Saving Private Ryan

I have never been affected by a movie the way Saving Private Ryan affected me. That movie really took me out of my seat in the movie theater and practically had me believing I was really in the battle with John Miller. When somebody was dying in that movie, it felt as if you could almost feel their pain. Speilberg did an unbelievable job of putting realism into this movie with the camera-work and everything else. Simply amazing. An all time great.

Steven Spielberg makes a unique motion picture in regards to the D-Day invasion of World War II just in the gritty reality of the detail… For more than twenty minutes he revives for us the landing at Omaha beach… No one was prepared for how horrific it really was… No one understood what was going on: The terror, the chaos, the maelstrom of bullets, the near-deafening explosions…You really got a sense of what these guys had to go through…

Within that perplexity, the focus settles on six soldiers under the command of Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) after they've survived their terrible hours breaking through the first line of German defense, they're given a strange perilous mission, to find one man, Pvt. Ryan (Matt Damon), a paratrooper who's somewhere behind German lines… For them, it's an abstruse order, but they have to get it done…

Throughout the film, Spielberg's attention to detail is amazing… For me, the most chilling scene in the movie is the death of an American officer… It's one of the most intimate… It's also a slightly confusing moment because two German characters resemble each other so greatly…

Toward the middle, a German soldier called "Steamboat Willie" is introduced… By the end of the film, he has become the 'bad' German… Later in the movie, another German is involved in the final fight… He takes part in an exceedingly painful scene of hand-to-hand combat with the American soldier… The two German soldiers have similar short haircuts and black uniforms… Because they looked so much alike, many of us have believed that they're one character… They're not, and the distinction of the two is very significant

It gives a million reason why no one should go to war and one very powerful reason to go to war. It is a soul numbing realistic depiction of what our grandfathers, fathers, uncles, brothers and sons have faced in humanities darkest moments. Not just in WWII but in any war. No one can see this movies without being altered in some way. No one should miss it with the EXCEPTION of those war veterans that have already been there. The surround sound puts the audience in the middle of the battle.

Steven Spielberg has out done himself and effectively held up a mirror to civilization for events to which we should all be ashamed of, rather than appalled at the movie for its real life depictions. I suggest that this movie be made standard view for congress as well as the President each and every time the question of war comes up. This movie would not stop future wars but I would hope the objectives would be much more clearly defined. I say this as a US Marine.

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.

This is definitely one of the more powerful war films out there, if not the most powerful. I will admit, when I first saw it at school, I found the first half-hour extremely upsetting to watch.

The acting is outstanding. Especially from Tom Hanks and Matt Damon, and the music alongside Schindler's List is John William's most haunting score I've heard.

It does drag in the middle and the dialogue doesn't always flow as well as it should, but what we have is a historically accurate, extremely well made and directed and unashamedly brutal film. I mean, in the stabbing scene, towards the end, my English teacher had to leave the room. It was like watching Frankenstein's monster tearing out Elizabeth's heart.

8.5/10 for a truly emotional and appropriately sombre war-film, that is a little slow at times. But it deserves to be in the top 250, really it is that good! Bethany Cox