Rating: 
Summary: Simply one of the best you will own
Review: I rate this movie as one of my all time favorites just below the first two GODFATHER films. The film itself sends a message that sometimes war is necessary, no matter how horrible. The film shows the sacrifice made by Young Americans who fought for the freedom of "strangers" half a world away. The acting is top notch, with "Oscar Worthy" performance by almost the entire cast and with particularity another Great performance by Tom Hanks. The DVD itself is the best you will own for both sound and picture. I own both the Dolby Digital and DTS editions, you can't go wrong with either but there is a difference. If you own a surround set up with DTS Decoding, then buy the DTS version. While the Dolby Digital is better than any other DVD I own, the DTS still blows it away. The Dolby Digital has a muted sound to it and the sounds sometimes tend to bounce around between the surrounds and right/left fronts. The DTS version, however, creates a total 360 surround expierience. The bass is where the DTS version really pays off, at the end of Chapter 9, when bombs are exploding as the soldiers leave the church, you can feel the boms explode it in your seat; while the Dolby Digital version sounds muted. Once again, the DTS version shines, as the Panzer tanks enter the town at the end of Chapter 15 and the beginning of Chapter 16. In the Dolby Digital version, the tanks sound almost far off in the distance, while in the DTS version the tanks seem closer and you can almost FEEL the soldier's fear as they approach. In conclusion if you have the right set up, get the DTS version the audio gets 5 out of 5 stars. The audio of the Dolby Digital gets 4.8 out of 5 stars. You really can't go wron with either edition.
Rating:
Summary: There's Nothing Like The Theater Experience
Review: It doesn't seem like it's been over a year and a half since Aug 4 1998. My wife said "Since the kids are away, why don't we go and see Saving Private Ryan?" I had serious trepidation about that. Even an ardent war film lover such a I wasn't sure I could endure the big screen version of what I had only read about briefly in the reviews. But I said "sure."The theater was packed and we had taken out seats in the middle row. With popcorn and soda firmly in hand, I was set to enjoy a nice evening at the movies. I hadn't been to the theater in many years and it felt good just being there with its ambiance. But into the first 25 minutes of SPR, everything changed. My everyday world shattered. My visceral senses had been pulverized. My popcorn and soda became non-entities. And by the time the film concluded I had been changed forever. No need to tell you why. Chances are, if you're reading this you already know why. As long as I live, I shall not forget that evening in any way. Since then I own a big screen TV and stereo system as well as the DVD version of SPR. I have seen the film many times, but I tell you, there is nothing to compare with experiencing SPR in the thearer. The sheer power of the audio, combined with the stunning visual elements in the theater environment is incomparable. Furthermore, I look forward to the day when the film may be re-released in some good, independent theater. I will be one of of the first in line. I think that if you love Saving Private Ryan and missed the theater experience, you have missed the soul of this film. I want to experience that once more just because I'm a glutton for punishment. Rest assured I won't be alone. And this time I will be there without the popcorn and soda!
Rating:
Summary: The King War Movie of all time.
Review: This movie is indeed the BOMB. Never has a movie captured so much realness. I seen about two or three minutes at work, of the beginning of the fighting when the U.S Soldiers was approaching the beach, it looked like it was really going down just like that. it convinced me enough to run out and get it right away. Tom Hanks what can I say about the man, Nothing because his actions is much louder then my words. I have spend sometime in the U.S Army my self, it was peace time(Thank God) But this movie made me sad, then happy to know that all the soldiers of the United States Of America Fraught, Lived and Died so we might be FREE... Thank you Steven Spielbreg.
Rating:
Summary: Best War Movie Ever
Review: This film captivated me and millions of others. A great story, dialogue, action, and accuracy make this one of the best movies ever.
Rating:
Summary: THE REAL MEANING OF WAR!
Review: This movie is a very historical movie as you may know. It tells you what it was really like on the beach. It is very grafic. Steven spielberg not only just shows you that it is MAJOR war happening and two people shooting each other, he shows you what it was really like in the second world war. If you are a big war movie fan or Steven spielberg fan than this is the film I recomend you to check out!
Rating: 
Summary: The print and sound are excellent, the plot and story stink.
Review: Yeah, you heard me. I said it. It's a horrible movie. The level of 'hooray for the good-guy' sentimentality and Camus and Sartre philosophy is sickening. Real people did not spend their free moments between death and mayhem philosophising about the existential meaning of existence, that would have made death pleasurable by comparison. Also, the contrived plot devices (the shaky hands of Tom Hanks, among other things) nearly drive this movie into the ground. It's as if Spielberg said "Hey, let's do something to make the audience relate to the character again, I think we're losing them. I know! Let's do the shaky hands thing again!" Granted, visually, it's disturbing, the first 20 minutes are enough to make you ill (if you can get past the cheap bait-the-viewer trick Spielberg does, also totally unnecessary), but the acting and dialogue are worthy of the 40's serial war films (You know: "I'll do it for Ace, and Little joe and stinky!") Spielberg historically oversentimentalizes and cheapens incredible films in order to try and force meaning on them and 'gasp', yes, even make them more marketable to the masses who don't quite get Kubrick films. If only he'd do art for art's sake, he could be Fellini or Bergman. You want to see a movie that truly captures the cold, surreal, impersonal aspects of war without forcing a mantra a reason for it, see 'Full Metal Jacket' and think about how that film, with it's sparsness of violence in comparison, pulls of a much better effect. The real horror of war is not that you kill hundreds of faceless Germans, but that you kill one person, and their face never leaves your mind. Ideologies can't ever compare to blood on the hands, and Spielberg lets that slide.
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Summary: Ryan
Review: Very good movie . Tom hanks was really good . No wonder why it got the Oscar .
Rating:
Summary: Ryan
Review: I enjoyed this movie . Very bloody though but yes it was a movie about World War 2 . Tom Hanks was excepional . It did seem like I was actually there .
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Summary: Saving private ryan
Review: Saving private ryan has to be the most acurate and realistic war movie ever made. The first twenty minutes shock the audiance and show in depth the horrors of the American landing on Omaha beach on june the 6th 1944. Speilberg is the first director to give audiances a glimpse of the brutal realitys of war without making the film a gratuatist shoot em up action. The film set around the d-day landings is about a squad of men sent behind enemy lines to find a private James Ryan (Matt Damon)who has lost all 3 of his brothers who have been killed in combat. But during the search the squad struggle to find decency during the confusion of war, they come accross such hard decisions to make as whether to kill a POW,whether to take out a german emplacement,and whether to take Ryan home or whther to help him defend a bridge.A tremendous performance from Tom Hanks who stars as Captain John Miller the leader of the squad and his men ,Sergeant Horvath (Tom Sizemore),Private Reiben (Edward Burns)Private Jackson (Barry Pepper) and a few more. Spedded up footage, juddering images,faded colour so the film looks old and hand held camera use all contribute to making the film nervous to look at. All together the film is a cinimatic masterpiece and will make you feel nervous,sad and shocked.Saving private ryan is a landmark mark in film industry everyone over 17 should watch and be stunned by this mindblowing film.
Rating:
Summary: A few responses to the nitpcikers...
Review: A few have criticized the movie for showing only the Americans fighting the Germans, but lets keep in mind that this film follows an American fighting unit. The scope of the story being told is too limited to show everyone nationality that fought the Germans. Remember that this is just one story of WW2, not an epic depiction of the war. Also, I enjoyed this movie much more than the Thin Red Line, which felt like a Vietnam movie set in the WW2 era. I mean, was EVERY soldier in the Pacific theater as sullen and cynical as the characters in TRL? Most wars this century have been pointless and stupid, but this was was different. As a nation we fought not to gain territory and expand our empire, but to save the world from the darkness of dictatorship. We may have had our faults (Japanese internment camps for one), but Hitler's regime was evil of a scale that I doubt we will ever see again. I know it sounds jingoistic, but there is no other way to describe the German government of the time. I see Vietnam and Korea as stupid, bloody wastes of American lives, and the moral issues of the Gulf war trouble me, but I am proud of what our nation did in World War II and proud of the verterans who fought in it and gave their lives for a better (though still imperfect) world.
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