Why we fought: Holocaust memory in Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan

Abstract

–Steven Spielberg's film Saving Private Ryan has been criticized for its failure to frame narrative action in terms of national, moral purpose. This criticism can be understood in terms of the constraints that the “Vietnam syndrome” places upon contemporary cinematic narratives of war; Vietnam memory subverts earnest declaration of high national principle. This essay examines how Saving Private Ryan “reillusions” American national identity in the wake of Vietnam by giving presence to an even more distant past. Supported by close textual analysis of key scenes centering upon the sole Jewish character in the film, this reading argues that the specific moral justification for waging war and accepting its horrors and sacrifices is found in a moral crusade against the Nazi program of Holocaust. By suturing the Holocaust into the film as its moral foundation, the film participates in the “Americanization” of Holocaust memory, circumvents Vietnam as a source of traumatic memory, manufactures a redemptive national identity, and constructs an ethically usable past in the present.