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Monthly Film Series – Saving Private Ryan
June 8, 2019 @ 6:45 pm - 9:30 pm
In honor of Memorial Day (May 27th) and the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy (June 6th), our movie selection this month is Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998, Rated R.)
The Washington Post starts its review like this: “There are movies and then there are movies. And then there is Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan.” The New York Times concludes with this: “”Saving Private Ryan” is only a movie. Only the finest war movie of our time.” The film opens with an elderly visitor and his family at a military cemetery. He finds the gravestone he was looking for and his memory takes him back to June 6, 1944. We return to the cemetery at the end of the film.
Catholic film reviewer Steven D. Greydanus (http://decentfilms.com) summarizes this magnificent film this way:
Steven Spielberg’s harrowing WWII drama opens with a horrifying recreation of the
D-Day invasion of Normandy Beach that has been called the most realistic war sequence ever shot. As with Schindler’s List and Amistad, Spielberg creates a documentary-like sense in this 20-minute segment by not cluttering it up with “characters.”
Then the story takes a fictional and more personal turn, focusing on a politically motivated rescue operation aimed at bringing back an American soldier whose three brothers had all been killed the week before. This mission provides an occasion for an exploration of war, authority, sacrifice, and the line between justifiable killing and murder. The remaining battle scenes are riveting, and in war as nowhere else difficult choices can have shattering consequences.
Join us for Saving Private Ryan as we remember the 75th anniversary of D-Day and continue our Memorial Day observance honoring those men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in our nation’s service.