Nostalgic longings, memories of the "Good War," and cinematic representations in Saving Private Ryan

Abstract

–This essay focuses attention on some of the polysemic and polyvalent dimensions of Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. The author argues that this film needs to be viewed as an intertextual fragment, where audiences, rhetors, and critics co-produce their interpretations of the rhetorical meaning of D-Day and the “Good War.” The essay advances the argument that critical memory studies help us understand how various representations and absences in the film allow for a number of different nostalgic and oppositional readings of the film. Because of the ambiguous nature of this cinematic representation, both supporters and detractors could claim that this was a realistic film that supported their own views on warfare.