Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" And
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A War On Two Fronts: Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan and Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line by Tibe Patrick Jordan A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, Florida August 2001 Copyright by Tibe Patrick Jordan 2001 11 A War On Two Fronts: Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan and Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line by Tibe Patrick Jordan This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate's thesis advisor, Dr. Mike Budd, Department of Communication, and has been approved by the members of his supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters and was accepted in partial fhlfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Supervisory Committee: A/CL~ ti1eSiSAdViSOr t5vV~ Chairperson, Department o ommurucatton D Dorothy F _ Schmidt College of Arts and Letters lJe!::- W ~~ Date '7/ v(u I iii Acknowledgements I would first like to thank the chair of my committee, Dr. Mike Budd, who has provided me with direction, guidance, and insight not only on this project but also throughout my undergraduate and graduate studies. He has consistently challenged me as both a student and a researcher, and his advice, sincerity, and counseling will stay with me long after this project has been completed. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Martha Gever and Dr. Eric Freedman on this project, who kept me focused and organized with their suggestions and ideas. Thank _you again. I would also like to thank my fellow teaching assistants who started this program with me, especially Rebecca Amesbury, who shared with me the joys (and frustrations) of teaching and graduate school. We finally made it! Finally, and most importantly, I will attempt to thank my family, although no words can do justice to the sincere gratitude and love I have for them. Mom, David, and Chris, thank you for encouraging me, for allowing me to find myself, for always being there in good times and bad. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. Last, but never least, thank you Christina, my Sky of Suns, for helping me to always discover. lV Abstract Author: Tibe Patrick Jordan Title: A War on Two Fronts: Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan and Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Mike Budd Degree: Master of Arts Year: 2001 In 1998 Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line debuted in theatres and critics in the popular press were quick to discuss the revival of the World War Two film and to classify both films within this genre. Through an examination of genre, art cinema, the styles of the Steven Spielberg and Terrence Malick, and a close textual analysis of both films, this thesis argues that Saving Private Ryan, although updating generic conventions of violence through its opening segment, quickly turns traditional in its depiction of plot, character, masculinity, and nation. The Thin Red Line, however, combines conventions of the war film with elements of art cinema, producing a film that popular critics often labeled in an inadequate or incomplete manner, creating inappropriate generic expectations among viewers. v Table of Contents Chapter I: Introduction and Overview .......................................... 1 Background and Justification .......................................................... 1 Issues to be Addressed ................................................................. .3 The War Genre ..................................................................3 Spielberg and Malick at War .................................................8 Literature Review ...................................................................... 11 Genre and Reception ......................................................... 11 Violence, Masculinity, and Stars ........................................... 13 Steven Spielberg and Terrence Malick .................................... 22 Methodology ........................................................................... 23 Conclusion ..............................................................................25 Chapter II: Genre, the War F:il.m, and Art Cinema .......................... .28 Genre .................................................................................... 29 Conventions of the War Film and the World War II Film ....................... .40 Art Cinema: History, Conventions, and Audience ............................... .49 Chapter ill: On Spielberg and Malick ........................................ .57 Steven Spielberg: Narrative and Stylistic Approach ............................ .59 Schindler's List, 1993 ........................................................ 65 Amistad, 1997 ................................................................. 71 Terrence Malick: In an Out of Classical Hollywood ............................. 76 Badlands, 1973 ............................................................... 79 V1 Days ofHeaven, 1978 ........................................................86 Conclusion............................................................................. 90 Chapter IV: Textual Analysis of SPR and TRL .............................. 92 Opening Salvos: Death vs. Dread ................................................... 92 The Mission Underway............................................................. 110 A New Battle Begins ................................................................ 122 Against the Odds ..................................................................... 135 Aftermath .............................................................................. 156 Chapter VI: Conclusion ........................................................ 161 Works Cited .......................................................................... 170 V1l To Mom and David Chapter I Introduction and Overview BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION A film poster hangs in an enclosed glass case outside of a movie house. The poster reveals a lone soldier, in silhouette, standing off in the distance. He is clearly holding a rifle that points downward, and he is framed against a gray sky. A helmet is visible on his head and he appears to be carrying other equipment on his back. This is the predominant visual image of the poster. The title of the film, Saving Private Ryan, runs across the top of the poster, and below the image of the soldier a line of text reads, "'A film by Steven Spielberg." A few months later another poster might have hung in the same glass case. The main visual image has captured a faceless soldier running in mid-stride, rifle at the ready. Long blades of grass whip past him as he moves. The poster's colors are an ominous mix of reds and blacks and grays. From a quick cursory glance at the teaser posters for these two films, Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line, it seems a safe assumption that one could conclude that these two films would be dealing with war or combat in some respect. A closer examination of the posters would have revealed the directors and the actors in each film, which in turn might lead to references to other films but not necessarily to what the two films in question deal with specifically. A more detailed assessment might come from television reports, newspaper and magazine articles, and word-of- 1 mouth from other fi.lmgoers. Of course the first assumption, simply by glancing at the teaser posters, is that they are in some respects war films, specifically (from glancing at the uniform, weapons) war in the 20th century. In the summer and fall of 1998 two epic three-hour films centering on key battles during World War Two premiered. What was certain, what was inevitable about the two films, was that they would be compared to one another by both the press and the public. Saving Private Ryan went on to become the box office champion of 1998, earning $216-rnillion domestically. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated it for best picture, and both its star and director received nominations (Spielberg won the award for best director). The Thin Red Line also garnered nominations for best picture and best director, although its final box office revenue totaled a relatively disappointing $36-million. While Spielberg's film became a cultural phenomenon, with near daily reports of war veterans leaving the film in tears, Malick's film became something of a curiosity, a film that left some viewers and critics scratching their heads, partly because they did not know what to make of it. It simply did not fit into a pre-set mold of a World War Two picture. The issue of genre seems paramount to any attempted comparison of these two films. The Internet Movie Database, for example, lists both as war films. As a matter of fact, both rank in the top fifty ofthe best- reviewed films in the war genre, although Saving Private Ryan ranks much higher. 2 ISSUES TO BE ADDRESSED THE WAR GENRE The answer to the above questions will be found in the concept of genre, in both generic expectation and convention as well as promotion by the studios (trailers, posters, and press releases) and categorization by reviewers and critics. Janet Staiger writes in Interpreting Films that studying responses to films requires not only a close examination of the films themselves, but other texts both internal and external to the genre (138). For my purposes, this includes