience and the soldiers inside the scenes forms a kind of interaction. In the interaction is a metaphor of how humanity is passed down within the community, and how it affects people. The intention of war is never humanity, but the individuals involved in the actions are people have pain and love, and that is the humane face of the war.

The third value within is Heroism. Being hero needs sacrifice, and the setting of the mission of saving private Ryan already provides a good foundation of making heroes, and the film does not fail it. Using eight living soldiers in exchange of the life of one missing army member. That is a calculation probably a lots people find it unfair or not worth, but Miller and his team member do it, and they have not only done it—they pay the unaffordable price in the end with their own lives as “expected.” Does it worth? The answer is clear that “no.” Who will sacrifice their lives for a stranger? The answer is hero. At the end of the mission, Miller is not longer a man who taught literature at high school, he is a hero. When he fells by the bridge, the tank is approaching. He shoots the enemy regardless the situation that he is one man with only one gun. He is just shooting, and the bullets flying out, but the tank is moving forward steadily. Nothing changes in the scene, but there is distinction between taking action and just losing fight, and this is what makes a hero. A hero takes what need to be done instead of waiting someone else to have it accomplished. The film has not made Miller and his team Rambos, but the viewers would remember them as heroes.

In a light, good works is like a mirror that allows everyone sees himself or herself in it—let him or her feel what the characters feel. However, great films are those work could let the audience feel what the story wants to tell without saying. Whatever SPR explores in the 196 minutes in end serves the theme—how Americans identifies themselves after their ancestors have sacrificed so much for them? At the beginning of SPR, the theme is put out by the words of Ryan: “Am I a good man?” At the end of the film, the theme comes out with again the words of a character, Miller, who tells Ryan to “earn it.” These words to Ryan could also be understood as words to the Americans who are seated in the cinemas. In the framework of Geopolitics, Andrew Crampton and Power Marcus argue that the story of SPR gives priority to the need for future generations to “earn it.” Those questions raised in the film are crucial not as itself, but the influence comes next, which invites audiences to ask themselves the same questions. (246) Crampton and Power also point out that the self-reflection involved in the SPR symbolizes what national salvation requires—one must be good. As Ryan “earned this,” the other Americans, the audiences actually have the feeling they should also “earn” it, and this influence could be viewed as the most powerful and long lasting effect of SPR, and which makes it a catalyst of Americans’ social identification.


Works Cited
Beck, Bernard. “The War's Desolation: Saving Private Ryan, The Red Line, and The Baggage of History.” Collective, Multicultural Perspectives. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaun Associates, 1999. 19-21.
Crampton, Andrew and Power Marcus. “Frames of Reference on the Geopolitical Stage: Saving Private Ryan and the Second World War/Second Gulf War Intertext.” Geopolitics. Oxford: Routledge, 2005. 244-265.
Spielberg, Steven. " Saving Private Ryan." Film. America: Paramount, Amblin, and Dreamworks, 24 July. 1998.



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