Customer Rating: 
Summary: Unforgettable. Spielberg's best
Comment: Steven Spielberg is one of Hollywood's biggest director's and has made many great films but however Saving Private Ryan stands out from all the rest. It features some of the most violent and most releastic war footage ever filmed and delivers on giving the message that war is pure hell. The movie opens up on the landing on Omaha Beach where the Allies were being slaughtered up by the Germans forcing many viewers to look away in the 20 minute opening. Saving Private Ryan, his film of a mission following the D-day invasion that many have called the most realistic and maybe the best war film ever. With 1998 production standards, Spielberg has been able to create a stunning, unparalleled view of war.
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 a private by the name of Ryan. His mother recently received all 3 telegrams with a chaplin and an officer arriving at her doorstep on a remote farm. Miller's men set out to find Private Ryan against all odds which features a certain style about the film that doesn't make out a typical hollywood film. This film also boasts alot of big stars including, Tom Sizemore, Vin Diesel, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Giovanni Ribisi and many other familiar faces.
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. An unforgettable experience that won't be forgotten.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of my top favorite WW II movies
Comment: Impressive. All 5/5 stars for the first 15-20 minutes of the movie and the whole story of course is magnificent. Awesome! This is my favorite WW II movie. Great job and a fitting tribute to those who died trying to liberate Europe from Nazism and Fascism. Extremely well-done and a great movie. Makes me tear eyed when the army car comes by to notify Ryan's family of their sons' death. The acting is great and the visual effects are very well-done. Moreover, the Robert Kapa's style of photography is amazing. Spielberg might be a typical liberal Hollywood star but his movies are fantastic. He's got better yr by yr. I think this is thus far the best WW 2 movie of the recent yrs. loved it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: The best war film ever
Comment: Reviews for this movie are pretty much ineffectual. Everyone's seen this movie and if you haven't you probably don't like war movies. The hype for this movie is right on. It's Visually stunning. It has The best opening scene in any movie. You won't be disappointed in this movie.
After this movie, Steve Spielberg decided to do the Band of Brothers which is also very good.
If you like War Movies and you haven't seen this, you must see it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A MUST SEE movie
Comment: I hope that this is the closest that I ever come to combat in my life. Thank God for the men that put their lives on the line to keep us, and the world, free. Hats off to Spielberg for the realism of the combat. That should be enough for all of us to make a promise to ourselves to personally thank as many vets as we can for serving to keep us free. War is no walk in the park, and this movie comes closest to capturing just how close to hell it really is. This movie teaches a lot about sacrifice, courage, heroism, and emotion. Sometimes there are causes greater than our own selves which are worth sacrificing for. A great movie for this era. Too many men of that generation have passed away - this captures a little bit of what was special about that generation. A must see for all kids as soon as they are capable of handling it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A strange film in many ways.
Comment: This is an interesting film but marred in all sorts of funny ways: yukky setimentality intrudes and damages what could have been a very great film.
The opening sequence is based on a similar one in a German film called Stalingrad, and has great impact. When the film came out, this is what impressed people, along with its apparent realism.
Wouldn't it have been a great film if Private Ryan himself had not been much worth saving? He is presented as an heroic figure when we first see him, holding a bazooka. But supposing he had been crying and hiding behind a tree? That would have, perhaps, have said more about the nature of war, fate and taking orders.
When hundreds of dead American troops are shown lying dead in the surf, there is a musical soundtrack, an orchestra in a minor key. Why? Surely, the sight of hundreds of young men lying dead on a beach is melancholy enough.
Why was it set in the present, with the body of the film as a flashback? I could not see the purpose to trying to anchor it in the present, in some way.
No disrespect to anyone, but why is it that whenever we see a US flag, or hear the mention of someone like President Lincoln, an orchestra always starts to play? It has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.
Summary: Unforgettable. Spielberg's best
Comment: Steven Spielberg is one of Hollywood's biggest director's and has made many great films but however Saving Private Ryan stands out from all the rest. It features some of the most violent and most releastic war footage ever filmed and delivers on giving the message that war is pure hell. The movie opens up on the landing on Omaha Beach where the Allies were being slaughtered up by the Germans forcing many viewers to look away in the 20 minute opening. Saving Private Ryan, his film of a mission following the D-day invasion that many have called the most realistic and maybe the best war film ever. With 1998 production standards, Spielberg has been able to create a stunning, unparalleled view of war.
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 a private by the name of Ryan. His mother recently received all 3 telegrams with a chaplin and an officer arriving at her doorstep on a remote farm. Miller's men set out to find Private Ryan against all odds which features a certain style about the film that doesn't make out a typical hollywood film. This film also boasts alot of big stars including, Tom Sizemore, Vin Diesel, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Giovanni Ribisi and many other familiar faces.
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. An unforgettable experience that won't be forgotten.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of my top favorite WW II movies
Comment: Impressive. All 5/5 stars for the first 15-20 minutes of the movie and the whole story of course is magnificent. Awesome! This is my favorite WW II movie. Great job and a fitting tribute to those who died trying to liberate Europe from Nazism and Fascism. Extremely well-done and a great movie. Makes me tear eyed when the army car comes by to notify Ryan's family of their sons' death. The acting is great and the visual effects are very well-done. Moreover, the Robert Kapa's style of photography is amazing. Spielberg might be a typical liberal Hollywood star but his movies are fantastic. He's got better yr by yr. I think this is thus far the best WW 2 movie of the recent yrs. loved it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: The best war film ever
Comment: Reviews for this movie are pretty much ineffectual. Everyone's seen this movie and if you haven't you probably don't like war movies. The hype for this movie is right on. It's Visually stunning. It has The best opening scene in any movie. You won't be disappointed in this movie.
After this movie, Steve Spielberg decided to do the Band of Brothers which is also very good.
If you like War Movies and you haven't seen this, you must see it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A MUST SEE movie
Comment: I hope that this is the closest that I ever come to combat in my life. Thank God for the men that put their lives on the line to keep us, and the world, free. Hats off to Spielberg for the realism of the combat. That should be enough for all of us to make a promise to ourselves to personally thank as many vets as we can for serving to keep us free. War is no walk in the park, and this movie comes closest to capturing just how close to hell it really is. This movie teaches a lot about sacrifice, courage, heroism, and emotion. Sometimes there are causes greater than our own selves which are worth sacrificing for. A great movie for this era. Too many men of that generation have passed away - this captures a little bit of what was special about that generation. A must see for all kids as soon as they are capable of handling it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A strange film in many ways.
Comment: This is an interesting film but marred in all sorts of funny ways: yukky setimentality intrudes and damages what could have been a very great film.
The opening sequence is based on a similar one in a German film called Stalingrad, and has great impact. When the film came out, this is what impressed people, along with its apparent realism.
Wouldn't it have been a great film if Private Ryan himself had not been much worth saving? He is presented as an heroic figure when we first see him, holding a bazooka. But supposing he had been crying and hiding behind a tree? That would have, perhaps, have said more about the nature of war, fate and taking orders.
When hundreds of dead American troops are shown lying dead in the surf, there is a musical soundtrack, an orchestra in a minor key. Why? Surely, the sight of hundreds of young men lying dead on a beach is melancholy enough.
Why was it set in the present, with the body of the film as a flashback? I could not see the purpose to trying to anchor it in the present, in some way.
No disrespect to anyone, but why is it that whenever we see a US flag, or hear the mention of someone like President Lincoln, an orchestra always starts to play? It has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.