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Saving Private Ryan (D-Day 60th Anniversary Commemorative Edition) Customer Reviews (28 - 30 of 89 Reviews)

Spielberg delivers one of his best pictures ever
Four Ryan brothers go to war. Three get killed on D-Day and one is lost behind enemy lines. A commanding squad captain, John Miller (Tom Hanks) is sent to find the remaining brother, Private James Ryan. Like any good modern war film, the hero, John Miller, is a moral, upright leader who puts the safety of his squad first, and wrestles with the suicidal goals of his mission. Eight men risk their lives to save one. The resulting drama, set against the horrifying backdrop of war, is some of the best cinema to come out of Hollywood in years.

The cast that was put together for the film is straight A-list. Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, and Matt Damon are just a few of the actors tapped for the film. The ensemble, which spent weeks training as a military unit prior to shooting, carries off a performance that in the hands of lesser actors would have seemed shallow.

Spielberg delivers one of his best pictures ever. The cinematography, sound design and script are outstanding and his Best Director Academy is well earned.

Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan served up the grittiest war footage ever created for a fictional film. While the bloody horror of war was never more realistic, the hero worship of American war movies like The Longest Day or Force 10 from Navarone is unchanged and the result is a movie that, to date, is the apex of over 50 years of combat film.

Startlingly realistic visuals, ear shattering sound design, and superb acting were just a few of the attributes that earned Saving Private Ryan five Academy Awards.



decent war movie
i think this is a very good war movie, and that's all it is. It isn't the best war movie i have ever seen and it certainly isn't the best war movie ever made, but it is good. To me the flick plays more like an action movie, and i judge it as good in that context. Yes it's realistically violent, and yes, Steven Spielberg is a master at filming action sequences, but what did you expect? it's Steven Spielberg. Awesome action and camera work is a given. I wanted to see more than just a bunch of swell action sequences - considering the material. The filmmakers could have borrowed a bit of the meditativeness and subtletly that you may have seen in The Thin Red Line (not to say that Red Line is an altogether better film). War movies are inherently manipulative: You make the audience become involved emotionally with the soldiers in the flick and then you find gut wrenching ways to bump them off. That's called cheap drama and you get it here in spades. Now, I can accept that because the movie is what it is and the performances are generally excellent, but again, considering the material i want more. The flim does make an attempt at subtlety during a between battle scene where the guys sit in a bombed out town and listen to sad French music from a record player while one of the soldiers translates the melancholy lyrics - but the scene comes off as calculated and obvious: an action movie trying to go deep.
I guess to sum up I'll say this: don't let the harcore violence fool you into thinking this film is any more culturally significant than any other above average action movie. If you think the filmmakers didn't know (or indeed hope) that the prerelease buzz this film generated regarding it's excessively graphic violence would translate directly into increased box office on opening weekend then i'm afraid you are mistaken. I guess the filmmakers would have you think that so graphically portraying the violence that goes on in war is a suitable tribute to the men who fought and died during that war. I think that a far more meaningful tribute would be to distribute some of the films collosal box office take to those men and / or their families, but i guess that's just crazy talk.

All of that said, i fear my review is coming off as more critical than i mean it to. I did enjoy the movie. the performances are really quite good, especially from the young actor that plays the medic. You may remember seeing him on an episode of the X-files as the lightning rod guy (he could control electricity), and as guest actor on the sitcom Friends. He is absolutely brilliant and his talent will surely be recognized eventually.
I just can't bring myself to go 4 stars tho because on a certain level anyone has to admit that this kindof thing is exploitative considering the sacrifice those guys made and the amount of money the filmmakers made depicting it. If only they could have brought something more - something new and thoughtfully original to the table than the obvious fact that war is hell, i would have enjoyed it more.

Very good modern war movie
Saving Private Ryan ranks right up there with Black Hawk Down and We Were Soldiers, though We Were Soldiers was very powerful emotionally. Tom Hanks and Matt Damon were great in this movie. I'd heavily reccommend it to any war movie fan.

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