Rating: 
Summary: Realistic as it gets
Review: I have read quite a bit of reviews that said the effects were great, but the story lacked focus, the character development sucked, etc. Having just gotten out of Army (I served in a real combat unit--3d Ranger Batallion)I can appreciate the movie more than most (except the D-Day vets themselves). Almost everyone is completely missing the point of this movie. Yes, the first 30 minutes are just terrific/horrendous, but it IS the characters and the storyline that make this movie so good. The violence and death is the easy part of it. It's the friends, the bonds, the experiences, the dilemmas, the camraderie, the Mission, that make war so memorable. Any war movie can show violence--so what. This movie made me cry not because of the people being shot and maimed, but because of the real soldier story behind. Unless you have been shot at, it's hard to explain and understand. Remarkable that Spielberg (a non-vet) did it so well.
Rating:
Summary: dvd makes the best war film yet created, even better!
Review: the images and sounds are very, very realistic. if one were to watch it for the first time, this film could easily be contstrude as a documentary of one unit's mission (and to them, insane mission) during a time when the world they were in had to be the scariest place on earth.SUPERBLY CRAFTED....stephen speilberg is a creative genious. all the roles were very well acted, and while I do think tom hanks is a good actor, I was surprised at the intensity he showed and realism he gave to the film through his acting.
Rating:
Summary: Realistic
Review: Sound effect is excellent. The war scenes and stroied are closer to what I have heard from veterans from Viet Nam where more civilians were dead that WWII.
Rating:
Summary: Saving Private Elmo
Review: I agree with the viewer from Minnesota. The combat scenes involving Kermit and Miss Piggy were much too intense. That scene with Gonzo and the German officer engaged in hand-to-hand combat caused my 4 year-old to cry. Definitely not a movie for playtime.
Rating:
Summary: The most unbelievable opening to any movie
Review: There is no doubt that Steven Spielberg is a director approaching the top of his game. The early scenes of this tragic story are hard to beat, so Spielberg doesn't try to. Instead, for the rest of the movie he tells the story of a group of soldiers tracking down the title character. The action rips along at a cracking pace and the battle scenes are graphic and horrifying, however the madness and mayhem are tydied up far too neatly and the ending is just plain corny.
Rating:
Summary: one of the best films ever made
Review: One of the greastest, most mesmorizing, and beautiful films I have ever seen. It stands alone.
Rating:
Summary: Well done
Review: As WWII vet. SPR brought back some memories I would just as soon forget. Techanically, it was quite accurate with only a few mistakes, mostly minor. Perhaps the most notable and glaring one, at least in my opinion, was the silver bars painted on the front of the captains helmet. One would only do that if they had strong suicidal tendencies, for to a German sniper they would stand out like a huge bulls-eye.
Rating: 
Summary: A great War Movie for somebody who wasn't there
Review: This movie is a War Comic Book on the sceen. Great action and great fun for somebody who was not there and did not see combat. In real life it is a crock fom start to finish but a good film. Paradox? No! It is entertainment. When a man is shot or is shot dead he drops like a wet sack. Hanks is too old for the part as is everybody else save a few. The uniforms are always so neet and tailored I would liike the name of their quatermaster or tailor. Well shaved, clean boots, not jock itch, no bugs, well fed, well mannered, well spoken. To the lowest private they all graduated Harvard and went to the best Dentist that money could buy. My how they fire their rifles and their shoulders do not move, BB guns? The machineguns do not get red hot. The barrels are lifted by the steel after ten clips. My how shells go off and what have you and no true blast and they can still hear and talk. Lots of Gore, lots of bull and no doubt for some that were not there lots of fun. The picture is well made but War it ain't. As War movies go at least you will not vomit from disgust at this one but to some it is funny....like vets. What do they call it in art, aethetic distance. People are shot and their crotches are dry, their eyes closed and the mortician must be following up the company.
Rating: 
Summary: Am I a Bad American for not deeming this a Masterpiece?
Review: After a cursory survey of the reviews posted, I feel a little nervous for offering only 2 stars to SPR. The tone here seems to be: if you're American, you damn well BETTER like this movie. Actually, I better be damn grateful for my grandfather and the millions of young American men who put their lives on the line to defend us from Fascism. But let's not confuse gratitude, or even patriotism, with seriously considering this film and finding it wanting, aesthetically speaking. I've seen it twice: once in the theater, once on video. The first time, I think I was too emotionally impacted from the first 20 minutes to honestly examine the film's total worth. On video, it didn't hold up nearly as well as the first viewing. Being a proud grandson of a Normandy veteran (and a son of a Vietnam veteran) notwithstanding, I simply had to take the film on its own terms. . . . First of all, where's the "history lesson" everyone keeps talking about? The movie I saw depicted a group of GI's slogging through war-torn France, looking for a missing private named Ryan. By that standard, "Rambo II" is a 101 course in the Vietnamese Conflict. Not that a war movie HAS to be a history lesson, but let's stop calling this movie that, please. If "Saving Private Ryan" is the introduction to our schoolchildren of World War II, then maybe we need to completely revamp our educational system and all you parents out there had better start telling your kids what it means to be an American, and who we can thank for continuing to BE Americans. A Hollywood entertainment should NOT be the first source for an extremely complicated and tragic epoch in world history. After Omaha Beach, the movie starts heading south fast. We hear a famous letter from Abraham Lincoln, read by no less than Marshall to his staff, accompanied by that awful John Williams' "stirring" music. Steven, why the base manipulation of our patriotic instincts? It's insulting. Next, we're treated to the sketchiest character development: Hanks' hand shakes a lot; Sizemore is one of those grizzed "dogfaces"; there's the guy from Texas or somewhere who kisses his crucifix before blowing someone away (seen it before); there's even the sensitive (read: cowardly) "writer" who gets his typewriter and stuff stripped from him before joining the crew -- Oliver Stone already filmed this scene in "Platoon", 13 years ago. The whole middle section sags with nothing to do. The platoon walks upright in open country (? ). Matt Damon is awful, as another reviewer justly noted. The second big battle is naturally not as impressive as the first, because, well, we already kind of seen it. It can only be a rehash, albeit technically well-done. Definitely lacking in emotional impact. Hanks gets the tank at the end in a way similar to Roy Scheider getting that pesky Great White in "Jaws", that other Spielberg film: a lucky shot, the Nemesis blows up. Too many cliches, folks. (And no, this doesn't mean I liked that meandering waste of time called "The Thin Red Line", either.) I give this movie two stars for its technical achievement in presenting some aspects of the battle on Omaha Beach -- this scene will indeed change forever the way battle scenes are filmed. But what sticks in my mind more about SPR are those manipulative book-end scenes with the Old Ryan returning to Normandy: "Have I lived a good life?" And the flag waving at the very beginning and very end -- what a frankly cheap appeal to our patriotism. Steven, we were already patriotic . . . WITHOUT the propaganda.
Rating:
Summary: Overwhelming impact, right to the heart and soul
Review: As a retired Army combat officer, I had never experienced a flashback until I saw Saving Private Ryan. After the movie, I just sat in my seat and cried like a baby. My wife had to drive us home. I was just empty. War really is hell, and this movie shows that, but it also shows the paradox that some of the finest characteristics human beings can exhibit are brought out in the crucible of battle. This movie should be shown in every high school class in the country.
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