Rating: 
Summary: Fact-based depiction of BAD force structure, NOT ANTI-WAR
Review: If you are reading this review, listen carefully!SPR is a depiction of what happens when a civilian nation mobilizes for war unready and meets a professional Army. Its not "Anti-War" as some reviewers propose, for its fading flag scene in the beginning is the reminder that for a nation to be free and not under the Nazi flag, HUMAN BEINGS have to become Citizen-Soldiers and stop the cunning and the arrogant from over-running the earth. That this flag is fading is an expression of the humanity of those who created this freedom aging and dying (the elderly combat veteran at the graveside) as the new generation is clueless and failing to pick-up the torch and keep the freedom vibrant and flying. SPR is a subtle warning---are we up to this? Are we today up to the task of defeating evil on a world-wide scale like the greatest generation was? THAT'S THE QUESTION, not "war is hell" and other cliches'. You and I both know the answer to that question is negative. Just look at some of the reviews here. To the Anti-American reviewers: the German people of the 1933-1945 time frame put the Nazis in power. I'm sorry, but this was there time to fight the evil of their day, and they failed. They embraced the evil, they helped it kill millions. That's what happened and no amount of anti-American sarcasm and americentricity will change this fact. See to it that if such a challenge comes before you in the future that you are a good human being before you are a good facilitator of totalitareanism. Deal? The point of SPR is that our military has to be ready to fight and win with superior ground dominance----dropping bombs at 15,000 feet will not save the day as bombs from 1500 feet didn't save CPT Miller. This entails a lot of technotactical details which after 3 years of war, vets like CPT Miller had learned were needed but were stuck fighting the war with what they had--never an ideal choice . If we don't want to be forced to having to make "sticky bombs" we had best re-orient this nation's citizenry to the NEED FOR A COMPETENT, PROFESSIONAL MILITARY THAT IS BACKED BY THE PEOPLE ORIENTED TO ACTUAL GROUND WARFIGHTING AN NOT MAKE-BELIEVE POSTURING FROM THE AIR/SEA. If on the other hand, all you want to do is weep over the loss of Miller and his men, you are NOT HELPING the real men in uniform today. Like young Private Ryan, please go make yourself useful in this fight, and "EARN THIS" freedom we enjoy. Airborne!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent War Movie
Review: ...I found Saving Private Ryan to be an excellent portrail of World War II small unit action. It avoided most references to the larger picture or to the overall stratagy and focused on the fighting at a company level. As for the critisism that it demonized the German soldier I do not agree. Instead I felt it pointed out how war dehumanizes all who become involved. American troops shooting Germans who had surrendered, while Tom Hanks character looks away or letting them burn does not hold well with a John Wayne image. The German soldiers who fought in Normandy were a mix bag of aggressive elit troops and scared conscripts just like their Americian counterparts, and I felt this was brought foward in this movie. The weopons and attention to detail added to the realism as did the slow motion which many vets remember happening to them in the heat of battle. Speilberg has done an admirable job, in making an excellent picture...
Rating:
Summary: Not just a movie, a film.
Review: This is not 'just anoter war movie' as some previous reviewers have called it nor is it 'just another Spielberg movie' The film opens with a WWII vet along with his family visiting one of the U.S. D-Day cemetaries in France. It then moves to the invasion day itself in one of the many landing crafts transporting a few of the many GI's that served on that day and follows one Capt. Miller and his squad from their day on the beach through their 'politically correct' orders of locating and extracting Pvt. Ryan, who's mother will be notified of the deaths of three out of four sons all on the same day. Ryan's three older brothers, all serving in the U.S. Army were killed in action the previous week and the Army is trying to avoid the publicity of getting a whole family killed. The film is a stark, graphic and brutal portrayal of landing on the beach and surviving the next hours only to be givin the Herculean task of locating a single GI who's unit is out of contact 'somewhere out there' in an area dominated by the Wehrmacht and returning him safely to an Allied-controlled zone. The portrayal of the characters in the squad are complex and diverse. I am no fan of Mr. Spielberg's work however this movie stands alone for several reasons: First, being an amature WWII historian of the European theater, I found this film to be so remarkably consistent with accounts I have read from numerous airborne and amphibious assault GI's as well as pilots who were involved in the June 6, 1944 D-Day invasion which is the largest amphibious assault in military history. The fact that many, many WWII vets who served on D-Day who saw the movie and were moved to deep emotion is anoter testimony to it's authenticity. Second, It is presented in such a way that the average moviegoer can grasp some of the unbelievable, superhuman tasks and actions that the rank and file GI's were called upon to do and did without regard for their own lives. I have always been eager to talk to surviving WWII vets but now I make it a special task to shake their hand and tell them 'thank you' for the job done so selflessly by so many. Third it is an important work because it highlights only one of the many, many stories of a handful of average guys thrown together doing the impossible on D-Day and the weeks afterwards. Several other reviewers have taken great pains to point out the film's shortcommings but I believe that these points, most of them correct, are not the truth and only point to the validity of the movie as a seperate entity from the screenwriters, director, and actors. By itself, examining it as a whole, it is a character study and human conflict all rolled into one and portrayed in vivid, engrossing detail. Incidentily, Hanks and several others spent several weeks in a condensed bootcamp lead by real U.S. military Drill Instructors, living in the field, eating K-rations, and being exposed to the realities of a GI's life. All this brings about excellent performances from the actors who's names are both large and small.
Rating:
Summary: One of the better war films I've seen.
Review: Saving Private Ryan is the most graphic depiction of war I have ever seen. Thanks to the acting, direction, cinematography, and editing; it achieves a gritty realism that has never been seen in a movie before, and it'll probably be a while before it is ever seen again. The simple story is pretty good. It's a slightly cliched and the characters are a little one dimensional but the fantastic performances give a little more life to them. Tom Hanks delivers a wonderful performance as Captain Miller. Like Russell Crowe in Gladiator, he put the human in the hero. Jeremy Davies gives a commendable, and underrated, performance as the timid Corporal Upham. John Williams' musical score is good; not quite as memorable as some of his others, however. Michael Kahn is a fine editor. This film does not feel as long as it really is. The first 25 minutes are probably as close as I will ever get to combat; largely thanks to the astounding direction of Steven Spielberg and the impeccable cinematography of Janusz Kaminski. Spielberg and Kaminski place you in the middle of the D-Day landing. Janusz Kaminski's "shaky cam" technique for the battle scenes has been used by nearly every action/war film that has been released since Private Ryan. The audio and picture quality on the DVD is first-rate. The documentary is interesting but don't expect it to revolve totally around the film. The real D-Day landing and events of WWII are talked about quite a bit in the docu.
Rating: 
Summary: Government issue war film
Review: I submitted a review of this before - But it must have gotten lost. While the opening sequence pulls no punches and is truly a technical achievement, it should be obvious [director] Steven Spielberg uses the heartbeat of this story to do his 'Jewish duty' and portray those nasty Germans as totally vile, even making it clear the German POW's should be shot. It is testament to Spielberg's manipulative skills that this film is as popular as it is. It is, after all, supreme propaganda. For a more honest approach to the horror of war, check out Apocalypse Now.
Rating:
Summary: This set WWII moviemaking back about 50 years
Review: The Americans are all the brave and noble good guys in the white hats and the Germans are all villainous evil-doers in black hats. It's the Duke saving the world for freedom only now Tom Hanks plays this role. All Germans are horrible despicable underhanded Nazis who are all as equally responsible for the holocaust as Hitler and his henchmen. That's what this movie really says.
Rating:
Summary: Ok, Spielberg, you did it again....
Review: This is the old Spielberg formula.... Totally empty character, a lot of sheer violence, an inocuous plot filled with false "partiotic" messages and false "emotional" moments all along the way. I must admit the battle sequence are the better ever made, but this is not sufficient to make a good film. At least it didn't win the Oscar, this would have been the last drop of injustice !
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but flawed movie
Review: I thought this was a terrific movie about people caught up in a war until about 2/3 of the way through when it switched to just another Hollywood war movie. It was so good up to that point. I still give it 4 stars, but I feel that the movie was unduly cheapend by most of the scenes near the end. This movie has many very good, rich scenes... Probably the most highly vaunted is the initial scene of the beach landing... yet there were several scenes that I found more powerful and more substantive. However, ultimately this movie is reduced to the normal action flick formula wherein the enemy is personified in an individual and revenge is the ultimate vindicator. Too bad.
Rating:
Summary: Great tribute!!
Review: By far the best WAR FILM to date! No other war film will ever of should i say WW2 Film ever depict or surpass SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie
Review: This movie brings back the second World War as a terrible experience for America. It clearly shows what our ancestors experienced and how it changed them forever. Steven Spielberg did an exelent job on this movie and I'm glad I was able to see it.
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