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Summary: Special Limited Edition Rip-off
Review: This is an awesome movie! However, this "widescreen" DVD is not as it would seem. Most widescreen DVDs display more information on screen than pan & scan DVDs as the widescreen aspect ratio is like the theater. On this DVD, the widescreen version actually CUTS information from the top and bottom of the pan & scan picture. I learned this watching the movie on cable, noting that while talking about his shaking hands in the church, CPT Miller's hands are on screen (and shaking) for more of the discussion--on the DVD, not so! Perhaps the "five-star" video production team should obtain James Cameron's essay on widescreen v. pan & scan and learn that the selection of aspect ratio and production should not detract from the finished product. Again, a great movie, but this edition left me quite disappointed and wondering how much else was disregarded.
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Summary: A mildly entertaining let down
Review: Yet again Steven Spielberg takes a potentially fantastic movie and delivers a supreme disappointment. Sure, Saving Private Ryan has many unforgettable scenes and images, but so what? Great bits make not a great movie. The gruesome beach invasion that opens the movie is shocking and spectacular up to a point, but quickly becomes boring. Come on, any film that extends a scene comprised entirely of soldiers in combat to 25 minutes is seriously pushing its luck, no matter how 'worthy' the subject matter. What follows is one and a half not terribly interesting hours of not terribly interesting characters debating the merits of their mission and getting into the occasional scrape. The final battle is perhaps the most engrossing part of an otherwise limp movie. I do wish directors like Steven Spielberg would resist the temptation to make their 'important' movies last three hours; there is simply no reason other than ego stroking. Saving Private Ryan is essentially a terrific two hour movie fighting to get out of a tiresome three hour running time. Also, when will Spielberg return to making his films in the 2.35:1 widescreen process? His last five films were shot in the smaller 1.85:1 aspect ratio and as a result they look like nothing more than glorified television programmes. Unfortunate.
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Summary: michael navratil ...........
Review: Saving Private Ryan - 5 Oscars, Thin Red Line - 0 Oscars. Are you going to tell me that your taste and choice in movies is superior to those of the Academy and half the civilized world? Profoundness, subtleties and symbolism can be found in almost any movie, but that doesn't necessarily make for a great movie. Furthermore, forgive me for stating the obvious, but, I thought that a true "war" movie was supposed to be about war. What other film portrays the horrors of war as well as SPR did? No other film comes close. The point must be made that those who did not like SPR are a minority. I guess that just makes the rest of us who did like it part of the "ignorant mass".
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Summary: Watch out for blood outside the silverscreen!
Review: "Saving Private Ryan" is certainly the most real WWII movie ever written and directed. Although I've never seen real war it had a very deep impact on me. Almost from the first scenes of the movie one starts to realise what war really means. There's nothing beautiful about it and even the most heroic deeds are just another massacre. I don't take it as a novel but rather as a collection of short stories connected with the search for Ryan who's three brothers have died in different battles at the same time. We follow a squad of stonehard soldiers who are sent to find him and send back home where his mother waits. They are showed as a group of coldblooded men who can't be stopped in their search. They play games with the metal ID-plates taken from dead US soldiers in front of a group of greenhorns who haven't seen actual battle yet, they kill their enemies mercilessly and with great skill, etc. But at the same time they have their own sad stories to be told around the lantern late at night, they try to rescue civilians and sometimes they even don't shoot the imprisone nazis who have just killed their comrades. Hanks is brilliant as the leader and no bad words can be said about the rest of the cast either. Of course the backbone of the movie are the horrifying battle-scenes were nothing is shown in softer light than it actually is. And without the brilliant camerawork the movie wouldn't be what it is. Those viewers who aren't who hate patriotism should not let themselves be disturbed by the opening and ending, cause this is an obligatory part in an American warmovie. Finally, SPR really deserved the oscars given to it; it WAS the best movie of 1998.
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Summary: The most authentic film yet!
Review: The opening 24 minutes of "Private Ryan" on Omaha Beach's Dog-Green sector is very realistic. I have done countless studies on this particular battle from many books and interviewed men who were ACTUALLY there and who ACTUALLY experienced the battles. I also talked to a group of marines who fought at Iwo Jima in the Pacific. Although they did find minor flaws with some of the rest of the film, the Omaha Beach scene WAS authentic. It would be naive and unwise of anyone who wasn't actually there to try to argue against this. Horror stories of the battle at Omaha(particularly Pointe du Hac) can be read about in a number of books devoted to D-Day and the European theatre. Steven Ambrose has extensive knowledge about all the battles of the European conflict and talks in depth about fighting at the other beaches during D-Day(Utah, Sword) in many of his books. The whole point of this film was to show the unbelievable horrors that millions of men went through in WW2 and conflicts before and after it. Sure, many battles were easily won with little loss of life. But should that take away, for one single second, from the FACT that many battles(Battle of the Bulge, Battle of Stalingrad, Iwo Jima) and EVERY war was won or lost with great sacrifices and the fact that many men died horrible, painful, humiliating deaths that were anything but honorable? Yes, men had limbs blown off. Yes, men had intestines strung out all over beaches. Yes, men died screaming. It's a FACT! Deal with it! What is it with some people that they want to sugur-coat war? It can't be done if you want to do war justice. Saying that the kind of hell these men went through in "Private Ryan" was unrealistic or didn't happen is like saying the Holocaust didn't happen and is unbelievably ridiculous. If you want to know what your fathers or grandfathers went through during the second world war, I strongly urge you to get this film. It will cause you to have great respect for any man or woman who served or serves our country in the military.
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Summary: From a Jewish Perspective
Review: I read into this movie much like I did Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List"; framing a World War II story from a Jewish perspective. "List" was more obvious than "Saving Private Ryan," but some of the major themes carried over, and two of them were: 1. The Holocaust ... Adam Goldberg's character was the Jewish member of the Ranger unit assigned to find Private Ryan. In a montage of scenes toward the end of the film, when a million things seem to be happening at once, Goldberg's character and a Nazi soldier physically fight each other, by themselves, apart from their comrades, and it seems, from the world around them, that they are alone. The Jew dies, but not with a gunshot would (like how many of the war's soldiers fell to), but a knife to the heart. I found this symbolism extraodinarily disturbing, yet effective in the way that within a matter of seconds, the destruction of European Jewry was played out on film. 2. Disbelieving the truth ... Jeremy Davies' character was not an original member of the unit sent on the movie's unique mission. Instead, like the United States, he joins after the fighting and killing of WW II have already begun. That was part one of Davies' symbolism, but part two symbolized the majority of people in Europe (and, indeed, around the world) during World War II who did nothing to help their Jewish neighbors and countrymen. In a scene that takes place at the same time as Goldberg's character is being killed, the Davies' character is curled-up -- almost in the fetal position -- unable to face the realities of war around him, and unable to move one way or another; a neutral between two sides, the Nazi who killed the Jew walks right by the newcomer barely pausing in notice of him. Indeed, there are many ways of pointing out the greatness of this film. It will be appreciated and understood by anyone who chooses to do so.
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Summary: Great war movie!
Review: This is one the most well-made movies I have ever seen! It is very graphic and dramatic, but I'm sure many people will love this movie! Check it out!
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Summary: Particularly well crafted film with feel of historicity.
Review: Opening on a shot of the American flag fluttering in the breeze, lit from behind by the sun, and a soundtrack playing a sombre tune. An old man with his back to camera makes his way down a path lined on one side by a low wall and to his right a line of trees. He turns to face a field of white crosses, each about two feet high, some have the star of David as a headpiece. With the man is his family, a respectful distance behind him; his wife, his son, daughter-in-law and their three children. The old man walks into the military cemetary and after a few steps falls to his knees. The older members of the family group rush to his side, the younger ones huddle together. The camera makes a tight close-up of the old man's face. On June 6th 1944 a group of landing craft make their way toward the coast of Normandy, France. The barrage which preceded their arrival and the bombers of the Air Force have failed to destroy the German fortifications. The German army force waits for the landing craft to drop the front draw-bridge-like door of the craft before opening fire with a lethal attack by machine gun and shelling. Captain J. Miller, played admirably by Tom Hanks, leads the way off his section of beachhead. In a battle which depicts war in an uncompromising and visceral manner, the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan sets the tone for a gritty war movie. The introductory section of the film over, and if it does not have your attention by this point end your viewing. The story is simply, Captain Miller is selected for a mission, to find Private James Francis Ryan (a fictitious character as are all the main roles of the film except General Marshall) in order that he may be returned to home. Why ? Because his brothers are dead, all within days of each other while serving in the army, and young James, Matt Damon, is his mothers lone surviving son. The army feels it owes it to his mother to return him alive. There is a true parrallel story for this one. The Niland brothers all died but one around the time of the Normandy invasions and the remaining one, also in the 101st airborne division, was ordered stateside. This film tells the story of the strains of war on the eight man team sent to find Private Ryan. The toll of combat stress, the impulse to keep from any emotional connection particularly with new members of a unit. The comradeship that develops despite this. The grim conditions, the enemy and his evil, the sacrifice and generousity of spirit against the odds. This film creates a remarkable cauldron of emotions. The theatre of this film is remarkable for its understatement. For example in the scene between Tom Hanks' character and Matt Damon's before the last sequence of the story, Ryan is unusually forthcoming and it's my opinion this is an exception to the interplay of the characters. The brutal conditions and circumstances make for a poignancy in the interplay of characters which is a reflection of the strength of character. It is a feat of this films straight talking and fairness that the magnitude of the achievements in Normandy 1944 by US forces is shown. In a campaign lasting one month as many died as did in the Vietnam conflict of a decade in length. Then the Marshall plan put Europe back on its feet economically. We, in Europe, have a lot to be thankful for and this movie is a timeful reminder. (For any one interested in the period the work of historian Stephen Ambrose, noteably Band of Brothers and Citizen Soldiers, cover the US Army campaign in Europe for 1944-45 from differing perspectives)
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Summary: "The Solemn Pride that Must Be Yours" or Why the Violence?
Review: Many of my fellow reviewers here have commented about the violence of "Saving Private Ryan" being gratuitous or unrealistic. Tragically, it is not. Having read of the Omaha landing and interviewed people people who were there this film cannot begin to describe the horror that our soliders faced. We see a mere 15 minutes of what lasted an entire day to say nothing of the weeks and months and years of horrors experienced on both ends of the earth by billions of men and women. Yet all this harsh and brutal violence is vindicated by the ideals which shamelessly but solemnly justify the enactment of unspeakable violence. Private Ryan is Spielberg saying that the cost of any precious freedom does merit war and its attendant death and maiming. However, not only do we need to be mindful that freedom is a price above anything material but that it is paid for in the agonizing death of the young, noble words, and stately tributes such as monuments like this film. As an American living 50+years after D-day I can see Spielberg's point. We are innundated by gratuitous violence that only serves to make us believe all violence is unnecessary and terrible. We see films and news reports everday to the point that we become inured. To make his point, Spielberg had to up the ante and show us what a real hell on earth war is otherwise we might dismiss Private Ryan and, perhaps more importantly, the conecpt that war-for-freedoms can be conducted for ideals that (should) mean more to us as a society then the comforts of home or even our own lives. If you don't get this, Spielberg is hitting you over the head with it in General Marshall's reading of Abraham Lincoln's letter to Mrs. Bixby. This is not the sanitized technowar of CNN or pentagon spokespeople. This is war forced upon us as payment for something ineffable and precious that a handful of men dreamed of back in 1776. Perhaps America is too jaded to wave a flag or visit the graves on Memorial Day (a US national holiday of remembrance). "Saving Private Ryan" is a call to Americans and those of other freedom-loving nations to remember and honor, in unmistakably stark and prideful righteousness, just what ghastly price liberty demands.
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Summary: Saving the World (and Private Ryan)
Review: After watching the film Saving Private Ryan under unusual circumstances (unusual for a filmgoer, but ideal for the makers of the film), I have read several reviews, critiques, and otherwise anecdotal notices of the film which have forced me to reconsider my own opinions and to question the humanity of the opinions of others. Granted, we are talking about a movie - albeit a particularly clever one - and not about history as we choose to remember it. But, in purely personal terms, as an active duty soldier in the United States Army, who watched Saving Private Ryan in a theater full of other soldiers in Korea, whose father fought in the European theater (not at Normandy, but at Bizerte, Anzio, etc.) during the last World War, I must admit to a degree of deracination when I read the comments of many others. For instance, many have voiced their displeasure at Spielberg's use of the contemporary framing device (the old man visiting the cemetery at Normandy). I have even read of a few viewers identifying with Upham - the cowardly translator, who chooses to fire on the enemy only once they're disarmed and asking for mercy (after he witnesses - and doesn't lift a finger to prevent - the slaughter of his comrades). My failure to quite grasp the lack of comprehension of this film - which is, first to last, an elegy for saviors of the world "as we know it" - stems from much more than my "biased" perspective as a serviceman. Bill Maher, in one of his fits of lucidity, commented bitterly on the WWII generation: "They saved the world. And today nobody gives a damn." History is unbearable only because we choose never to learn anything from it. And when some viewers fail to see the difference between this particular battle and virtually any other (such as one from the Boer war), it is obvious history has taught them nothing. Spielberg wasn't attempting to teach us anything we didn't already know. He was simply attempting to italicize one moment in history, in the middle of a gigantic slaughterhouse, so that the generation of men and women who probably came closer to saving the world than any generation before or since, could be recognized for their supreme sacrifice, as well as their supreme achievement. Watching the final scene, with the now aged Ryan asking his wife if he's a good man, if he's led a good life, I saw my father standing there, clearly and resolutely, saluting those that had fallen so that he would live to memorialize them. Spielberg's elegy is perfect in tone. And it moves me to see it again and again.
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