Memory, War and American Identity: Saving Private Ryan as Cinematic Jeremiad.

Works Cited:

Owen, A. Susan. “Memory, War and American Identity: Saving Private Ryan as Cinematic Jeremiad.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 19.3 (2002): 249. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO. Web. 24 Oct. 2011.

Summary: This article by A. Susan Owens explores the list of American woes and the identity crisis it provides through Steven Spielberg’s film, ‘Saving Private Ryan’. While first listing briefly the history of the American occupency in Vietnam, the author then proceeds to discuss his thesis stating that this film is a response for American’s who were desperatly trying to find their identity and a nation to identify it with after the crisis and issues associated with Vietnam (250). Owens claims that the, “Vietnam Crisis” was an event that caused American culture and popular to shift torwards redifining ourselves after the traumatic event (251). The argument then turns to the more specific by saying that religion is the pinnacle point of identity for Americans as exemplified by the film Saving Private Ryan (253). Directly after this the paper shifts to reception of the audience by films that address post-vietnam subjects. Another section proceeds to discuss not just what American’s need to reaffirm their identity, but how Saving Private Ryan offers a prophet to show us what we should see in war and our position on it, to unify singular identities as national ones (260). After this argument the article switches from outwordly impact of war film and vietnam to it’s impact internally on identity of characters. Owens summarizes several scenes of Speilberg’s film to develop this idea. Shot by shot analysis show how the “citizen-soldiers” can have dramatic impact throughout the film which can be symbolic of real life events and people (272).

-Eric