Spielberg aims to tell truth about war in 'Saving Private Ryan'
From Correspondent Paul Vercammen
HOLLYWOOD (CNN) -- Following the Civil War, General William T. Sherman wrote in his memoirs, "War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it."
Apparently not many listened, because most films on war during the 20th century have not only refined it, they've glamorized it, leaving in heroic acts, and editing out the cruelest truths of war in order to earn a certain rating by the Motion Picture Association of America.
Steven Spielberg wasn't going to fall into that trap when he set out to make "Saving Private Ryan," a movie depicting the attempted World War II rescue of a paratrooper lost behind enemy lines.
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"I wasn't going to add my film to a long list of pictures that make World War II 'the glamorous war,' 'the romantic war.'"
-- Steven Spielberg, director of "Saving Private Ryan"
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The movie, which releases on Friday, is extremely graphic in its portrayal of the savagery of World War II and D-Day, so much that it nearly earned an "NC-17" rating, instead of its current "R."
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