RE: Re: RE: Memorial Madness

[sawicky@xxxxxxxxxx (Max Sawicky)]

. . .
Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan and Tom Brokaw's The
Greatest Generation are cashing in on the revived interest in World War II.


We've gone around before on the nature of WWII,
and I don't mean to rehash it.  But the linking
of the Pvt Ryan movie with patriotism or nationalism
seems problematic to me, regardless of Spielberg or
Hanks' public statements, purposes, or activities.
Perhaps the public mind is so dulled it glosses
over little things like content, so that the movie
is automatically linked with patriotism, despite
what is actually in it.

To me the two mundane themes in the movie are
first, the Hanks character is only being a good
soldier because that what gets him back home to
the bosom of his family.  I recall little in the
way of less narrow considerations.  And second,
the manner of Hanks' demise conveys the dubious
moral that they should have executed their POW
when they had the chance.  The purpose of saving
Ryan is presented as a manipulative political
exercise rather than in
moral terms.  Similarly, the fight between the
Jewish G.I. and the German soldier seems just
weird, when it might have seemed like something
else.  From the standpoint of any non-
individualistic concern, reactionary or otherwise,
the film seems profoundly cynical and shallow at
the same time.  By contrast, Gibson as the renegade
Scottish rebel is a rousing good time, with endless
cool scenes of men disassembling each other with
primitive implements.

Even patriotism is going downhill these days.

mbs