Rating: 
Summary: Truly gives new meaning to the term "Experience"
Review: I did NOT want to see this movie; the infamous first twenty minutes, etc, and all the hyperbole swimming around...so I didn't. Then it was on television last week, and I thought I would see it on the small screen, not as much to deal with emotionally during "that scene." Oh, boy! I was THERE, on the beach, with the men, I got so involved it was unbelievable.
There isn't a loose moment, a bad second of film or one wrong word of dialogue. I cared deeply about every single guy, I felt everything they did, albeit from the comfort of my home, and I was totally transfixed all the way through and riveted at the end...I was worn out, exhausted from my emotions, and imbued with a new respect and awe at what these young guys went through. I admire Mr. Spielberg, and fail to understand (nor do I want to)the enmity which is flung his way from lesser beings, whose vision is limited by their own hubris and lack of ability or generosity of spirit to acknowledge his greatness in his field.
This man knows how to tell a story. He has skills beyond those of other directors and he is unparalleled at directing movies of this scope. He is creating templates of enormous quality for those who come after him, to follow and utilize and thereby learn and create their own visions, with a nod in his direction, and for his direction.
I have not been this moved from a movie in many years, and I thank Mr. Spielberg for his window into a world that was previously unavilable to me. Afterwards, I was speechless, literally, and called my friend the next day and tried, with little success to convey how deeply affected I was from this incredible film.
A cinematic masterpiece and one that will affect many more generations yet to come. My brother saw this at a matinee in his relatively small town in Colorado, and a group of teenage girls was playing hooky from school to see Matt Damon: After the opening scene, one of them approached my brother and weakly inquired: "Mister, is this real? Is this a true story?"
That is the legacy; to tell the stories of young men, not much older than these girls, who were THERE and went through this for our country.
Rating: 
Summary: Typical Schlockberg
Review: Why does every Steven Spielberg movie have to drag on longer than necessary?Is it because he throws in too many superfluous scenes and details;or,does his inherent pomposity and desire to win acclaim and Oscars dictate that all his movies go an hour longer than necessary?This is ultimately a shallow,though visually stunning movie.Why does Schlockberg have to have at least one "Oscar"scene in every damn movie he directs?At some point in a Schlockberg production the main character has to weep(Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan)or Liam Neeson at the end of Schindler's List;or the cute child has to be part of a "magical" moment(Drew Barrymore touching fingers with E.T. and E.T'S finger lights up);or in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (the cute little boy whispers bye bye to the aliens as they board their spaceship);or the little girl from Poltergeist who does and says one cutesy thing after another.Even in Schlockberg's finest hour,Schindler's List,there is the scene where the child walks around with the red flower-the only color in a black and white feature.And of course it just would not be a Schlockberg movie without the ubiquitous,god awful theme music that always accompanies a touching or exciting scene ,as if the audience is too dumb to notice the images on the screen.His movies are popular,but they are far from great cinema.His condescending movies can't speak for themselves-they simply aren't good enough.He takes the audience to be syrupy,silly,corny and sentimental,which may well be the case,but among anyone with any taste Schlockberg is merely a glamorized,overrated butt kisser of the tasteless masses.Let him have his fame.He is merely a Salieri, and time will prove it.If you want to see a great war movie watch Full Metal Jacket,Apocalypse Now or The Dirty Dozen.
Rating:
Summary: Why They Are Called "The Greatest Generation"
Review: My Uncle Theo Waltrip waded ashore on Omaha Beach on D Day Plus One. He was in the second wave, after the first wave had taken 50% casualties to secure the beach head. Understandably, the movie had a serious impact on my emotions. War is personal. The film opens with Private Ryan, now a civilian many years after the war, visiting the American cemetery in France where white marble crosses stretch interminably across expanses of well-tended lawns. Ryan stops in front of a cross and begins to weep. He tells his family that he hopes his life was good enough to repay those who died to save him. We then flashback to that fateful day in June 1944,with allied landing craft pulling up to Omaha Beach, dropping their doors, and seeing many of the men inside instantly turned into bloody corpses by a torrent of German machine gun fire. The first minutes of the film capture the truth of the Normandy landing on a day in June 1944: it was bloody, chaotic, horrifying, nearly diasterous for the men wading ashore, filled with the chatter of machine guns, exploding munitions and the shouts and screams of dying men. But some of the men did survive, making it to cover behind a sea wall until various men could fight their way up to the German pillboxes where they flushed the enemy out with flame throwers. The first few minutes of the film were horrific and ghastly, not to present violence for the sake of violence, but to give a true account of what "the Greatest Generation" survived to keep us all free. It was realistic to a fault, including the pink colored surf, filled with blood of the fallen. The story after the beach landing continues in this realistic vein, showing American GIs fighting German soldiers amongst the rubble of quaint French villages. The death scenes are sudden and violent and horrible. This film is not for the squeamish. "Saving Private Ryan" left me with a feeling of deep gratitude to my Uncle Theo and the millons of other soldiers, sailors, pilots and marines who fought the battles of World War II. There is a monument in that cemetery of white marble crosses in Normandy, France. It says, "They gave up all of their tomorrows for all of our todays." Somehow, a simple "thank you" seems terribly inadequate.
Rating: 
Summary: Very chilling and horribly true movie.
Review: Brilliant movie. This movie shows, to those who were blessed enough to not have to serve in war, the brutal and gaustly image of World War II. Tom Hank was everything that a military man should be. Private Ryan was the patriot that we expect every American soldier to be.
There is a very good moral lesson taught in this movie. Somewhere along the course of our lives, someone made a sacrifice so that you could be where you are now. Earn it. Earn that sacrifice that they made, and don't let it have been made in vain. I think this is a lesson we could all learn from.
Rating:
Summary: grand scale war drama with nothing to say except hail Ameria
Review: I must admit, Steven Spielberg is not my cup of tea. I find his films to be shallow, mainstream, and too much about America. I have a problem with the way he tells his films. Spielberg always has to exploit the emotional moments of a film and push it so far that it ends up being embarrassing and laughable (Like the end of SCHINDLER'S LIST or when Private Ryan salutes the tombstone at the end of this film). I also dislike the "Spielbergian close-ups". Why does he always have to shove the camera up the actor's face? For the most part, SCHINDLER'S LIST is the one exception. Its documentary approach to telling its story helped Spielberg to stay clear of his usual blunders (At least until the end of the film, when Spielberg could no longer control himself). SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is just one long testament to America as a nation. The film opens with the American flag. It depicts the story of a small group of American soldiers defeating the more numerous Germans. The latter is depicted as a faceless crowd, except for the one German soldier who is completely humiliated in a scene with the American soldiers, and ends up begging for his life. Spielberg is passing judgement on history, and that is a very dangerous thing to do. Has he ever asked himself what he would have done if he were an eighteen year-old German lad when the war broke out? Would he have belonged to the minority who opposed the Nazi rule? Most likely not. Most people wouldn't. We also have the scene with the French family begging the Americans for help. Europeans are also humiliated in this film. The invasion-scene is impressive. I'll admit that. But this is only 30 minutes out of a film that runs for almost three hours. And people who hail the film can't seem to find anything to talk about except for those thirty minutes. After the invasion-scene the film falls flat on its belly, because there is nothing of interest in it. There is nothing in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN we didn't already know. People have hailed the realism of the film, and sure, the violence of the film seems to be very realistic. But I for one didn't need to see a film like this to understand that war is bloody. Perhaps that's necessary for people who watch too much CNN? America has a tendency to forget that the bombs they drop actually kill people. SAVING PRIVATE RYAN provokes me. It provokes me because it has turned World War 2 into a clash between America and Germany. It's reductionism at its worst. It's what renowned peace researcher Johan Galtung would call war journalism; the tendency of western media to reduce any conflict into an image of only two parties opposing each other. I don't mean to undermine the role that America played in achieving allied victory. But Spielberg certainly intends to undermine the role Europe played in achieving allied victory. I think it's important for a war film to show us the individuals it depicts. SAVING PRIVATE RYAN never managed to do that. It's not enough having Tom Hanks shake is hand a little to show us that he's falling a part. APOCALYPSE NOW was a momentous war film. It depicted the breaking down of the individual and the madness of the mind (Something THE THIN RED LINE also attempted at, but never fully managed). BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI is another example of a great war film. It focuses on the paradox of man during war. PLATOON and BORN ON THE 4th OF JULY are two of Oliver Stone's (Or should it be Oliver Stoned?) best films. DAS BOOT is perhaps the greatest war film ever made. Wolfgang Petersen threw the ideologies that roamed the surface overboard (Without, as a German, denying history), and focused on the crew and what they were fighting for; Survival. Thus DAS BOOT became a film about individuals rather than nations. SAVING PRIVATE RYAN ends up being too much about America (The only nation to ever be charged and convicted with terrorism by an international court of Law), to be a film about individuals.
Rating:
Summary: WIDESCREEN RATIO
Review: I greatly admired this movie
However, the widescreen version does not use the widescreen ratio used in theatres and is thereby somewhat lacking. This is true of the DVD too. I am subtracting a star for this.
Rating:
Summary: War in it's true self
Review: Having myself been in the war, I have found this the only TURE war movie. I have cried in the end, remembering all my friends slaughtered by Serbians the same way Tom Hanks' buddies got killed by Germans. One and only great film that came from Spielberg. DVD edition is great, much better than cinema or VHS.
Rating:
Summary: Well Done
Review: Spielberg dazzles the American crowd one again through what became an emotional rollercoaster towars the end. Great drama, with surreal war-photography.
Rating:
Summary: AWESOME!!!!
Review: This is probably the best war movie EVER!!!!!!!! Great special effects and acting, excellent movie. Rent it or buy it Now!
Rating: 
Summary: Viewing History Backwards?
Review: This movie is not based on any documented historical event; it is a recreation of June 1944. When it was first shown in 1998, a newspaper story said the army would have used a chaplain, not eight men. The movie starts with a landing craft under fire in Normandy. It takes fire, no one seems to shoot back. Didn't these boats have a "pulpit" with a machine gun? The simulated slaughter is gory and gruesome. "The 'glory of war' is moonshine" said Sherman. Isn't Iowa mostly flat land? Would they have a house on top of that hill? Wouldn't some of the sons have a deferment as an agricultural worker? Raising food is important in war or peace. I don't believe that War Department scene where they picked out the Ryan deaths; weren't telegrams used instead of letters? After capturing the radar site one surviving German soldier is blindfolded and sent away unescorted; shouldn't he have been secured and turned over to G-2? Would an officer have stood aside while his men argued over the prisoner's fate? There is one scene where a wall collapses (symbolism?) and both sides hold their fire, until some Rangers act. Is this realistic? There is another scene in the village where their translator hangs back and cringes while another soldier is knifed to death in hand-to-hand combat. I didn't understand this message. Later the translator captures five enemy soldiers; one says something in German, and is shot dead. There was no subtitle, so what message did I miss? When the battle for the bridge is almost lost, tank-busting P-51s appear, like a deus ex machina, to win the battle. A happy ending means commercial success. Its been many years since I last saw "To Hell And Back". but I think it was a better story.
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