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Article: And the Leni Riefenstahl Award for Rabid Nationalism Goes to ...(Saving Private Ryan)
- Article from:
- Esquire
- Article date:
- March 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Hearst Communications, reprinted with permission of Hearst. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A reconsideration of Saving Private Ryan
Last summer, Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan surfed on the sort of hype that transcends its own nature--hype with a halo. Newsweek's cover story led with the haggard recollections of real-life Normandy vets, practically obliging moviegoers to thread their popcorn into a rosary. The New Yorker lauded Ryan's lack of ideological agendas, an astonishing claim to make about a movie that begins and ends with a luminous Stars and Stripes filling the screen. Vanity Fair's James Wolcott not only hailed Spielberg for "getting it right"--one of the hoopla's mantras--but preemptively bashed any "media-savvy smart-asses" cynical ...