Rating: 
Summary: Can bring a grown man to tears too
Review: Very well done war movie, with a powerful message about making one's life count for something. The script, the acting and the cinematography are all extremely good and make for a very entertaining and enjoyable movie. It also is a good thinking movie with lots of situations that can be catalysts for discussion and reflection.
Is one man ever worth risking the lives of many?
Should a captured enemy simply be killed when the chance exists he may be a future threat?
To what extant does a man follow orders? Are there gray areas?
Do men fight in war for a cause, a country or simply for their compatriot?This movie is a great action flick and so much more. It is hard to watch the ending without tearing up just a bit. The only word of caution; it is graphic.
Highly recommended and worth watching over.
Rating: 
Summary: A Sort of Good / Sort of Bad Film on War
Review: OK, this movie pretty much sucked as a war film, so I'm gonna just get right to the point. Initial sentimental modern era scene of brassy music and old man crying around tombstones----BAD!!! Faded color effect---BAD!!! Use of Shaky Cam throughout the whole entire film---BAD!!! Initial combat scene with landing craft going at about 80 mph (when actually they were pretty slow)---BAD First Tom Hank's scene with him nervously holding a cigarette inside the assault boat---GOOD! Tom Hank pre-assault speech---GOOD! Everybody getting slaughtered by a German machinegun that is like right freaking obviously smack close in front and the landing craft---BAD!!! Really long landing boat machinegunning scene where it keeps going until the camera lense itself is splashed with blood---GOOD! Scene of American troops drowning underwater AND being machinegunned at the same time---BAD!!! Soldiers being torn to pieces on the beach by artillery---GOOD! Tom Hanks reaction to the slaughter of his platoon (throwing up his hands in mock despair) (looked like a scene from one of his comedies)---BAD!!! How the platoon fights its way out of the beach---GOOD!!! The fact that all they fight throughout the entire movie are SS troops (there were a lot more plain German than SS troops in Normandy...and the SS were not even holding the beaches!)---BAD!!! Fact that all German SS troops have shaved heads (German troops never shaved their heads)---BAD!!! Entire premise of the movie (an American Mom lost one son, and only has one other left fighting, so he has to return)(actually, it was standard practice not to draft the only remaining son into service...unless he volunteered...ok so Damon volunteered...this means he can just stay where he is!)---BAD!!! Premise of sending an entire unit to (sob) look for the only remaining son of a good 'ol American mom (I've been in the military and I know they are just not going to worry about it)---BAD!!! Scenes showing the concern of the American brass over the fate of this poor woman's only remaining son (this was just about the phoniest part of the entire movie!)---BAD!!! Scene where 1) wall collapses revealing the American and SS squads were actually standing right next to each other (I think I've seen this happen in the Three Stooges) and 2) both squads begin to yell at each other while pointing guns at each other's heads (oh, I get it, reservoir combat dogs!)---BAD BAD BAD FUNNY BAD!!! Overly long scence with soldier, family and girl in the rain---BAD BAD LONG BAD!!! Tom Hankss ordering an assault on that German radar when he didn't have to, the reaction of his men, him and his histerical sergeant(in real life, the sarge would have been the first to tell him he was full of doo doo,and his men would have just shirked ; their mission was something else)---BAD BAD SAD BAD Ok, from here on the movie is just BAD!!! So I will save you the boredom of reading further by mentioning the good parts only. Part where American soldier blows himself up with explosives while going after a German tank---GOOD!!! That's about it!!! OK, and I mention again the "shaky cam," which gave me the experience of trying to watch a film being shown on a rollercoaster! The worse part is later films like Gladiator and Pearl Harbor adopted this same horrid technique of filming!!! Hollywood, get a grip!!! This is generally just a pretentious film about men getting slaughtered written (and directed) by people who do not give a care about either soldiers or Americans, or values, realism, or much of anything. My guess is Spielberg was just ticked off at that dude that said he intended to break into his house and rape him , so he went out and made this film with like tons of men getting slaughtered.
Rating:
Summary: Downright stupid
Review: This movie, like many American productions (with the notable exception of "Full Metal Jacket" and some parts of "Platoon"), is a farce. First of all, many scenes of combat are totally unrealistic. I could produce a long list of inconsistencies, but I shall content myself with mentioning the obvious ones. The first 20 minutes are very well shot with hand-held cameras and represent the best part of the movie, but even then the shifting fortunes of the fight are conveyed showing only American losses at the beginning, then -- after the destruction of the main bunker -- only German ones. There usually was no hand-to-hand combat in the trenches. In one of the most ludicrous scenes, a wall crumbles and two groups of soldiers - one American and one German - caught in the act of planning strategy in adjacent rooms, look at each other and challenge the enemy to surrender for long seconds before somebody starts firing. This is science fiction, point. The final battle in the town brings in the worst of the movie. No competent German commander would move two Tiger tanks straight in the town (where every window could hide a sniper armed with AT weapons), in violation of basic WWII tactics. After entering the town, the German squads usually advance in a single row, at minimal distance from each other and without providing suppression fire, allowing the Americans to mow them down. Spielberg even provides the viewer with a furious hand-to-hand fight with drawn blades between an American and a German soldier, rolling on the floor in a death embrace - he could supply them with swords, shields and maybe a few spells to cast at each other, and his effort of imagination would be complete. The ways the Tiger tanks are destroyed are also unrealistic. If that were all, the movie would only be childish and unrealistic. But, typically, Spielberg has the vulgarity to convey a moral message (rather than encouraging the viewer to formulate his own answers). He purports to convey two kinds of
myths: a pacifist and an anti-nationalsocialist one. That he does in a most insipid way, reviving the standardized stereotype of the "plebeian hero", or, to express the same concept in different words, the "citizen soldier" celebrated by another popular historian and upholder of the religion of human rights & mass democracy, Stephen E. Ambrose. The standard American tactic in France consisted in withdrawing their troops at the slightest sign of serious resistance, levelling the area with fighter-bombers and artillery, and then advancing on the rubbles. That would be a realistic portrayal of war on the Western Front, but, of course, it would hardly be a celebration of the virtues of the American crusaders, come "over there" to liberate their brethen from the chains of racism and
oppression. That's why the citizen soldiers - all ordinary people with no military traditions or special penchant for patriotism - suddenly discover extraordinary qualities of courage and willpower within their hearts, choosing to sacrifice their young lives in behalf of the Cause, and offering a (once more, totally unrealistic - in the real world fifty elite SS troopers armed with heavy equipment and supported by Tiger tanks would effortlessy wipe away Ryan's small detachment) long and hardened resistance, till the forces of Good - in the Happy End of standard Hollywood tradition - come and rescue the lone survivor. I would like to compare this movie with Nazi or Communist (or -- Taleban!) propaganda - it's stupid, it's popular, it works in impressing moral feelings on the herd's minds. And has lots of expensive special effects and is commercially successful -- a typically American movie in true Spielberg fashion.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite movie ever
Review: This is my favorite movie ever, for a good reason. It is like real war. I can't say this from experience, because I haven't been in a war, but my grandfather has and some other grownups I know have, and they say this is EXACTLY what it is like. Other war movies are all glamorous, and usually predictable. Two sides fight each other, some people on the main character's side die. The main character says "Ok, NOW I'm mad..." (or something like it) and is suddenly amazingly skilled and kills everyone. That's not what this movie is like at all, and it's obvious from the beginning. When they are storming the beach, the front of a boat opens up, and immediately every single person (like 12 people) get shot. No one has time to hide, they just die. This is constantly repeated throughout the movie, about how everyone is equally touchable. There is no glamour. They have to crawl through the mud, taking loaded weapons off of dead colleagues to save ammo. Even if you took out all the war, this would be a good movie (although not amazing). The story is set in World War II. One mother has four sons, three of which are killed in a battle. Tom Hanks' character, in command of other soldiers, are sent to find the mother's fourth son so the army won't have to tell the mother that all four of her children were killed at once. The simple moral questions of this movie are intriguing enough; is it right to send 8 men to save one, no matter how sad his mother will be? This story is carried out amazingly, making you feel sad, angry, and even making you laugh (you'll know it when you see it.) Combine this amazing story with the fantastic war scenes, and you have the best war movie ever (according to the majority of critics... Stanley Kubrick may disagree, but I dont). One other thing. I hate war movies. I have seen a few (Full Metal Jacket comes to mind, as well as some others), and they bored me. So when a war movie can be my favorite, considering I hate most of the other ones, it says something.
Rating: 
Summary: an important contribution to the american war genre
Review: Who will ever forget seeing SPR? I saw it in the theater when it came out, and I have yet to see it again. I will never forget how we got a glimpse of young teenage boys crying in pain, completely traumatized by the hellish fury of war. But I must say, deciding to write this review made me realize that my feelings towards this film are more mixed than I realized before. The beginning and ending of this film are unforgettable; but what about that long, stagnant middle section? There is so much in between that seems rather forgetable. Also, this movie would have been truly monumental if the story was as gripping as the fighting is. It simply lacks any kind of philisophical or moral inquiry; I walked away speechless, but I also at moments thought, "ok, so what was all of that actually about?" But don't get me wrong; you will understand all the hype once you see the beginning of the storming of Omaha Beach, an indisputable tour de force of cinematic art. But even that, taken by itself, should not earn a film a full five stars.
Rating:
Summary: A Simple Reiteration.........
Review: As one watches this movie, one should weigh the differences between what is considered criminal (murder) and what is considered patriotic (fatalities). Upon hearing an NPR newsman interview several Americans about whether or not we should go to war after the terrorist attacks in New York, their war-monging responses reminded me of Saving Private Ryan. People seem to have no compunction about being shipped off or shipping others off to do what we see in this movie; senseless, brutal, mindless, disgusting acts of murder. Again I laud Mr. Spielberg for his incomparable effort and laugh at everyone else who seem to think this movie is "poignant"???? Buy "Saving Private Ryan" and try to make an effort towards understanding why anyone would want this type of history to repeat itself. People are forgetting that the main reason movies like these are made is so that we can be reminded of our violent past and maybe, just maybe, we won't repeat that past ever again.
Rating:
Summary: Best war movie I have ever seen
Review: The is the best war movie I have ever seen. The production, cast, location ae absolutly marvelous. The scenes are so naturally produced that they seem real. I love this movie, and believe me you will love it too.
Rating:
Summary: MISSION: SPR
Review: Captain John Miller is ordered to take his squad behind enemy lines on a dangerous mission to find and retrieve one man, the youngest of the four brothers who have all been killed in action within days of one another, and hw is the last survivor among them. MISSION: SAVING PRIVATE RYAN World War II was a pivotal event of the 20th century and a defining moment for America and the world. It shifted the borders of the globe. It forever changed those who lived through it, and shaped generations to come. It has been called "the last great war", hopefully it will be. The jaw-dropping velocity of this shattering piece of filmmaking lodges hard in the mind. One leaves the cinema with a drained, feeble gait as the mind attemps, if not to free the mind of the terror it has just encountered, but just to accept it. As a generation, we have become sadly distanced from these realities which ravaged another generation so brutally. This film is most certainly a wake-up call for all those who mock the old, believing all that their war stories amounted to was a tedious "during the war" monologue on obsolete battle techniques. The first forty minutes of horror, when the camera weaves in and out of the most brutal and gritty a massacre i have ever seen, one does not spectate but partake. Even the camera seems to be flinching as it takes us on a jittery paranoid sweep of the heartbreaking carnage that unfurls before us, as if itself fears the bullet. This documentary style spares the film from Hollywood glamorization and the distinct lack of infuriating wisecracks was fantastically refreshing. This certain breed of heroism is therefore lent an unprecedented credibility-putting pay to the ridiculous Hollywood notion, that while being surrounded by carnage and dodging bullets, you actually care to make inane banter - men are reduced to screaming fetal messes crying for their mothers, that is real terror, the type that makes you want to return to the womb, the stuff of nightmares. It is in this uncompromising harshness that the core of humanity is found. Spielberg grabs history and rips it open to leave the exposed bleeding heart of man. It is on this note that one leaves the stalls, with a grating sense of mortality. Spielberg wished this film to resensitize us to violence, and that it most definitely does, it makes violence actually violent. In comprehending this, we begin again to appreciate our own mortality, to take a look around and re-evaluate our life. Being assaulted by death, life seems all the more alive. It is on Capt. Miller's dying words that we feel weak walking into the air, for after all they sacrificed, look at all the world must earn. As the saying goes, "history repeats itself", we just all hope and pray, a war as gruesome as this will never happen amidst our time, especially now that the problem on terrorism has been worsening and worsening day by day. We all wish to spend a truly peaceful, Merry Christmas and a new year.
Rating:
Summary: good movie . . . but not the best
Review: when i first saw "Saving Private Ryan", i liked it, but then it's not the greatest war film ever made. i give that honor ot Oliver Stone's brilliant "Platoon".
this film tells the story of a squad of closely-knit soldiers sent on a mission to rescue Private James Ryan. Ryan's three brothers are killed on D-Day and the Army wants the sole-remaining Ryan to be returned home.
but of course the squad runs into problems. two men are shot, and the captain, John Miller (Tom Hanks) has nervous breakdowns.
so, if you're looking for a good war movie, rent and watch Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan". but if you want to see the BEST, see "Platoon"
Rating:
Summary: A Modern Day War Epic
Review: I admit that the plot of Saving Private Ryan seemed shaky at first, a soldier who lost three brothers has a squad size element led by a Captain come find him to take him home, but there is a great opening scene with the Rangers landing at Normandy and many great fights. In between you get to know the characters and see what goes on through the minds of men at war. The movie does a great job of portraying Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) as a leader who wants to be disconnected from his men, so that his personal life and feelings are not known to them and so that his decisions are not questioned when he sends a soldier off to die. The movie starts and ends with terrific war scenes and gives a true depiction of the loyalty and steadfastness of a leader to his mission. Many stars play a role in this film to include Matt Damon, Ben Afleck, Vin Diesel and Barry Pepper. As a West Point Cadet, I can tell you that this movie is well liked from the Generals to Plebes and is considered an essential movie for the members of the Corps. During Cadet Basic Training we were shown clips of this film to boost moral and to give a sense of duty. I recomend you see it!
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