Review 79: Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan is an incredible war drama film and one of Steven Spielbergs best films and proper, unflinching, open-eye look at war as well as its terror and moral conflicts.

In June 1944, during the Invasion of Normandy, Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) and seven other soldiers Sgt Mike Horvath (Tom Sizemore), Private Richard Reiben (Edward Burns), Private Daniel Jackson (Barry Pepper), Private Adrian Caparzo (Vin Diesel), Medic Irwin Wade (Giovanni Ribisi), Private Stanley Mellish (Adam Goldberg) and Corpral Timothy Upham (Jeremy Davies) are sent to search for a missing paratrooper, Private First Class James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), who is the last-surviving brother of four servicemen intending on bringing him home.

What this movie does so well is that it realistically and graphically depicts the horrors of war: the comradely, the violence and the personal struggles of the soldiers.
However Spielberg frames the quest not only as an act of heroism but also challenges the wisdom of the mission. Also challenged are other traditional gun held war cliches.
And that's how its played with all the soldiers there played pretty straight and we see into their soles and realize that war can have a big impact on you and shows you that you really don't want to be a part of it. The level of violence makes sense because Spielberg is trying to show something about the brutality of what happened. It was not lots of fun with all the generals shouting "Follow me men, it was violent, it was terifying, it was brutal and a real race for survival.

Steven Spielberg's directing is sensational, the score by John Williams is beautifully breathtaking, the cinematography is gorgeous and captures the grim, bleak look of Normandy, France.
The special effects are flawless, the production design is superb and really captures the destruction and waste war causes, the costume design is excellent, the make up is rich and captures brutal injury the soldiers get, the battle scenes are thrilling and brutal (the first 27 minutes of the film depicting the D-Day invasion of Omaha Beach in Normandy show some of the most brutal and realistic depictions of combat ever put on film, deserve the films R rating and firmly establishes this film as not one for the faint hearted) and the ending was beautiful.

The acting was just incredible, all the actors did an incredible job and really managed to capture the pain and depth they have of carrying out the mission 
but Tom Hanks just steals the show as Cap. John H. Miller. His performance in this film is another reminder of what a talent he truly is. Spielberg firmly establishes that Miller is not an action hero but just an ordinary man who's doing his duty and who sometimes wonders if his experiences during the war have changed him in fundamental ways.

Towards the end of the film when Matt Damon shows up James Francis Ryan, he gets a chance to show 

gives one of his best performances of his career.

Saving Private Ryan is a brutal yet beautiful and moving portrait of war: it's terror and it's moral conflicts. Its a film that gives you a respect and admiration for all the soldiers who fought in the war and is love letter to all of those who died and those living today and unlike any war film you will ever see, 5/5.

The Anonymous Critic