The “crime” against cinema ‘Saving Private Ryan’ refused to commit: “This is right to the edge”
There’s absolutely nothing criminal about Saving Private Ryan, apart from the fact that it was beaten to the Academy Award for ‘Best Picture’ by Shakespeare in Love, which is a vastly inferior movie in every conceivable way, shape, or form.
Harvey Weinstein and his underhanded campaign tactics are at least partially to blame for one of the most egregious upsets in Oscars history, though, and the disgraced producer has done much worse, so it won’t even rank in the top ten of the most heinous things he used his position of power to do.
However, Tom Hanks was genuinely concerned that Steven Spielberg’s stirring World War II drama would commit an unforgivable crime against cinema, and he had every reason to believe that Saving Private Ryan would be convicted of the offence, seeing as they had to go dig into the trenches and prepare for a potential war of attrition with the MPAA.
Obviously, the film was never going to be PG-13. The Omaha Beach sequence is proof enough, what with severed limbs, blood, and body parts being sprayed all over the screen. It wasn’t gratuitous by any stretch, but it was graphic enough to give the leading man cause for concern that the ratings board might slap the picture with a rating that would eliminate a huge part of its target audience.
Saving Private Ryan wouldn’t work anywhere near as well as it does if it watered down, sanitised, or sanded the edges from its onscreen violence. Spielberg wanted to depict the horrors of war with the utmost accuracy, authenticity, and immersion, which placed post-production at a pivotal crossroads.
He didn’t want to excise any footage, but if he didn’t, the MPAA could hit his movie with the dreaded NC-17. The director hoped that his adherence to fact and history would be taken under consideration, and when it was officially granted an R-rating, few people were more relieved than Hanks.
“This is right to the edge of the R-rating,” he admitted to The Oklahoman. “It would have been a crime, though, to prevent kids who can drive cars from seeing this picture. A lot of the kids who died on Omaha Beach were 17 years old. An NC-17 rating would exclude those under 17.”
Of course, Spielberg was in the same boat. “I thought the ratings board did a good job,” he added. “They discussed the film and came up on their own with the rating. I didn’t have to fight for it. They didn’t ask for any cuts at all, but it’s very much to the edge of the R-rating.” Then again, even though anyone under 17 needed to be accompanied by a parent or guardian, he had his own rules.
“None of my kids will see this picture now, and as a parent, I wouldn’t let any kid under 14 go see this picture,” he added. “I would make the cut-off point 15.” Saving Private Ryan wasn’t quite a movie that had unaccompanied teenagers lined up around the block, but at least they got the opportunity to see it.
