What’s Aged the Worst?
Earn this; cemetery dialogue; photographing son; Stone’s criticism; reduced personal enthusiasm
In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 01:08:47Read transcript
- Oliver Stone’s criticism of the film as promoting the good-war idea is called self-serving and overly restrictive about who can make war films.
- The objection leads to a debate about whether exciting combat and heroic sacrifice undermine an anti-war message, including comparisons with Platoon; Ryan is defended as celebrating sacrifice without making war attractive.
- Earn this is questioned as unclear, difficult to hear, and less profound than intended; make this matter is proposed as an alternative, while another view finds the original acceptable.
- The older Ryan asking his wife whether he led a good life is strongly criticized as an overexplicit, sentimental ending to a film otherwise effective at showing rather than explaining.
- Removing the prologue and epilogue entirely is proposed, with the counterargument that their sentimentality helped the film’s popularity; a narrower suggestion keeps the grave visit but removes the wife’s reassurance.
- The invited producer response calls the line cheesy but argues that the moment, perhaps with different wording, needed to remain.
- The cemetery scene is faulted for writing and acting, while the underlying idea that a survivor would reflect on whether he lived well is defended as reasonable.
- Ryan’s son taking photographs during the cemetery walk is called irritating, with the wife’s reaction noticed.
- One speaker questions his own reduced enthusiasm for Ryan compared with other Spielberg favorites despite its importance and the injustice of its Oscar loss; the painful opening and visible flaws are contrasted with Jaws, Raiders, and Close Encounters.