„That Doesn’t Bother Me at All.” Steven Spielberg Doesn't Care About Audiences Criticizing His War Movie, Which Earned $482 Million
Steven Spielberg has responded to criticism of his cult movie. He explained that he isn’t worried about it at all.
Saving Private Ryan is a masterpiece made by Steven Spielberg, which has already gone down in cinematic history. However, despite the many acclaims, the film still has to face some criticism. The wartime production is accused of being too “Hollywood”.
The point is that Hollywood movies very often dramatize events in a way by which they begin to deviate from the real ones – for example, they are diluted or there is a meaning given to them that they didn't really have at all. Spielberg faced similar criticism, he was accused of adding drama to the story instead of opting for complete realism in Saving Private Ryan.
The filmmaker commented on the issue during an interview with the DGA. It turns out that he did everything to prevent his film from becoming “too Hollywood”. He wanted to depict the war realistically, and as a result he undertook all sorts of preparations and fought with himself to avoid succumbing to Hollywood trends.
I’ve always wanted to make a war movie, and I had a chance to make a realistic war movie, as opposed to an apocryphal Hollywood war movie. Actually, I was beating away the impulses to go Hollywood.
Despite this, his masterpiece was criticized anyway. Adding to the accusations was the fact that Spielberg was said to be inspired by other Hollywood war productions, such as A Walk in the Sun, from where he supposedly got the idea of depicting a culturally diverse America, which was also considered a Hollywood influence on the director. However, Spielberg doesn't care about the accusations and just does his own thing.
That doesn’t bother me at all because you can’t have seen as many World War II movies as I’ve seen, and not have some of that rub off on Saving Private Ryan.
While preparing to film Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg watched a lot of war movies and with this he explains any similarities with other productions. Thus, they aren’t dictated by the realization of some Hollywood vision, as the audience might have suspected him of.
And the quality of Saving Private Ryan is evidenced by the fact that it has gained cult status and box-office earnings of $482.3 million on a budget of $70 million.
