Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Tom Hanks | ... | Captain Miller | |
Tom Sizemore | ... | Sergeant Horvath | |
Edward Burns | ... | Private Reiben | |
Barry Pepper | ... | Private Jackson | |
Adam Goldberg | ... | Private Mellish | |
Vin Diesel | ... | Private Caparzo | |
Giovanni Ribisi | ... | T-4 Medic Wade | |
Jeremy Davies | ... | Corporal Upham | |
Matt Damon | ... | Private Ryan | |
Ted Danson | ... | Captain Hamill | |
Paul Giamatti | ... | Sergeant Hill | |
Dennis Farina | ... | Lieutenant Colonel Anderson | |
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Joerg Stadler | ... | Steamboat Willie |
Max Martini | ... | Corporal Henderson (as Maximilian Martini) | |
Dylan Bruno | ... | Toynbe |
Opening with the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, members of the 2nd Ranger Battalion under Cpt. Miller fight ashore to secure a beachhead. Amidst the fighting, two brothers are killed in action. Earlier in New Guinea, a third brother is KIA. Their mother, Mrs. Ryan, is to receive all three of the grave telegrams on the same day. The United States Army Chief of Staff, George C. Marshall, is given an opportunity to alleviate some of her grief when he learns of a fourth brother, Private James Ryan, and decides to send out 8 men (Cpt. Miller and select members from 2nd Rangers) to find him and bring him back home to his mother... Written by J.Zelman
The first 23 minutes of this film is rated at a 12.
My good friend and I took our sons, 17 at the time, to see this in a theater. I am a senior military officer who experienced combat in 1967 - 68 - 69. We wanted the boys to see the horror of war, the slaughter.
I have had to pack up the personal effects of my comrade to send back to his mother after he was killed in the Viet Nam war. Those of you who have not done this cannot even comprehend.
After the opening combat scenes the film was an 8. Well done.
War is hell and to those of us who have been there ... well I don't know what to say.
Neither of our sons joined the military ... thank God.