Saving Private Ryan

Rating:
Summary: I took me back
Review: I originally saw this movie in the theatre, and received a suprise the moment the landing craft were heading towards the beach. The fear on the faces of the men instantly transported me back to a cramped Blackhawk flying into an LZ in Panama. Once again, I felt the same terror of facing the "elephant" the men in the movie portrayed. To those who know what I am talking about, I experienced the "pucker factor". I made the mistake of taking a girlfriend with me and almost broke her hand because I was so caught up in the realism of the movie. The sounds of rounds hitting their target was all too real. The only thing that was missing was the acrid/sweet smell of death.

This is not just a great war movie, but it is an outstanding anti-war movie. Seeing a young US soldier die, whether on Omaha Beach, Pork Chop Hill, Hue, Panama City, Kuwait or many of the other countless battlefields, is a site I pray no one's son will ever again have to experience war in their lives.

Hollywood did a disservice not only to Steven Spielberg, but the generation of American's who sacrificed their comfort to save the world. I only hope that future directors will try to bring the harsh realities of war to the screen, and not the false glory.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best ww2 movies to date.
Review: I'm a pretty big fan of war movies.From Platoon, to full metal jacket, to those old Audie Murphie flicks, ive soon most all of them.Now no war drama can really pale what the people storming omaha beach felt on that day, but saving private ryan sure can try.(Sidenote, it's not wise to eat popcorn while you watch this, i tried it, doesnt work)The sound in this movie is the best ive heard.The bullets whizzing past soldiers heads, a lot of the time going straight through their flesh.Makes you feel sorry for them.After the first 3o minutes, the premise of the movie is 12 men are picked to find a james francis ryan.He as some brothers, and all of them have been killed at one time or another during the war, So as a good will the army is sending him back home, if they can find him.All of the actors fit their roles perfectly, and Tom Hanks is simplu put, amazing.The script keeps you listening to every single word uttered.This is a very good ww2 movie, so if you like war stuff even slightly, youll get a lot from this.Check it out.(ive watched it like a hundred times, it doesnt get old, worth buying)

Rating:
Summary: Movie Great...DVD Flawed
Review: I have absolutely no complaints about this awesome film. My complaints are with the DVD pressing itself. I have had 3 copies, all with the same glitch at the 22-26 minute mark. There is a white hazy glare which distorts the picture (flames have lines in them) in this section at the bunker atop Normandy beach. There is also the same white glare distortion at the end of the film where Oppen (Jeremy Davies) arrests the Germans. I pretty much expected a flawless print as all the DVDs I have purchased have been so. I'm wondering how many viewers have noticed these flaws.

Rating:
Summary: A great movie, and here's why:
Review: I think this was an overall great war movie. It is up there with "The Longest day" and "Patton." The way the beginning is shown (sort of jumpy, from the eyes of a soldier) is great. It really makes you feel like you were there. The sound effects, sets, etc. were all really really good as well.

The story/plot was good, and interesting. There wasn't a part of the movie where I was bored; even the parts of the movie where nothing was really happening had me sitting on the edge of my seat.

The characters are all believable, and the acting is very good. The cast was well chosen.

But I don't know whether or not it is completely accurate. Obviously there are no major flaws, but if it was COMPLETELY accurate is hard to say (I'm not an expert).

If you haven't seen this movie, you better soon!

Rating:
Summary: TERRIFIC MOVIE IN EVERY WAY.
Review: This movie sent a chill up my spine in the opening scene. It makes you feel like your right there with the soldiers who gave their lives for our country. Spielbergs greatest acheivment so far, he is a truly talented man with limitless ideas and vision. I remember watching this movie in the teather and hearing sobs and tears as people walked out. This is truely a powerful film that you will never forget.

Rating:
Summary: Not perfect but a great film
Review: The Vietnam experience changed war films forever. Not so much the war or its outcome but the fact that we had all seen war live on TV news broadcasts. No more would film makers depict war as an opportunity for John Wayne types to be heroes in an environment where blood was never seen and death was quick, non graphic and usually off camera.

With Saving Private Ryan, director Spielberg sets out to take the depiction of the horrors of war to new heights. The opening section showing the first bloody minutes of the Normandy landings in 1945 must be the most blood drippingly violent sequence in mainstream cinema. It is also, by repute, the most accurate depiction of the landings ever on the screen.

The explicit violence and special effects are wrapped around a plot that would have done John Wayne proud in the pre Vietnam era. Three brothers, serving in different parts of the world are coincidentally killed at the same time. The fourth brother, Private James Ryan (Matt Damon) is lost somewhere behind enemy lines in France in the immediate aftermath of the Normandy landings. Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) is sent, with a small group of men to find Ryan and bring him out of France so that he may be sent home.

Don't expect the plot to bring you any surprises or any real suspense. Don't expect to be moved by memorable acting. It's not that kind of film. The cast are competent and the script is slick but the film really stands on its special effects, action and pace. These are all spot on, it was these aspects of the film that won Oscars and they combine to produce a film that is well worth watching.

It's not for the squeamish and its concentration on effects and action mean that the character building necessary to carry any real message just does not happen. However, those factors do not detract from the film's ability to keep an audience's attention for three hours and you will carry the images of the film with you for a long time afterwards.

Rating:
Summary: A lesson in respect and gratitude
Review: I can view this movie from the perspective of a teenager, and say I was greatly effected by it. Before seeing Saving Private Ryan, I had a hard time achieving any kind of perspective on the horrors of war, as I'm sure a lot of kids my age have. But I've learned a whole new level of respect for our nation's, and other's veterans who've fought and who've died in combat, from the most unlikely of places: this movie. Some things you just can't communicate in books, but the people who made this film not only made a fantastic, gut-wrenchingly graphic human drama, but something that I think can and will be used by future generations as a tool to look back at our nation's bleak, bloody history. I've seen other anti-war pictures (All Quiet On The Western Front being the most powerful until now), but it was Steven Spielberg's anti-war masterpiece that painted the entire picture for me. If you can handle it, do yourself a favor and watch this movie, as hard as it may be. Then make a donation toward the World War II War Memorial. If this movie doesn't make a burning lump in your throat, then you must not have a human cell in your body.

Rating:
Summary: The Most Amazing Film Ever Made
Review: There are few that know me that are not aware of how much I love this film. I find myself quoting from it quite frequently, and thinking about it nearly everyday. It is by far the best World War II movie ever made...hold on, let me rephrase that: It's by far the best movie ever made!

As stated before, it takes place during World War II, focusing on eight soldiers, let my Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks.) The first scene is nearly 25 minutes long, and is a very gory representation of the invasion at Omaha Beach. It is very realistic, sometimes too good for a movie. However, Spielberg did not fail to hold back on the details of war, thus getting lovely responses from veterans who were angry with films that were made to glorify the war. As the story moves forward, the eight are sent on a mission to find Private James Ryan who is one of four brothers. However, the other three were killed, and he needs to be sent home before every son in the Ryan family is killed. To add to this, his mother receives all three telegrams of her other sons deaths on the same day...

The movie takes you through a French town where an important member dies, along with an end battle that is nearly as impressive visually as the first. The film is nearly three hours long, but has a lot of action despite being classified as a drama. It is sad to know that this is what war was like, and knowning this, the impact is even greater.

Along with all of this, each character has a different personality, which adds to the story. Miller is the leader, Horvath is the brave, fierce sergeant, Mellish is the trash-talking private. (He is my favorite.) Jackson is the very religious sniper, Wade is the kind and gentle medic, Upham is the corporal afraid to shoot anybody, (bad if you're in a war), and Caparzo is the tough, not too bright friend of Mellish. Oh yeah, I can't forget Reiben, the rebel private that has a grudge with Horvath.

If you haven't seen this movie, it's a must see. I believe there should be a law that all must experience this film considering it's greatness. I have heard people say, "That movie sucked!" Well, all I have to say to that is, "When a film wins Oscars for best picture, director, and three other things, including cinematography, it can't suck...maybe it's just your taste in movies."

Well, I hope this review helped you decide to either see it or, if you're smart, go out and buy it immediately...

"I don't need any luck sarge, I was born lucky!" Edward Burns as Private Reiben in the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan. (Just felt like I had to write that one as a closer.)

Rating:
Summary: Frank Capra updated
Review: Tom Hanks is excellent and his character is nicely developed, while the action sequences are second to none. But ultimately "Saving Private Ryan" is like so many war movies I saw as a kid, regardless of how well rendered. The opening scene (after the shlocky frame) as they storm the beach at Normandy is pretty awful. You get the sense that a nation shows its resolve by how many of its young men it is willing to sacrifice. Just throw the bodies out there. In Kosovo we held that number to zero. Such a lovely way to fight a war. In WW II the number was, however many it took. Says something. Spielberg makes this point with the wide-angled shot of the channel filled with Allied landing craft and support vessels for as far as the eye can see-a scene incidentally right out of Frank Capra's seminal series "Why We Fight" to which this film is indebted whether Spielberg acknowledges it or not.

World War II was a war so horrible and so all encompassing that to this day we really don't understand it or comprehend it. Spielberg thought he was being "objective" in showing war "as it really was," with Americans murdering prisoners and vomiting from fear and dying like cattle without a chance (something Capra of course was not able to do). Yes, but to show the "saving grace" of individual valor is to perpetuate the war system, because that valor is a fraud. It was not the bravery of our soldiers that won the war. Just as it didn't matter how brave or how cowardly the soldiers were in the landing craft, it was the sheer volume of them that prevailed.

I think as long as one believes that individual heroics amount to something we will have war. Spielberg no doubt thinks he has shown us the horror and waste of war, but while plying the trade he knows so well (seducing the audience) he has trumpeted the glory of war, that old fraud, and so he is just like the rest of the proselytizers, only more skillful.

Still it is impossible to say what is right. If we had not won WW II the world today would be vastly different. Totalitarian, imperial, repressive, racist regimes in which the state tortures and enslaves the people would have prevailed. They may have nuked one another by now and we could be living in the rubble of a bestial existence. Who knows? Thank God for the United States and its incredible industrial capacity, because that is what won the war, not individual heroics, much as our tribal minds, along with Spielberg's, would like to believe such fairy tales.

Rating:
Summary: Visually Stunning, Shocking, Tearful and Harrowing
Review: Coming from someone with a profound liberal political bias, one would never expect to see such a laudatory tribute to the men who defeated Nazi Germany during WW II. But here it is nonetheless, probably the best war movie (and most visually stunning anti-war movie) ever made.

This is Spielberg's tribute to the GIs who took on the mighty Wehrmacht and defeated it. These were the schoolteachers, the inner city kids, the farm boys and the timid souls who met the "supermen" of Hitler's Aryan Army and defeated them.

Why is this the finest war and anti-war ever made? Well, look at it. It is probably the closest one will ever see to the real thing. Arms and legs fly, men die horribly, painfully and screaming. There is no nobility in war and no glory, either. Spielberg, with the assistance of an outstanding cast, shows us that all too vividly.

The reason for the mission of these eight US Army Rangers, is the rescue of one lone paratrooper, assigned to the 101st ABN Division, which had been dropped behind German lines on the night of 5 & 6 June as the remainder of the Allied Armada prepared to board landing craft to storm the beach of Hitler's "Festung Europa." PVT James F. Ryan is the sole surviving son of a family of 4 from the heartland of America. Raised on a farm with his brothers, all joined at the beginning of the war or as they came of age. When his three older brothers are killed in action within a week of each other, a wary Army staff is prompted to attempt a rescue of the last son from this Iowa family.

In a memorable scene which is supposed to include General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the Army in Washington, several officers argue for and against the attempted rescue of a single private behind enemy lines in Normandy. No one knows if he is alive and some argue that the rescue mission will most certainly kill most, if not all of the rescuers. The argument is a sound one, but it also shows the compassionate side of the huge and mostly unwieldy war machine of the United States of the time. The message is clear; despite the fact that the United States had more than 10 million men and women in uniform in 1944, the force was not that large that it could not look for, find and save one anonymous private, and all because he was the last living male member of his family.

The rescuers are a polyglot crew. In size, their little team is nothing more than a short squad of riflemen. But they represent the best of the assault troops the Army has available, the Rangers who seized Pointe du Hoc and held it for the rest of the Americans storming ashore. They are led by Captain John Miller, someone we get to know as the movie progresses. He is older than the rest and later, we find that he was much older than the average company commander of the day. He is accompanied by the sturdy, career Sergeant, who has see service with him in every major battle in the European Theater of Operations. There is the smart-assed PVT Reiben, a stereotypical New Yorker who always has a smart remark and a complaint for whoever will listen. The lone Jew is also present. He is portrayed as alternately frightened and heroic. I was saddened when I saw what happened to him in the most personal battle scene in the movie.

There is a scripture quoting sniper. Obviously, this was Spielberg's swipe at Southerners and their rifles. A fundamentalist sniper? How original and how cliched. Barry Pepper still did an outstanding job in the role and had I been in that situation on D-Day +1, I would have wanted someone like him along.

Captain John Miller also takes along a young linguist, T-5 (Corporal) Upham. A rear echelon soldier, untrained for infantry combat, he is fluent in French and German. Later in the movie, he quotes Emerson to Captain Miller and during this interchange, we come to realize that there is much, much more to the heroic officer than meets the eye. As the movie progresses, we watch in horror as Cpl Upham comes unglued by the rigors and horrors of war up close and personal. In the scenes where Upham fails as a soldier and fails his fellow GIs, Spielberg allows the young actor, Jeremy Davies to realize an outstanding performance. It is just one of many in this incredible movie, but it is the most memorable.

Tom Hanks was nominated for another Academy Award for his role as Captain Miller. It was an understated role, delivered with mastery and precision. I actually believed I was listening to this man and thought he would have made a fine infantry officer; as good as any I served with. Unfortunately, Hanks, a two-time Oscar winner was not the recipient of a third award. Like Spencer Tracy, who was also nominated more than twice (and won twice), the Oscar went elsewhere.

Everything is accurate about this movie. The uniforms, the coloring, the insignia, the weaponry, the locales. As I watched the movie and all the carnage it portrayed, I developed a new respect for my father's generation. After all, these were the men who were there and brought home the victory. These were the men of "The Greatest Generation." If Steven Spielberg never makes another movie, then this one will be his tribute to his father and my father and all of the other men who fought, died and won WW II. These are the men who made the world relatively safe for the rest of us.

Yes, this is a bloody and thought provoking movie. It is also a masterful tribute to a generation of men the likes of which America doesn't seem to be capable of producing any more. Now, we have greedy yuppies and Generation Xers who know everything about everything there is to know. From 1941-1945, we had everyday Americans who went out from their homes and defeated the best of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. They didn't ask for the war, but when the time came, they stood up and met the challenge before them. This is their movie and Steven Spielberg has done an eloquent job of telling their story.

After seeing this movie, I have developed a much deeper respect for my father and men like him. I have personally thanked every WW II veteran I have met since seeing this movie (as I have with every Viet Nam vet I have met).

To those who would take what freedoms we still possess for granted, I can only say one thing: Go watch SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.