Saving Private Ryan

Rating 70/100 Amazing start showcasing just how atrocious and disgusting war is. Followed by a non-sensical plot point to rescue one person in a war where millions died, because he's the last guy in his family. I really liked the interpersonal relationships between the cast, the movie showcasing just how mortal everyone is and they can die at any moment is where the movie is at its best. Deducting some points because as you would expect the movie very much leans into American war propaganda, look at how merciful, all powerful and correct we are as an army and how bad everyone else is. If I ignored the stupid reason for the journey, the journey is fun and entertaining, and if I ignored the social and political messages of it its even better as a movie, and then I would rate it as a 85, but unfortunately I can't ignore those and hence its a 70 for me.

I don't think I can recall any Hollywood film that depicts the atrocities of the D-Day landings as effectively as this does at the start. Indeed, watching it you wonder just how any of the Allied soldiers managed to ever survive the water let alone fight their way up a beach crowded with tank traps, mines and barbed wire - all whilst under constant machine gun fire. Steven Spielberg leaves very little to our imagination and bodies drop left, right and centre with an authenticity that John Williams scores remarkably poignantly. It's during this seemingly impossible assault that we are introduced to "Miller" (a career-best from Tom Hanks) and his squad who are tasked with taking out one of the heavily defended pill boxes. Meantime, the US Chief of Staff - General George Marshall is informed that one particular lady is about to get three telegrams in one day telling her that her sons have...

This movie should be known for changing Historical War Dramas as we know them. It was the first to accurately depict the carnage of war, and changed the direction of this genre of movies for all time. The initial D-Day scene was fantastic. Afterwards, Tom Hanks is ordered to chose a team of his men and look for James MacGuffin Ryan from Iowa. In order to achieve this goal, Hanks takes us across the entire back drop of world war 2, all the while making us ask, is all this worth just one man? Honestly it's a must watch and is on my "Difinitive Movie List"

Great WWII war action in France, but too much of the drama is weak RELEASED IN 1998 and directed by Steven Spielberg, "Saving Private Ryan" (SPR) is about the Normandy invasion and its immediate aftermath from June 6-16, 1944. The focus is on a Captain (Tom Hanks) and his men who are commissioned to find a paratrooper (Matt Damon) whose brothers have been killed in action. No one's supposed to say anything bad about SPR. To do so is considered sacrilege, but I have to be honest about what I like and don't like about Spielberg's popular WWII war flick. The initial beach landing (shot at Curracloe Beach, Ballinesker, Ireland) is outstanding, as is the closing half-hour battle at the crumbling village of Ramelle. In between these two great bookends are a few quality sequences, but I didn't find a lot of the drama all that engaging or convincing. The cast is notable (also including Tom...