Rating: 
Summary: Extraordinary
Review: This movie has it all. Wonderful acting, detailed storyline, and breathtaking special effects. Tom Hanks and Tom Sizemore put in their usual top level performance and the remainder of the cast is rock solid as well. The mission given to Tom Hanks and his men is a bit unusual but adds to the sense of tragedy of the crusade in Europe. The true gem of this movie; however, is the special effects. The opening sequence on Omaha Beach sets the pace. I saw this originally in the theater and when the landing craft ramp drops and the German machine guns open up, I actually ducked. This level of realism continues throughout the movie culminating with a close combat battle between GI's and authentic German Armor. If, like me, you have been frustrated by movies that have consistently failed in either reality or authenticity, this movie won't let you down.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking Account Of The Terrors & Horrors Of War.
Review: It wasn't very long into my own military service that I learned that there is more to serving your country than the glamour and glory of wearing a uniform.This film exposes the realities & horrors of war for what they really are. The brutality, carnage, ferocity, fear and the sacrifice of selfless heroism is portrayed perhaps as never before in a motion picture. The almost 'real-life' scenes of suffering and terror coupled with hope are heart-rending. Many of the actual combatants of the D-day landings which this film is based around, verify the 'close to reality' nature of some of the scenes. I have watched some of the scenes time and again and my heart goes out to those who suffered and died during the conflict. This is a fitting epitaph to the memory of those who were there. A conflict and sacrifice that we must not be allowed to forget.
Rating:
Summary: Spectacular
Review: If you have not seen this movie. Watch it. One of the top 5 War movies ever made on anyone's list.
Rating:
Summary: You didn't like the blood ? Welcome to the club !
Review: I watched ALL this movies . So what ?! Real life - is more unpredictable ! This film showes more reality , than any other . You didn't like the blood ??? Welcome to the club ! I didn't like it too .But , what can you do ?! This film makes you feal , feal the same way , as I did in Afghanistan . It showes you reality of war . The sound , the whisper , the blood , the pain ... The sound of the bullet ... if you can hear it - it is not yours . The smell of reality , the different one . The one , which we lived thear . The dream of peace , the dream of HOME ...
I was very surprised by reading some of the other veterans reviews . If you guys for real - where did you find your point of view ???!
I had people saving my life ... I had people pushing me under the fire...
I know , I have people , who hates me ... And I hope , I have people , who loves me ... What can I say ? Let me think ....
THE BEST WAR MOVIE EVER !!!...
Rating:
Summary: hardcore war movie
Review: Upon first viewing Saving Private Ryan was a very pleasnt suprise, and more than lived up to its hype.
The action is nicely interspersed throughout the film, and its easy to forget Hanks normal cheesey roles.
The cast is great the action is amazing, the battle scene at the end must be second to none.
The cheesey scene at the end could have been cut but i suppose one must allow for a little sentimentality from Mr Speilberg.
Rating:
Summary: Tom is the Man
Review: I will one day write a book about why I hate Tom Hanks, the everyman of American Cinema. Today is not that day. When will he finally have a bad performance in a film? While I loved Hanks in this one, the marvelous supporting cast actually stole the show: the sharpshooter who prays before each shot; the wimpy writer; the tough, noble right-hand man sarg, and the baby-faced, foolish-tough, courageous Ryan himself. And that opening scene! I watched this one for the first time in a packed theater, and after that first scene ended, I heard sniffling and looked around me. White-haired men, veterans I guessed, were wiping their eyes with handkerchiefs. I can't say enough about this movie. A great movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Just Another Episode of Combat
Review: The opening sequences of this film are spectacular and alone are worth the price of admission. These scenes are some of the most powerful war scenes ever filmed. Afterwards, the movie devolves into nothing more than another episode of Combat (the TV series). The plot is supposedly based on an actual incident, but it is hardly believable as shown in this movie. Despite all their attention to detail, I found this part of the movie to be just too hokey and unbelievable. For example, these supposedly elite Rangers stroll through open unsecured areas, bunched up and loudly carrying on pointless conversation. Such tactics work only in Hollywood and are not what combat veteran Rangers would have done. Such antics continue through the rest of the movie as the Rangers and others soldiers perform one suicidal or stupid act after another. It's no wonder all but one of the stars don't make it. Overall, I believe Speilberg wasted the fantastic opening sequence. This had potential to be the ultimate movie on the US in WWII. In the end it was an unfulfilling and unsatisfying movie.
Rating:
Summary: VERY SOLID
Review: This is a very solid movie which deserves to be called classic. Outstanding.
Rating: 
Summary: The Most Realistic War Film?!
Review: As an ex-soldier I found this film particularly nauseating. Certainly, the opening sequence appears to be startlingly real. I, and the army buddies with whom I saw this film, were glad to be serving during a time when massive beach landings were no longer a lynchpin of intercontinental war. But the stark realism of the opening sequence (Did you see that guy get blown apart?) is merely pornographic when you consider the film's remainder, which is unforgivably false. There are a few tantalizing moments of real gravity in the first few scenes after the beachhead. The story of the plane crash hints ominously at the indulgence of higher-ranking officers. It is an incident almost on a par with the greatest war story of all time 'Catch-22', it's also disappointingly short, and doesn't even touch on how Tom Hanks and his squad may be involved in exactly the same sort of foolishness.
Instead of calling on the audience to recognize that the rescue operation is a cynical political ploy, Spielberg plays it straight-they're going to save that boy. But there is a significant moral problem with the assumption that Ryan's life is more valuable than the lives of any of Hanks' squad members. It's the sort of judgment that only a distant authoritarian can make, in which the only human elements that matter are the ones that have been colored in. The reasoning is probably of little comfort to the wives and mothers of the rest of the squad. Spielberg accomplishes a deft avoidance of this basic immorality through the use of a scapegoat-the translator.
An earlier review referred to misplaced 'sympathy in wartime'. That's outrageous, moral reasoning doesn't cease during combat, it becomes increasingly dire. Article 2 of the Geneva Convention of 1929 reads: [Prisoners] must at all times be humanely treated and protected, particularly against acts of violence, insults and public curiosity.
This doesn't leave very much room for interpretation. By the way, if you can't keep a prisoner, you take his weapons (you can't take helmets or body armor or first aid) and you LET HIM GO. When the translator entreats the squad to release the prisoner, he is making a difficult moral decision, but he is meant to shoulder the blame for all the tragic death. The rejoinder that the Geneva Convention comes from an authority that is illegitimate by its absence from the situation misses the fact that it is equally as binding as the order to retrieve Ryan, which is considerably more foolish.
The characters are ridiculous, the bumbling intellectual, the hard and practical New Yorker, the psalm-uttering sniper, etc. Tom Hanks plays wise-father to the enlisted men, who are almost children. He's even a schoolteacher! Any enlisted man who liked this film must truly be a child and should be given careful guidance by the wise and benevolent officer corps. Hah! Throughout most of the film we are encouraged to trust authority figures as wise and benevolent. Why?
When they finally locate Ryan, he doesn't even want to go! Who in this film is meant to be contemptible? The captain played by Tom Hanks, who lets his men be slaughtered for political reasons, and Private Ryan, who ignores the welfare of his mother and the men who have come to rescue him. Their decisions have far greater consequences than the release of the German soldier. By the way, our own Code of Conduct demands similar behavior from our soldiers. You can't get out of the fight because you promised the enemy that you would. Spielberg seems to be suggesting that the German soldier committed an immoral act as well. He doesn't understand warfare, he doesn't understand people, he doesn't understand the army and he doesn't understand morality.
In the end, when the elderly Ryan is crying next to the grave it comes off as simple thankful mourning. He should be wracked with guilt.
The most realistic war films of all time-All Quiet on The Western Front, Full Metal Jacket, The Thin Red Line. These are all films that show what it's really like to be a soldier and a person. Saving Private Ryan shows only what happens when the soldier/cipher gets blown apart by high caliber weapons. Oh, and the DVD shows that in even greater detail!
Rating:
Summary: Saving Private Ryan's movie
Review: Saving Private Ryan is one of the best movies ever made. The casting is flawless, with the exception perhaps of Matt Dammon.Or maybe it was just Private Ryan. I just couldn't justify sacrificing better men to save one private Ryan...Did anyone check to see if any of the men lost were "the only" or "last"? Dammon, however, did get the character down. This was Pepper's best movie. Hanks too, I think, although he has so many good movies under his belt. I adored Castaway. I give Saving P.R Five stars PLUS-PLUS-PLUS. Barbalin
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