A stalwart Tom Hanks plays Captain Miller, a soldier's soldier, who takes a small band of troops behind enemy lines to retrieve a private whose three brothers have recently been killed in action. It's a public relations move for the Army, but it has historical precedent dating back to the Civil War. Some critics of the film have labeled the central characters stereotypes. If that is so, this movie gives stereotypes a good name: Tom Sizemore as the deft sergeant, Edward Burns as the hotheaded Private Reiben, Barry Pepper as the religious sniper, Adam Goldberg as the lone Jew, Vin Diesel as the oversize Private Caparzo, Giovanni Ribisi as the soulful medic, and Jeremy Davies, who as a meek corporal gives the film its most memorable performance.

The movie is as heavy and realistic as Spielberg's Oscar-winning Schindler's List, but it's more kinetic. Spielberg and his ace technicians (the film won five Oscars: editing (Michael Kahn), cinematography (Janusz Kaminski), sound, sound effects, and directing) deliver battle sequences that wash over the eyes and hit the gut. The violence is extreme but never gratuitous. The final battle, a dizzying display of gusto, empathy, and chaos, leads to a profound repose. Saving Private Ryan touches us deeper than Schindler because it succinctly links the past with how we should feel today. It's the film Spielberg was destined to make. --Doug Thomas

Product Description
Captain John Miller must take his men behind enemy lines to find Private Ryan, whose three brothers have been killed in combat. Faced with impossible odds, the men question their orders.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 14-FEB-2006
Media Type: DVD

It is no less than a sheer masterpiece of filmaking. It is a well-researched, authentic anti-war statement that stands as a tribute to those individuals who endured horrific circumstances and literally saved the free world from tyranny.

Saving Private Ryan accomplishes what Schindler's list did in regard to the holocaust and what Oliver Stone's Platoon accomplished in its statement on Vietnam.

In addition, Spielberg has not only paid a deserving tribute to the veterans of World War II, he has also produced an excellent anti-war film that deglorifies warfare. There was nothing romantic about being butchered on the battlefield. If there is a hell, the D-Day veterans have already been there.

Saving Private Ryan is without a doubt one of the most honest, realistic combat movies ever made. Although Spielberg may not have gotten it all down in regard to the war with Germany; his depiction in regard to Normandy Beach and D-Day are right on target!


Sobering reflection on War   November 23, 1999
 42 out of 50 found this review helpful

I am a Vietnam vet, a 35-year reservist on active duty in Saudi Arabia, and a college professor who teaches a course on the theory and practice of war. The film blew me away when I saw it on a Saturday afternoon with my wife. We didn't talk for awhile afterwards, just held hands very tightly. I will show the first part of the film to my class on war, after they have read Fussell's excerpts from his WARTIME in the Atlantic Monthly. Then they will reflect on military ethics under such circumstances--Can we expect people act "morally" in such conditions and hold them accountable if they don't?

My dad and uncle fought in the Pacific in WWII. Their stories and my own brief encounters with combat conditions confirm the basic realism of the scenes Spielberg shot.

Are there inaccuracies in this film? Yes. Is it PC (no blacks, German stereotyping, where were the Brits, etc., etc.) No. But the majority of people I have read here making such comments are twits. The horror of war eats up all its participants. The individual stories of most participants caught up in real wars are tragically mundane and pathetically "undeveloped." (Trying to make an "interesting" story out all the ordinary persons caught up in this sort of thing is a travesty).So Spielberg tells a simple story about ordinary lives smashed at random (or saved at random). What he ultimately accomplishes is to force us into alot of soul searching (at least those of us morally awake) about when and why we should continue to make war, about who we are and what we owe to our parents and grandparents, about whether we are willing to put ourselves or others through this, and if we have anything worth calling up such sacrifice to save.

I guarantee that neither Saddam Hussein nor the Iranian ayotollahs want their people watching this and asking these sorts of questions. . .

As to why this did not win BEST PICTURE? Because the Hollywood liberals did not want to raise questions about those who ran from sacrifice in recent history or to encourage pandering to patriotism? Who knows. Why not skip serious questions and award the title to a "really interesting story" about Shakespeare in adulterous love.


a film to remember   January 13, 2000
 41 out of 55 found this review helpful

Saving Private Ryan is by far the most amazingly spectacular film I have ever seen. In addition to delivering an important anti-war message, it also delivers an important series of facts of what the Second World War was like for the average American foot soldier. D-Day has often been described as a 100% successful operation, basically a breeze for our troops and the British. In truth, however, over 8,000 Allied troops lost their lives that day, compared with only 5,000 Germans. 2,000 men alone died on Omaha Beach. While the D-Day objective for the troops landing on Omaha was to drive five miles inland, they were stopped after about about a half a mile. The Germans were not the incompetent poor soldiers as portrayed in some WW2 movies, they were a savagely effective fighting force. The film, does an excellent job of removing these misconceptions. I remember walking out of the theater after the film's conclusion and seeing several veterans weeping, being comforted by their families. Sights such as these immediately helped my understanding of how powerful this movie truly is. A sight like that is powerful for anyone to see, much less an 18 year old like me. I believe that this movie is a story that needs to be told. It is to World War II what All Quiet on the Western Front is to World War I, and Platoon to Vietnam. This is not a movie you should see, it is a movie you MUST see.