Top Five: WW2 Movies
4) Saving Private Ryan (1998)
This was the first WW2 movie to really slap us upside the face with realistic aesthetics. If the D-Day landings that opened this movie had not been hyped for weeks, I’m not sure how people would’ve reacted had they been taken by surprise by it. I saw a lot of very old people at the opening showing of this movie, good thing they were prepared. The movie is Spielberg in his element, breaking ground with a gritty tone, the first time a WW2 movie used that washed out colour palette. It’s not perfect though, sentimentality forces itself a little too much throughout the movie and while it finally looks like an adult WW2 movie, it stumbles also at eliminating caricatures. Still, who can resist watching this movie ’till the end when finding it on TV, even today? Masterful use of lighting and incredible sound, to deny this movie a 5.1 setup is a crime.
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