Rating: 
Summary: Not a documentary
Review: I have no pretension of thinking I can say anything new about this film. It is powerful, emotional, raw, and yes even flawed. But Saving Private Ryan is a movie. Many consider filmaking to be an art ( though very commercial ) and like all art it isn't intended to be an absolute slice of life - it is intended to be one person's viewpoint. It's a stylisation - not a document. There are technical flaws, anyone who has served in the infantry or with an infantry unit for any time at all will catch them immediately. Yet a painting isn't expected to be a photograph - why expect such a thing from a movie? To attack the choice of portraying Omaha Beach and the American experience in Normandy strikes me as rather petulant as well. This is an American film, written by Americans, made by Americans. A British filmaker might choose day one of the 1916 Somme offensive as his horrific beginning, a German - Stalingrad, a Frenchman - Verdun, and a Canadian perhaps Cambrai or Paschendale. Granted the movie does play with historical facts , but it dosen't affect the movie's power any less. Some reviewers feel that the violence in the film was excessive, but I must disagree here as well. In the medium of film exaggeration is often necessary to carry across the full impact of the human experience. With only one notable exception ( footage of the Marines on Tarawa Island 1943 ) all the combat footage I've ever seen is actually rather dull and anti-climactic. The violence and death that the soldiers in the newsreel footage feel smothered by just dosen't carry across to the viewer who is removed, safe. In Saving Private Ryan Spielberg gives to the audience member the sense of how random death is on the battlefield. Unpredictable and arbitrary. Art and exaggeration are cousins, be it poetry, filmaking, sculpture. Saving Private Ryan conveys the physical discomfort of the soldier in the field and the boredom. Often a soldier's day to day exsistence ,even in combat, seems to consist of endless patrolling, long hours of inactivity, and endless gripe sessions. No Saving Private Ryan is not a documentary about the American soldier in WW2. It isn't about the differences between the "average" infantryman who was drafted and the hard charging Airborne/elite soldier. It's about conveying to those who have never experience combat - and god willing never will - the sense of what it is like. And even if the movie only brings across a third of that reality then it's a great movie. In passing I feel like it should be pointed out that many WW2 combat veterans who saw that movie found it horrifying. I personally talked to one old Marine who survived three island campaigns with the 1st Marine Division and he felt llke that movie portrayed the life of a combat soldier more effectively then anything else he had ever seen. I don't see how anyone can refute that gentlemen's opinion.
Rating: 
Summary: Gripping war footage, realistic
Review: My advice is, see it in the theatre. Watching at home, where the cat wanders in and jumps on your lap, a bus drives by in a crucial scene, or the phone rings - these things really do upset the atmosphere. To appreciate the movie, you must be immersed in it. If not, you'll notice that there really isn't much of a plot.But, the plot is not the point. The immersion into the horrors of war, if only vicariously, is the point. And it truly is horrifying. The scenes on Omaha Beach were especially effective. The climactic battle goes a little more slowly, as Spielburg wisely knows that we are saturated by violence at this time, and sets it more as a battle study rather than a collection of greusome images. In between those two battles are a number of interesting little interludes, some being battles, others being character builders, but all of them keep you in northern France in 1944. As for the DVD edition, I will not comment on the technical details, as I haven't the equipment to do it justice. I will comment on the included documentary, however. I did not find it particulary useful or interesting. Perhaps someone with little knowledge of the specifics of WWII operations would enjoy it, but it came across as a sales pitch (or a rebuttal to the Academy for selecting Shakespeare in Love) rather than a D-Day retrospective. The making of documentary makes the mistake of showing too many relections and not enough technical detail - to me, these features should have shown how they made a Tiger panzer, how they did the makeup and explosions, etc. At least they showed footage on the "basic training" the actors went through. That was interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Should be required viewing for all Americans
Review: As time passes and survivors of D-Day and WWII pass away, an incredible living testimony of the realities of war and the true meaning of patriotism will pass with those brave men and women who laid their lives on the line overseas fighting for democracy and for our freedom. This film focuses oneone story revolving around D-Day, but it gives you a glimpse into the grueling realities of any war. It's easy to get desensitized to violence and for stories of war to fall flat on our ears... this movie brings you right into the battle... not an anonymous group of people on a video game shooting bullets, but real vivid characters - individuals fighting for their lives, fighting for their buddies and dying for a cause. Gore to the extreme, but not for gore's sake. You get emotionally involved in these characters and you get an idea of what it was really like for one group of very young Americans fighting for their lives. There are scenes in this film that you will absolutely never ever forget. The DVD has behind-the-scenes footage, interviews with Steven Speilberg, cast and film-maker bios and a special presentation about the D-Day memorial in Louisiana.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Sad and Violent
Review: This movie was to sad and too violent. The plot was OK. I won't reccomend it unless you love war movies. Buy Austin Powers:The Spy Who Shagged Me, Wayne's World, Wayne's World 2, or Animal House.
Rating:
Summary: powerful, Powerful, POWERFUL
Review: This is an incredible movie from the very first minute. During the opening scene with the US marines landing on Normandy, I was filled with a sense of awe for those who actually did land there and with relief that I wasn't born at the time in history where I would have to do something like that. After seeing this first scene, I thought that there was no way that Speilberg could top it; just how visceral and personally impacting the scene was. He does top it. There are many powerful scenes that follow as the characters develop... the squad taking a machine gun nest, dealing with a sniper; but one in particular stands out - close combat between an American and German soldier with a knife. For me, seeing this one time in the theatre was enough. And I am far from squeemish typically enjoying watching action films over and over to see the fine detail of action sequences. But when watching Private Ryan at home on tape, I will always fast forward through this one scene so I don't have to see it again - it is that disturbingly powerful. This is an incredible movie. It took me through a roller-coster ride of emotions: horror, relief, guilt, fear, revulsion, elation. And often several at once. Great film. Do not miss it.
Rating:
Summary: A good movie, but neither definitive nor the best.
Review: _Saving Private Ryan_ earned much critical acclaim and reviewers are still emoting over it. Some of this is deserved, but much of it reflects the ongoing guilt-complex and moral confusion that post-Vietnam America has with respect to war as an instrument of foreign policy. Regardless of the "cause" most people do not like being drafted and sent to far away places to kill or be killed. But this goes to the central flaw in the film: the main players are NOT just draftees. They are volunteers in two elite units: the Rangers, and the 101st Airborne. In this sense, the somber, fatalistic tone of the film really jars. The first 20 minutes or so of _Saving Private Ryan_ are five-star and beyond. I generally stop the tape after that point. The fact that the soldiers of the United States Army won the battle at Omaha Beach tends to obscure just how amazing this feat was. Spielberg's treatment of one of the Rangers' attacks near Vierville (the visually more spectacular escalade of Pointe Du Hoc is treated in _The Longest Day_) is literally stunning. It is also socially significant in that it [finally] gave some of the members of the post-WWII generations a small sense of what our fathers and grandfathers endured in the world war against ethnic imperialism and race hatred. But then the tone of the film changes. It acquires the fatalism found in the memoirs and interviews of draftees. This is in sharp contrast to the elan of elite units like the Rangers and the 101st Airborne. This "gloom and doom" atmosphere renders the rest of the film one long funeral procession which ends, appropriately enough, at the American war cemetery above Omaha Beach. It is more Paul Fussell ("Wartime") in tone than Steven Ambrose, the noted historian of D-Day and the War in Europe ("Band of Brothers"). Perhaps the truest moments of the whole overblown "rescue" mission are these: Ryan's dismissive reaction to the mission-- he unequivocally refuses to "bug out" on his buddies, who truly are his brothers; and Upham's freezing on the steps when decisive action could have saved Mellish's life. The latter strikes me as an example of an incident that only a combat veteran could fully understand and that haunts a man down through the years. I have heard _Saving Private Ryan_ described as full of stereotypes and "meretricious." That seems a bit harsh. The film is worth seeing, and worth owning. But it should not be the only account of D-Day or of the war in Europe that "under 20s" ever see or read. This is only part of a much larger story. _Saving Private Ryan_ is simply not the end-all-to-be-all that many gush over. It is a very good movie, but it is not the best, nor is it the first, to convey a sense of the horror of combat or the loss of loved ones.
Rating:
Summary: i'm not mean, i'm just honest
Review: o.k. it was a great movie, i'll give you that. the shaky camera gave it a nice touch and the colors made it real warlike, but the problem is it gets boring. what i mean by that is it's the kind of movie that, once you see it about two or three times, it gets boring. the fight scens were incredible, but they weren't the best i've seen, the costumes were great too, but the weren't the best i've seen as well. it had a good plot, but it only intersted me, it wasn't a movie that kept me stuck to my seat. i actually hesitated when it came out on video and dvd, but i bought just for the heck of it. if you haven't seen it yet, i reccomend you see it, but don't get it on video or dvd , it gets boring like i've said before, unless you absolutely loved it. i gave it four instead of five, just because it gets boring. like i said before, i'm not mean, i'm just honest.
Rating:
Summary: Saving Private Ryan: Death and Action All So Real
Review: There are no doubts in my mind that "Saving Private Ryan" is a genuine masterpiece, redefining and refreshing the war movie genre with a harrowing realism that is unmatched by any previous war movie. This is a movie that will suffer on a small screen. When I saw it on a large screen, the power of the battle scenes were overwhelming, brutal, bloody, confusing, loud, up close and in your face. When the tanks rumbled in the film's bookend final battle the entire theater was rocking and shaking like never before and I was looking for a place to hide. The characters stereotypes? Hardly. Tom Hanks has been so good for so long,we take his great acting skills for granted. His Captain Miller is wise, tough, compassionate, complex, with his uncontrollable shaking hand, and at times his actions and facial expressions heartbreaking. Tom Sizemore is a powerhouse as the sergeant, saying "we're in business," when there is a chance to make a move through the carnage. But notice the more subtle things, like when he takes small steel cans and puts the soil in them from each country he has fought and survived in. The rest of the squad are excellent and I want to single out Jeremy Davies as the "coward" and French/German translator. Spielberg has said that this character is the one most identify with, and if we are in danger really, most of us don't want to fight,kill or be killed. To label him a "coward" would render useless your understanding of the film's themes. The techinical merits of this film are high,making you feel very uncomfortable. Shooting with mostly hand-held cameras just adds to the realism and terror. The sound in miraculous; I'll never forget those thousands of pinging sounds on the beach steel obstacles. The color is even toned down, as when we see the American flag devoid of red, that some our finest people's blood had drained the ragged flag. By all means purchase this movie, for Spieberg has created yet another masterpiece of action. Put it on you screen, relax for a moment, when John William's sad trumpet wails for the lost, who gave their lives for the living. And when the landing craft ramps go down in the bloody surf, duck and cover. The movie transcends its genre with its gut-wrentching action and close ups of suffering beyond anything anyone would want to imagine. Saving Private Ryan is one of the top films of all time regardless of genre.
Rating:
Summary: To Normandy and back......
Review: If you like war movies, this movie is for YOU. It's one of the most realistic movie of war, that i've ever seen. The horrors and thrills of war are on your grasp, you can almost feel it. But beware, it's not for the faint of heart. The DVD version comes with superb picture quality as always, it shows that this dvd has really gotten some love in the making. The sound is mixed in DD 5.1 and DD 2.0. The DD 5.1 track makes you're neighbours very nervous, but that's the whole point. You can almost feel the bullets swinging by you, the grenades exploding behind you and so forth. If you don't have this movie yet, consider buying it. CONSIDER REALLY HARD, BECAUSE IT'S WORTH BUYING.
Rating:
Summary: Special Limited Edition Rip-off
Review: This is an awesome movie! However, this "widescreen" DVD is not as it would seem. Most widescreen DVDs display more information on screen than pan & scan DVDs as the widescreen aspect ratio is like the theater. On this DVD, the widescreen version actually CUTS information from the top and bottom of the pan & scan picture. I learned this watching the movie on cable, noting that while talking about his shaking hands in the church, CPT Miller's hands are on screen (and shaking) for more of the discussion--on the DVD, not so! Perhaps the "five-star" video production team should obtain James Cameron's essay on widescreen v. pan & scan and learn that the selection of aspect ratio and production should not detract from the finished product. Again, a great movie, but this edition left me quite disappointed and wondering how much else was disregarded.
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