Saving Private Ryan (DVD)

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The second inconsistency was that the men of the squad walking behind enemy lines would never have talked to one another as much as they do in the film; it would have alerted the enemy too easily to their presence. Malik in "The Thin Red Line" has his soldiers proceed more cautiously and quietly, their thoughts appearing in voice-over narrations. Spielberg prefers to create a group dynamic within his squad, to show us the bonds that unite these men in a mutual cause, and dialogue is the most expedient method he finds of doing so. I think we can forgive the director a minor oversight for the greater cause.

Video:
Needless to say, much of the dramatic impact of experiences like "Saving Private Ryan" and "The Thin Red Line" is lost in the transition from a big movie-house screen to a smaller, more intimate home theater. But DVD furnishes about as close an approximation as we could hope for, especially if one's home system is up to the task. The picture quality on this disc is excellent, and even the occasional background grain contributes to the general impression of combat footage. The 1.64:1 screen ratio conveys most of the action on a wide enough scale, although I don't know just how much has been added or subtracted compared to its original Panavision theatrical size.

Audio:
There's no question about the sound, though. Technically, it is the star of the show. The audio here should serve as a primer for every sound engineer in Hollywood. Frequency range, frequency balance, and dynamic response are all excellent, of course, but it is the directionality that is really superb. As in only a few other films, the Dolby Digital 5.1 sonics open up a true 360-degree surround-sound field.

(Yet a word about loudspeakers: If your rear speakers are of the kind that radiate sound in several different directions at once, that is, if they fire both to the front and rear or to the sides, they may create too diffuse a sound to take full advantage of the audio in a film like this. Side or rear-firing speakers are excellent for reproducing the ambient wall reflections of live orchestral music, but conventional front-firing speakers do a better job of pinpointing directional effects. In "Private Ryan," you should be able to hear a clear stereo spread across the front channels, across the back channels, and along the walls between the front and back channels. The sounds of things like gunfire, explosions, trucks, tanks, airplanes, even rain should arrive at the ear from specific locations around the room, realistically and authentically. As an aside, it is why I personally use two separate systems for different types of listening, one in the living room in two-channel stereo for music listening and a home theater in another, smaller room for movie enjoyment. Interestingly, I see that at least one amplifier manufacturer is now building into its units provision for two independent sets of rear-channel speakers, the best of both worlds. Forgive the digression.)

Extras:
In addition to the movie, the DVD's main attractions are a short message from the director and a twenty-five minute documentary titled "Into the Breach," featuring interviews and commentary on the making of the film. There are also production notes and cast and filmmaker biographies. There are two theatrical trailers. And there is an alternative Dolby 2.0 Surround soundtrack for those unable to take advantage of DD 5.1. Unfortunately, there are only English captions for the hearing impaired, no other subtitles; and English is the only spoken language included. The usual menu of scene selections completes the package, a list numbering a mere twenty chapter stops, rather few for so long a film.

Parting Thoughts:
"Saving Private Ryan" won five Academy Awards in 1998: Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Sound Effects Editing, plus a boatload of other honors from the Directors Guild, the American Legion, the USO, the Department of the Army, and so on. It deserved them all, just as the DVD deserves to be included in everyone's film library.