Rating: 
Summary: SPR
Review: Actually, I wouldn't give this movie even one star. I truly dislike it. I was just waiting for something to happen during the whole movie and all they do is shooting each other. A total waste of money folks! I've seen some other war movies that are really good but this is too much!
Rating: 
Summary: Tha movie was an experience to remember.
Review: Tha movie was an educational film with a story that makes you think about the tragedy and triumph of WWII. Tha movie is stretched out just a bit and goes downhill after the first hour, but tha whole movie is classic. This movie is in my top five movies because it shows how D-Day looked in the closest of reality it could, which is hard to do. Even if you don't want to see this movie, you still should.
Rating:
Summary: The great man-child goes to war
Review: Evryones favorite man-child brings us his bizarre take on World War 2 and its not pretty. OK let me get this straight it was a WORLD war right. Apparently through my schooling i have been terribly lied to. I had no idea Americans single handidly won the war. And boy those Germans are some real cut ups. Mickey Mouse, Betty Grable what gams! Are you not listening to the campy B-movie dialogue in this god awful film? Speilberg needs to stop milking serious events for his own profit. Speilberg the savior of human kind. He's so caring. The Color Purple, Schindlers list, and now this. We must immediatly begin building of a spielberg temple, statues must be erected in his honor for all that he's done for us. He deserves a real pat on the back.
Rating: 
Summary: Evoking memories
Review: When I was a young girl, I went to a fourth of July parade. On my way home, I saw a man passed out cold on the sidewalk. What made me upset were people were just stepping over him saying" He's just drunk. He gets that way every fourth of July. Flashbacks from WW 2." I couldn't believe the cruelty of these people and their remarks. This movie evoked the same sorrowful memories. Need I say more.
Rating:
Summary: As close to WW2 as you're gonna get!!
Review: Well I've heard it all, how the movie was over-rated and how it was hyped up more than it deserved. And how the plot and story was too dismal and didn't really come together all that well. But the movie has to be appreciated for what it was.........a 'masterpiece' and would undoubtedly set a standard that other war movies have to match! We're already seeing the homage to SPR........Enemy at the Gates, Pearl Harbour, The Thin Red Line and I'm sure more to come! SPR was unbelievably real! The sound effects of richocheting bullets off metal, bricks and rock doesn't get to be anymore realistic! I was sitting next to a war veteran at the movies and the sound just took him right back to his war! He relived his experience again! That takes skill and vision!! The action scenes were authentic and graphic like never before!! I'll always remember how the German soldiers fell after being shot, they fell as they would if they were really shot! The horrifying scenes on the Normandy beaches of soldiers praying and the fear they exhibited. All in all, it gave us an extremely realistic look at WW2. It doesn't get any better than that, except on a documentary with live footage! If the plot isn't up to some standards, well its Hollywood!! Everything's been covered at least once by now. SPR should be aclaimed for its realism, not the plot which was marginal at worst! Otherwise the film held together very well!!
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL MOVIES EVER MADE
Review: I am going to be wholly honest in my review. Saving Private Ryan is not a perfect film, nor is the story anything more than a vehicle to take a band of soldiers from one necessary encounter to another. The story is mediocre, and I have no problem crediting other reviewers who pointed this out.What the film does with extraodinary precision and accuracy, is re-create situations that no one reading this review will ever want to be in. The sheer madness, brutality and terrifying experience of landing at Normandy is brought to life in thirty minutes of film that I consider to be unparalleled. Throughout the entire landing scene, all I could think was that people my age actually did this - the scene is not fiction. The effective use of hand-held cameras and the stripping of the color lenses only enhance the landing sequence, and make you feel like you're there. The middle of the film can be slow at times, but the script drops in a sniper, gun post, and other brief sequences to keep the movie moving as the plot and characters are fleshed out. The film moves towards a dramatic showdown over a bridge. The final sequences are as exciting, yet frightening as anything you'll ever see. The film does a remarkable job of illustrating that many of the soldiers who fought this war were just kids, from different backgrounds and all fighting a war while recognizing the utter madness that surrounded them. Spielberg deserves mountains of credit for portraying the violence in a non-Hollywood manner. The violence is excessive and at times hard to stomach, but the honesty and realness of the war scenes greatly enhance the impact of the film. Spileberg shows us what war is really like, and not a glamorized version that is so often presented to us. And the violence is not used to entertain (unlike in Gladiator, which deplores the violence of the Collaseum within the film but then glorifies it to entertain the moviegoer). The cast is well-rounded, with Tom Hanks giving a highly-effective performance as a Captain who is tired of wathcing the kids he's trained die in front of him. Tom Sizemore, Ed Burns, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribesi, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, and Jeremy Davies round out a diverse and talented cast. Even if parts of the film bore you, Saving Private Ryan is a film that everyone should see, all the time telling themselves that young men actually lived this. For lack of a better phrase, they saved the world, as did soldiers from the myriad of other countires that fought against the Axis Powers. While some people criticize the film for making it appear that Americans were the only people fighting in WWII, I believe that the concept of the film was to show the effects of war on a small band of soldiers. There were too many indivuduals who fought bravely in WWII to recognize in one film. Finally, people can use this film to appreciate the tremendous sacrifice that those before us made. Although I knew some basics about WWII, I never fully realized the odds and implications of the landing at Normandy. My grandfather landed at Normandy and stormed the beach. He survived that day, and the entire war. But he did not survive long enough to meet me, as he passed on four months before my birth in 1977. I will never get to meet my grandfather, but will always know that he was a brave man.
Rating:
Summary: Superb War movie
Review: This movie gets high marks for the battle scenes alone which are brutally terrifying. The opening scene gives the audience a taste of what is must be like for troops relying on superior numbers to overtake fortified positions. The final battle scene shows the reverse, with the heroes defending a bridge knowing they cannot succeed against the overwhelming force approaching. Speilberg makes sure neither scenerio seems very appealing. War is not fun, win or lose. The acting is top notch. Hanks in particular delivers another oscar-worthy performance. I think Matt Damon was a little weak as Ryan. Although his part is small he's a bit too pretty and cardboard for it. Otherwise the cast is excellent. The script is subtle yet powerful. The question is not 'why did they save Ryan?' but 'why did they save us?' The American soldier in World War Two was not a professional. He was the common man who patriotically went off to war for his country. The movie examines why these men gave up so much for us, for fellow citizens they didn't know. Speilberg's answer is they did so because it was their duty. He obviously feels as if this reasoning is enough, as he lays the patriotic melodrama on very thick at the end of the movie. But I don't think there's anything wrong with a little dose of patriotism every now and then. Whether you agree with Speilberg's message or not is up to you, but there's no question he made one heck of a movie.
Rating:
Summary: It's Brilliant.
Review: Saving Pvt. Ryan was the best picture of the year hands down. Anytime someone takes a much traveled genre like the war movie, and reinvents and reinvigorates it while raising the bar for future films it is exceptional. Spielberg did that here. No one has ever depicted combat quite so effectively, and Pvt. Ryan is now the standard. Even the negative reviewers concede the Omaha Beach opening is stunning and excellent. But, I think the assault on the machine gun and the closing! battle just as intense and vivid.
Pro War? Please. I don't think Spielberg's purpose was to be pro OR anti-war. I think his purpose was to honor the sacrifice of the men who fought the war. Period. But within that context, I think the death of Wayne (the Medic) is as horrifying in its unexceptionalness as anything I've seen on screen. This is war, overdosing with morphine a friend who is bleeding to death with a shredded liver. Just like that. And Mellish's hand to hand fight and vain attempt at stopping his own killing after being overpowered...this is pro-War stuff? Not to mention, that at the end of the movie nearly everyone in the squad has been killed.
The idea that Spielberg was glorifying Americans at the expense of everyone else is nonsense. This movie wasn't about Stalingrad & the Eastern Front. It wasn't about the entire operation of Overlord. It wasn't about the entire scope of the Allied effort. It was about one squad of Rangers landing on Omaha and !then getting a strange assignment. Period.
That such a mission never happened? So what? That there was no plot? That IS the plot. The mission. Works for me.
One quick comment about the idea of cliched characters etc. Who do these people think fought the war? It was wise guys from NY, hillbillies from W. Virginia, hispanics from S.California, southerners, hobos, college men etc. How in hell else are you supposed to show them? AND, the military of WWII was not integrated, in case you didn't know.
As to the reality of the ending battle. First, when the Sgt. says "something good coming from this mess" I don't think he meant all of WWII. I think he meant the mess of this mission and the men they had lost now & everywhere. Second, the Germans are attacking the town, Miller & the Airborne defending. Door-to-door street fighting is the most casualty-intensive fighting possible, and the advantage is usually always with the defenders. That's why soldiers hate it. S!o they had a chance and they had a plan....ultimately to retreat & blow the bridge. If you think this is too far fetched, you should read Ambrose's Citizen Soldiers etc. and find out just how incredible small unit actions have been. Many are unbelievable.
And what were Miller & his squad to do when Ryan refused to leave? Say "tough luck 101st, we're outta here". Maybe. But I think they would have stayed & fought. Just read about the Rangers who scaled the cliffs on D-Day. Courage was a common currency in those days.
As to the acting, characters etc. I thought they were fine. There were no false heroics to my mind. I believe they wanted to honor these men and they played it straight. Hanks was believable to me portraying a school teacher who is now a leader of men and his scene where he does the awful math of the men he's lost and the rationale he uses to live with the fact says it all. He seemed to me an average man having to do impossible, horrible things and wo!ndering what it is doing to him.
The movie is about suiting-up, showing-up and getting-on-with-it. It is about the everyday heroism of doing the dirty job and trying to survive.
Was the movie flawless? No. I would have had Ryan tell a better story to Miller than the somewhat stupid and cruel one he told. And, for that fact I didn't get the point of Wayne's story about his mother. The German shooting Miller and Upham shooting the German was somewhat problematic (emotionally satisfying, but empty. If the lesson is mercy will get you killed, by that logic, he should have shot them all)....but these are minor quibbles in a great effort.
What about Spielberg? Spielberg is a brilliant and clever director. Too clever? Sometimes. But I liked most of his touches and flourishes. I liked the sniper seeing the other sniper shooting at him. I like the wall coming down & the standoff. I liked the tank rolling up on Miller blowing up by a seeming gunshot. I didn't mind !the bit of deception at the opening & closing of the film because by the time it ended I was moved by the sentiment. I thought the opening & closing battles were magnificent. I like his compositions. I thought all the combat throughout had a genuine feel never depicted as accurately before. His camerawork & direction was continuously inventive. I thought death was shown without glamor. The courage as that mustered up and brought to bear by ordinary men. Enough.
I could go on, but what's the point? If you are nitpicking this movie you have missed the experience. And it WAS an experience (especially on the big screen) that was exceptional for eye, ear and emotions. If you were not moved, so be it. I found it a beautiful tribute to the fathers and grandfathers who did what they had to do. And it came as close as anyone has been able to convey to an audience the horrors they had to endure.
It isn't a documentary, and it isn't a history. It's a movie. But a first rate! movie in all departments. --This text refers to the DVD edition
Rating:
Summary: Saving nobody
Review: This movie is definitely a disappointment. The plot is rediculous from the start. Would any army waste the lives of 8 men to save a nobody? Even if they would, Private Ryan didn't get saved. He wasn't in great peril or a Prisoner of War. The whole movie doesn't make sense. The storyline is too linear. Good effects and realistic portrayal of war details should not compromise on a good storyline. All I can say after watching this is: DON'T BUY IT.
Rating:
Summary: Starship Troopers meets Wild Wild West
Review: Which is what you get with this waste of a film. First off, SPR is an insult to the memories of those who actually fought and died during WWII. It is no surprise, therefore, as to why most of the positive reviewers and the film's producers weren't even born until after that time. Very hokey pokey, and a distortion of historical facts, it propagandizes how WWII was entirely won on the European front by white American troops. African, Asian, Hispanic-Americans and other minorities also played major roles in the success of America's involvement in Operation Overlord. Nothing is ever mentioned about the very Europeans who were fighting tooth-and-nails against Hitler even before the US entered the war. The casualties that Britain, France, and the Soviet Union each sustained were many times more greater than that of the US in Europe & the Pacific theater combined. Secondly, SPR supporters try to justify the liberal use of state-of-the-arts special effects, that is was necessary in order to show the grittiness and brutality of war. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that war is hell whichever way it's served at the cinema (SFX-laden or not). ARMAGEDDON, BATMAN & ROBIN, and LOST IN SPACE also attempted to convey similar messages of violence with their fancy-shmancy bluescreen images. And, just like its predecessors the FX was not enough to save SPR from the PATHETIC SCREENPLAY, DISNEY DIALOGUE, POOR ACTING, and SIMPLISTICALLY LAME PLOT typical of the CAMPY, DRECK Hollywood often puts out these days (for reference, please see Titanic, Men In Black, & Pearl Harbor)...Secure the beach, take out a radar installation, and fight an against-all-odds battle which can only be won in the fantasyland known as the studio backlot. And, to what effect? Just to save one man and to say that it was worth it at the end? WOW, what a very original plot. DUH. But, why should anyone care? Hollywood sure doesn't, just as long as it knows that it has a winning formula from which it can use over and over again to be successful at the box office...EMPLOY VERY EXTRAVAGENT SPECIAL EFFECTS AS A DISTRACTION SO THAT THE VIEWER WILL BE BLIND TO THE FILM'S LACK OF A REAL PLOT. Were the FX in SPR produced using more conventional methods instead of a supercomputer, people would then realize it for the "C" movie that it truly is compared to "The Longest Day" and the contemporary "The Thin Red Line", both masterpieces which are more worth viewing than this....After some 30 years in the business, Steven Spielberg still has yet to learn that good screenplays and good acting are what makes a good film, not Dreamworks and Industrial Light & Magic. AVOID THIS ONE AT ALL COSTS!!
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