Saving Private Ryan (1998)

User Rating:

8.5/10   

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Writer (WGA):

Robert Rodat (written by)

Release Date:

24 July 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | War

Tagline:

In the Last Great Invasion of the Last Great War, The Greatest Danger for Eight Men was Saving... One.

Plot:

Following the Normandy Landings, a group of US soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.

Plot Keywords:

General | Invasion | Normandy | 1944 | Soldier

Awards:

Won 5 Oscars. Another 52 wins & 53 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sun. Nov. 22

2:30 PM

CW

Cast

Tom Hanks	...	Capt. John H. Miller
Tom Sizemore	...	Sgt. Mike Horvath
Edward Burns	...	Pvt. Richard Reiben
Barry Pepper	...	Pvt. Daniel Jackson
Adam Goldberg	...	Pvt. Stanley Mellish
Vin Diesel	...	Pvt. Adrian Caparzo
Giovanni Ribisi	...	T-5 Medic Irwin Wade
Jeremy Davies	...	Cpl. Timothy P. Upham
Matt Damon	...	Pvt. James Francis Ryan
Ted Danson	...	Capt. Fred Hamill
Paul Giamatti	...	Sgt. Hill
Dennis Farina	...	Lt. Col. Anderson
Joerg Stadler	...	Steamboat Willie
Max Martini	...	Cpl. Henderson (as Maximilian Martini)
Dylan Bruno	...	Toynbe

MPAA:

Rated R for intense prolonged realistically graphic sequences of war violence, and for language.

Runtime:

170 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | German | Czech

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #35942) | Taiwan:GP | Malaysia:18SG (DVD release) | Malaysia:(Banned) (theatrical) | Philippines:PG-13 | Brazil:14 | USA:TV-MA (TV rating) | India:A | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA (re-rating on appeal) | Australia:R (original rating) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/Ontario) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:18A (British Columbia) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Chile:14 | Denmark:15 | Finland:K-14 (re-rating) | Finland:K-16 (original rating) | France:U | Germany:16 (bw) | Hong Kong:IIB | Iceland:16 | Ireland:15 | Israel:PG | Italy:VM14 | Mexico:B | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R15 | Norway:18 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:NC-16 (re-rating on appeal) | Singapore:R(A) (original rating) | South Korea:15 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | Singapore:M18 (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

Calvados, France

Company:

Amblin Entertainment

Trivia:

The line "I've got a bad feeling about this" and the character "Hamill" are both a nod to the "Star Wars" films, directed by Steven Spielberg's good friend George Lucas,

Goofs:

Continuity: When Miller is dazed and the movie is silent after the Tiger's shot knocks Miller over, Reiben helps him over to where Sgt. Horvath is laying. Miller's body is facing toward the camera while his head turns to look at Horvath, but in the next shot his body is facing Horvath.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Ryan's son: [running to comfort his father] Dad?
[flashback to D-Day]
LCVP pilot: Clear the ramp! Thirty seconds. God be with ya!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Family Guy: Brian Does Hollywood (#3.2)" (2001)

Soundtrack:

Fanfare for the Common Man

Numbing experience of SPR redeems baby boomers...

It's been over a year since first seeing Saving Private Ryan -- it's a worthy effort by Speilberg--his best since Shindler's List by far. You've probably heard about the amount of violence, blood, and gore and that's all true--it's got the Viet Nam movie style violence (and then some) but it's not gratuitous. Were it sanitized like early WWII movies, modern audiences probably wouldn't take it as seriously.

The movie has that trademark Speilberg style--the structure is all tied up and unified from beginning to end, the emotional symbols abound, the music swelling when he's working at your emotions, the hand held camera that worked so well in Shindler's List to give you a feeling of participation, camera angles and periods of silence to disorient you (like Shindler), suspense techniques learned from Hitch... It's a movie that stays with you for a period afterwards.

Hanks will be the early front runner for Oscar after this flick--Academy members like him AND it IS his best acting job ever. While Speilberg will likely be criticized for attempting to manipulate the audience's emotions while keeping a distance from the inner core of his characters, Tom Hanks reveals a really complex military leader in this story, and does so without overacting--somehow it comes from within. While you may not empathize deeply with many of the platoon, you will still feel something because of the relationship that is formed with Hanks.

After the initial set-up, you will have the opportunity to participate in the D-Day operation and experience the horror of it. Those who have been in a real war can comment about how realistic or not Speilberg captures its chaotic horror in this scene.

In my case I again feel very lucky that my draft number was high, so I never had to face Nam like many of my classmates. Speilberg reminds us brutally in "Saving Private Ryan" that we All have a debt to pay to the brave souls who have sacrificed so much for us. What Tom Hanks does with his performance is to remind us of this debt in a very personal way.