Saving Private Ryan V. My Darling Clementine

By 1946, World War II has been over for a year. Many veterans have returned home to a completely different life than what they left before the war began. The world has now borne witness to the harsh realities of the brutal reign of the National Socialists in Europe. The Holocaust, the millions killed in battle, and the use of atomic weapons has changed our world and its people forever. After playing witness to the harsh and horrible realities of what this world and the people that inhabit it are capable of, many of these men demanded a more dramatic sense of realism in the films they watched.

During this time period, a new form of art was born. Abstract Impressionism found it was onto the stage of the art arena in New York, danced across the silver screen in front of the faces of thousands. This was most prevalent in what I snow called "the rule of thirds". Film makers, like abstract impressionist painters, divide the viewing area into thirds. Director John Ford practically breathed the rule of thirds into the movie industry. Another director of modern day notice, Steven Spielberg, is notorious for his brilliant and systematic use of the rule of thirds. There are many similarities in both of these artists' methods of storytelling. A piece of work from each is going to be examined herein. John Ford's 1946 classic, My Darling Clementine, starring Henry Fonda; and Steven Spielberg's 1998 blockbuster, Saving Private Ryan, starring Tom Hanks.

Right off the bat, John Ford's My Darling Clementine is an allegory for World War II. This played to the audience of the time, which was largely made up of returning war Veterans. As far as the allegory goes, Wyatt Earp and his brothers represent the Untied States of America in the film. Doc Holliday is Europe, whose own sophistication and decadence has lead to his own deterioration and ultimate destruction. The town of Tombstone itself represents the chaotic state that all of Europe was engulfed in during the pitch of the war. After the death of Wyatt's youngest brother (Pearl Harbor), the Earps decide to Marshal the town of Tombstone and restore piece to the place, and to avenge their brother's death at the hands of the vile Clantons, representative of the Axis powers. Clearly I can safely say, without much deliberation and explanation, that Saving Private Ryan is, in fact, a war movie about no other war than the Second World War. However, this is not where the most obvious parallels are drawn in the allegory of SPR and MDC. The final small and largely destroyed French village holds more than the most pivotal scene of the movie in SPR, it hold allegory akin to those of MDC. The small French village, in much dismay and disarray, can be viewed as of all of Europe during the war. Much of what was once there had been battered and smashed to all hell, and resources were running low. The embattled and fatigued American soldiers already stationed in the village are the allies who have been struggling in this war, worn thin after years of tooth and nail fighting with the Nazi war machine. Captain John Miller and his men are representative of America, coming in full force to the war. The ensuing battle demonstrates how the American Armed forces helped to turn the tide of battle in favor of the Allied forces. Just like Wyatt Earp and his brothers do to the town of Tombstone. The small French town is saved, and its significant bridge (that the Allies need to send armored vehicles to push on to France, and The Germans need to send armored vehicles to push a counter offensive) is in tact. When all is said and done, Wyatt and his one remaining brother leave the town of tombstone, just as the remaining American soldiers who were under the command of Captain John Miller leave the French town they fought so bitterly for.

Another parallel between these two films exists in the main characters, Wyatt Earp and Captain John Miller. Wyatt Earp is a simple man who doesn't wish to be involved. He only marshals the town of Tombstone because he has to do it, for his brother and for the town. There is a need for order to be restored, and he steps up to fulfill that need. Wyatt Earp is also a mysterious man, whom many in the town have heard of, yet know not much of. Parts of this man remain a mystery, an enigma for the others involved in his life to solve. Captain John Miller finds himself in the same situation. By no means is he ever happy with or originally willing to do the jobs that he must do. He does them not out of want, but out of necessity. He is also well known by the men in his command and from many other divisions, yet nothing is known of him beyond his military record. This mystery does as much to help him garner respect as it does for Wyatt, when he gains the respect of those whom have heard of him, like the Clantons and Doc Holliday. These two characters are almost viewed as everyday people placed in a series of extraordinary places and events, and are testaments to what humans can do under the sternest of conditions and circumstances.

The thematic elements of the films are also quite similar. In both films we have a strong sense of what is right and wrong, as well as what duty calls us to do. There is a large price placed on human lives in both films, and the directors both glorify and horrify war and death. They do this in the way that they depict the deaths of individuals, and by humanizing them. They also achieve this through the actors; through their lines, their actions, and their deliveries. We see in both films the absurdity and necessity of creating order out of chaos by the use of chaos; i.e., creating peace out of violence with the use of violence. We see from both films the necessity of using force to bring about a positive resolution. These actions are weighed by the weight of human life, and comparing it to the good that may and will come to the world out of the actions taken by the characters in both films.

Earlier I spoke of rules of thirds, and the use of this technique by both directors. Both of these men use the rule of thirds all over in their films, and these two films are no exceptions. Also, there are other stylistic similarities between the technical sides of the film making as well. John Ford used a wide 50mm lens on his camera for sharp, pristine images to lend itself to the sense of realism he wanted to achieve in his film. Steven Spielberg also uses very sharp and clear imagery, for a dramatic and shockingly realistic view of the world we are surrounded in in SPR. Another beautiful aspect of both films is the use of almost distracting amounts of obscene background motion laid behind profound bits of dialogue. When Wyatt Earp sits on a porch watching the masses go to church in My Darling Clementine, we have a beautiful shot of mobs of people meandering past him while he holds discussion with various townsfolk. Likewise, we have two very similar scenes in Saving Private Ryan. The first happens about 35 minutes into the film, after the invasion of Omaha Beach on D-Day. In entitles moving cameras and moving people in a large office space that makes excellent use of lines and perpendicular angles to segment the screen into thirds and focus our attention while we hear, through narration, the subtext of the letters that are being written at all of the desks within the office space. We have a haymaker of noise, voices, typing, and people moving, yet we still focus on the silent and profound events of one woman discovering something unnerving in several of the letters that she has written. The second incident, and one of my favorite scenes from the film, happens at roughly 40 minutes into the film. After orders have been handed down to form a rescue mission for Private Ryan, we hear for the first time the moral dilemma felt by the men in charge of this task. Through their dialogue, we hear their side to this seemingly heroic mission, and are made aware of what may be an almost maddening logic driving it. However, to further impress upon us a sense of futility of the mission, we are almost unable to even spot the two men speaking until the dialogue is almost over, due to the massive amount of movement of people and vehicles going on in both the background and the foreground. Despite the initial wishes of the Captain not to go on with the mission, it moves forward anyways. This is revealed at the end of the scene, likewise as Wyatt Earp is moved to church at the end of the parallel scene from MDC.

The movies that we watch today aren't all that different from the ones that generations before us watched. The thematic elements we see today can all be scene in movies from earlier decades. John Ford was a clear inspiration to many filmmakers, and today's great Steven Spielberg is no exception. It is easy to see how much of My Darling Clementine went into movies such as Saving Private Ryan. The similar thematic elements inherent in both films by the use of allegory; the actions, background, morality, and mannerisms of the heroes; and the technical aspects of how the films were created, scene for scene are testimonies to the similarities and parallels in these two director's storytelling methods, and the influence that John Ford has had on this generation's filmmakers.