David Spates "Therefore I Am" Published Nov. 12, 2002

Saving Private Ryan
is not ready for prime time

I still can't believe what I saw on TV Saturday. Was it Tennessee's football team getting whacked like a mob informant? That wasn't so unbelievable. Was it yet another eye-rolling Hokie loss? I've grown accustomed to late-season Tech blowups, so that wasn't a big shock either.

No, what I saw Saturday night that startled me so was an unedited Saving Private Ryan on ABC. Before I type another word, let me say that I think the movie is a masterpiece. I bought the DVD. It provides what I suspect is a fairly accurate representation of war's horrors and brutality while weaving an absorbing plot line from scene to scene. Too often war movies sugar-coat and romanticize gruesome realities of combat. There's no romance in Saving Private Ryan, and there's certainly no sugar.

That being said, Saving Private Ryan is arguably one of the bloodiest and goriest films ever made. It had to be. Steven Spielberg wanted to punch the viewer in the nose with war's ferocity, and he did just that. Within seconds of the D-Day invasion scene, you realize this is different than every other war movie. Most people have seen it, so I won't bother citing examples. If you haven't seen it, you should.

On Saturday night, ABC televised Saving Private Ryan in its entirety, complete uncut. Every scene was left intact, even the most stomach-churning ones.

I fear it may have been the night I officially became a parent. My daughter is only 18 months old, but if she would have seen one of Saving Private Ryan choice scenes, she would have jumped out of her skin. Bedtime? Forget it. She would have been whimpering all night. I'm 32 and I'm too young for some of those scenes.

Of course I wouldn't ever sit down with her and watch Saving Private Ryan, but during the course of evening channel surfing, there's a decent chance that the image of a disemboweled soldier could flash on the screen for a few seconds. That's not something an 18-month-old should see before going to bed. For that matter, it's not something a 32-year-old should see before going to bed.

(Time-out for a second: The more I type, the more I shake my head and wonder how it happened. How did I turn into one of those uptight parents I used to mock when I was in my 20s? Am I completely off base here? Isn't this a little different than Tipper Gore and the PMRC getting their collective panties in a bunch over Twisted Sister back in the '80s? Maybe everyone turns into a dweeb when they become parents. Perhaps. Carry on, McDweeb.)

Where was I? Oh yes, channel surfing. Maybe you're saying to yourself that a little kid like my daughter, Anna, shouldn't be up late watching TV. You're right. A little kid shouldn't be up too late watching TV, but Saving Private Ryan started at 8 p.m. (7 p.m. for you Central folks) -- not terribly late in my book. Show me an 18-month-old who goes to bed before 8 p.m. and I'll show you two ecstatic parents. Watching a few minutes of TV is a good way of getting a little kid settled down. We often sit with Anna and watch news, a documentary or something calming before putting her down to bed -- a segment of two of Bill O'Reilly and she's down for the count. Had we flipped to ABC for a moment too long, however, and I doubt she would have gotten to sleep anytime soon.

Saving Private Ryan has an unmistakable patriotic component, and I suspect the fact that Veterans Day was the following Monday played a part in ABC's broadcast, but should a movie as bloody and disturbing as Saving Private Ryan be aired unedited on network TV? No. Not everything is suitable for prime-time network TV, regardless of artistic integrity and dignified context as in Saving Private Ryan. If you want to see the movie uncut and unedited, rent the DVD.

I don't think anyone who is familiar with Saving Private Ryan would have a reasonable expectation to see it uncut on broadcast TV. When it comes to network TV, we expect movies to be hacked, sliced and diluted with an ever-increasing number of advertisements crammed in.

That's why I buy so many movies, because I can't stand watching movies on commercial TV. It's like reading a book with some of the pages torn out and ads after every 15 paragraphs, regardless of the story's flow.

Gore for gore, Saving Private Ryan is worse than Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas, Casino, Halloween or most any other movie that has a "violent" label attached to it. Of course, you know and I know the violence in Saving Private Ryan plays a different role than the violence in those other flicks, but that's a distinction only a thoughtful adult makes. If Anna would have seen a man trying to stuff his own intestines back into his belly, she wouldn't have made any distinction.

Ultimately, I know everything she sees at this age is my responsibility. If she had seen the D-Day scene, it would have been my fault. The buck stops here. Maybe that's the difference between me and the '80s-era Tipper. On the other hand, Tipper and I do share a common thread. We're both parents, or grandparent as the case may be. I wonder what Tipper's grandchildren watched Saturday night.

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David Spates is a Knoxville resident and Crossville Chronicle contributor whose column is published each Tuesday. He can be reached at davespates@chartertn.net.