Saving Private Ryan

Rating:
Summary: My grandfather once siad that war was hell. He was right.
Review: My grandfather may not have landed on the shores of Normandy, but he was poud to serve the country in the Marines Corps.. He Fought at Iwo Jima. He was one of the many casualties of the battle. Fresh out of boot and wounded fresh out of the landing craft.

The traditional John Wayne charcter would live throught this movie and hope he can make it to the next firefight before chow time.

Saving Private Ryan was robbed of a well deserved Oscar, and the acclamation it deserved.this movie should be required for all teens over 16 to watch, if not in history class than at home. they should not look at it as eyecandy, they should be taught that an entire generation of men gave their lives, and their dying love for their country to stop a great evil. Facism and genocide.

Unfortunatly, genocide continues, but the great war they won let this world live free. If someone knows a person who fought in WWII, shake their hand and say thank you. The veteran may not understand at first, but it is deserved. this movie is a living tribute to those who fought, and those who died. Tom Hanks said it best when he made the point that "not one national monument stands for those who have fallen during World War Two". For now, this movie is good enough for me, but not for those KIA.

Rating:
Summary: Heart Gripping realism
Review: Attention to detail in an accurate depiction of men caught in a moment of history that will be studied for centuries.

A search is conducted by a squad of men who are asked to undertake a seemingly futile task after surviving the harrowing landing on Normandy.

WWII buffs will find only very rare lapses in the recreation of the largest amphibious landing ever conducted.

Hanks portrail of Captain Miller -- a leader near the end of his rope is compelling, while the opening and closing sequences will bring even the most hard bitten tough guys to the edge.

Probably the most important movie of this decade.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: Only The Naked and the Dead and The Triumph and the Glory can approach Speilberg's masterpiece for ultra-realistic depictions of combat and sacrifice in WWII. The only (very,very minor)flaw in the film was casting Ted Danson in it. To me he will always be Sam Malone, and ONLY Sam Malone (of Cheers). The scenes he was in broke up the flow of the story a little for me. But hey, great performances from Tom Hanks and the rather unknown cast of the squad, and of course immense praise for the realism of the movie.

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Summary: Great beginning, but a better story was in the background.
Review: A great war film - for about 20 minutes, and maybe the last 20, where the filming is done as if the camera were your eyes and you were one of the soldiers. When the soldiers are taking cover the action is filmed from a low position, when the soldiers are running, you run after them, looking around the battlefield as you try to get to cover before the flashes from the German pillboxes put a bullet in you! Somehow though the film sags a little in between... Once the landing scene is over, its kind of like the film is over. I wasn't expecting a bullet a minute all the way through, even though I think the reality of D-Day would have been a better ready-made story, as the story of the Titanic was. I couldn't help feeling that the idea of saving a soldier from a war seemed improbable, and didn't really keep the film going very well - not for me anyway. The film has obviously been made with care and attention to detail, but I think most people who watch it will only remember it for the first part. Definately one for those interested in or studying the events of WWII however, simply for its highly-realistic "first-person" tell-it-like-it-really-was perspective of history, although it should be remembered that not only the US took part in D-Day! :-)

Rating:
Summary: What is everyone looking for?
Review: I find it somewhat amusing to read all the previous reviews of this movie. "Where are the British?" "Where are the African-Americans?" "Why are the Germans portrayed so steroetypically?" "What about the landings at all the other beaches?" My personal favorites are the couple of comments that point towards "Apocolypse Now" as a REALISTIC war movie. Heheheh.

Folks, this ISN'T a movie about WWII. This ISN'T even a movie about the D-Day landings. This is a film about a group of soldiers from a US Army Ranger batallion who are sent on a PR mission shortly after landing at Omaha beach. There's your reason for no British soldiers. Not many of them serving in US Ranger batallions now is there? Also the US forces were still very segregated at that time. The film's just telling it like it was. Steroetypical German soldiers? In what way? They spoke German?

One clue to the power of this film is the fact that different groups see it in different lights. The pro-military faction sees the patriotism, honor, duty, etc. in Capt. Miller and sees Jim Ryan as Why We Fight. The anti-war people see the film as a depiction of the senselessness of it all, the terrible terrible violence, and both the mental and physical horrors that war inflicts upon men.

I feel that this film depicts the realities of combat and what it does to men better than just about anything made previously. The tension, the bonding, the bravery, the cowardice are all there. The only flaw I find are the tacked on opening and ending pieces. They seem like afterthoughts, there to appease someone (who though? Studio heads? Moviegoers? Veterans?) and were unnecessary to the story and in my opinion took away from the weight of the ending. I cannot give the film 5 stars because of these small scenes. I would prefer to be able to give it 4.5, but don't have that choice so 4 will have to do.

Rating:
Summary: Transfer was a disappointment.
Review: I am surprised that this DVD passed final quality control. There are 2 specific instances where the transfer was flawed, extended freeze frames. The DTS sound was excellent; but the interface was not fully functional. When you select DTS, it re-shows the leader w/o sound.

Rating:
Summary: Cut versons
Review: LET THE BUYER BEWARE! I recently purchased a copy of Saving Private Ryan from an online store. I received a cut version and am very disappointed. There are no times listed in the descriptions so the buyer is unaware of whether this is a full or cut version of the movie. The current online store (Amazon) does not list the length of the movie. Therefore, how do I know which version I am getting? Do I buy another one and pay the shipping to return it? If I buy enough of them on line, the return shipping costs will more than equal my time to go to a video store and purchase the correct version.

Rating:
Summary: A Magnificent Portrayal Of The Sacrifices Of War
Review: I admired this movie immensely. I think that Steven Spielberg knows how to get to our heart better than anyone. (I think he took lessons from Disney.)

He makes us feel for the characters right from the start and then we get carried along his roller-coaster ride to reveal who survives at the end.

The realism and humanity he reveals to us in this truly exceptional movie encompasses all that is TRUE about war. Nobody was ready for the landing at Omaha Beach, except maybe the Germans. It reveals how these brave men, knowing that most of them will be injured or killed, stormed the beaches anyway, and they did it for ALL OF US.

Then the story takes a turn when the eight men, led by Capt. John Miller, are sent to rescue a James Francis Ryan, whose three brothers have already been killed, and return him home to his mother. The eight soldiers aren't too unhappy about the mission until one of them dies. Now the question is asked, "Is this man's life worth dying for?"

Tom Hanks is as usual brilliant as Capt. Miller, as is Tom Sizemore, who I thought should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor, instead of Matt Damon.

Jeremy Davies is very convincing as Upham - the translator, who tries at the very beginning to tell Capt. Miller that he has never experienced combat before. This fact becomes very clear to us in a tense moment in the movie.

Spielberg also shows us the wonderful role the Medics had in War-time. In the movie the soft-hearted and caring medic Wade not only has to experience all the action of a soldier but also has to try and help save or ease the pain of the injured and dying.

This is a wonderful, heart-warming movie. I recommend it to anyone. We should never forget the sacrifices these men gave to make us what we are today. It doesn't matter what country you are from, the men who took part in World War II did so for HUMANITY. LEST WE FORGET.

PS Did anyone see the mistake in the movie. Just after Caparzo dies, when the seven men have left the airmen at the crashed plane site, you see eight men walking through the green grass to again look for Pvt. Ryan. What can I say, I'm a counter.

Rating:
Summary: This is the best WW2 film dealing with the war in Europe!
Review: This film absolutely makes a mockery of films like John Wayne's "Gung-Ho" films like The Longest Day. This is how it was, and this is how we hope it will never be again. This film is nothing like The Thin Red Line; no better no worse. It is successful at frightening us with the most explicit and realistic battle scences in any war film ever. Detailed battle tactics intertwined with personal character touches and fantastic character development makes this not just one of the best war films ever, but one of the most important and best films ever made. Each and every perfomance is brilliant, the usual performance of Hanks, and of the scared and inexperienced Corporal Upham is something that many of us can relate to.

Rating:
Summary: My Two Cents Worth on a Great Film
Review: A lot of folks have already provided plenty of comments on this film, but I wanted add my own little bit to what is probably the best film about US Army soldiers in WWII. The DVD is excellent and comes close to the theater experience, which by the way was the best way to see this film. Tom Hanks and the rest of the cast are great portraying members of the 2nd Ranger Battalion during the D-day landings and the subsequent mission to retrieve Private Ryan. They don't overact nor give hollow macho performances that is characteristic of other films on WWII. Many actors must have been envious to see this cast of relatively unknown actors provide stirring performances. As for Tom Hanks, he didn't get an Academy Award, but he must have received of lot acknowledgement from his peers that he stole the show that year for his portrayal of Captain Miller, the Ranger Company Commander. The film is graphic, but comes close to what soldiers experienced on June 6, 1944 when they assaulted Normandy. The D-Day landing sequence is frightening and makes people realize that war is terrible, and that the young men who fought there were heros. People who see this movie may realize why combat veterans become emotional whenever they reflect on their experiences and their fallen comrades. The sequence at the beginning of the movie with the veteran walking through the cemetary at Normandy is priceless. Some viewers may find that the film's opening D-Day sequence steals most of the movie's impact, resulting in the rest of the movie not providing a climatic ending; but the small unit of Rangers and Paratroopers defending against an attacking German Infantry Battalion under Captain Miller's command is good. Trivia: the German Tiger tanks seen in the film are the same tanks used in the 1970 film "Kelly's Heros" starring Clint Eastwood.