» Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: The Opening Scene Alone Makes It Worth It
Comment: When I saw the movie originally the opening scene was one of the most memorable even put on screen and captured the horror, fear and determination in those 20 plus minutes unlike any other, with portions that would make you cringe.

And yes the movie is not perfect, especially since it had to live up to the opening scene, but overall it was still very good with more scenes that worked than didn't. Yes some were poor, and the ending left something to be desired and did not live up to the rest of the film, but so many scenes, such as in the house where the one soldier whispered to another, was chilling.

The cast did an outstanding job and Tom Hanks turned in a wonderful, low key performance. Other than the one resolution at the end, on rewatching the movie some of the minor things I thought about that were problematic when I first viewed the film were not something I noticed.

If for nothing else, the opening half hour along of this movie is more than most can ever attain.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A good movie
Comment: No problem there--the last decade or so of war movies have definitely raised the bar on purported realism, and this is a seminal example. Many problems, however, with the bonus materials, particularly 'Into The Breach,' a quick making-of documentary included on this disc. What bothers me the most is hearing non-combatants, people that NEVER served personally, trying to tell other non-combatants what they should think about the war. Typical example: 'Freedom is never free.' Maybe so, chief. But then how many also honorably laid down their lives in the name of communism or fascism, instead of democracy or freedom? How many cared less about politics, but wanted some adventure, even the thrill of murdering strangers on foreign soil? What did World War II mean to American citizens of Japanese descent that (by executive order) were put into internment camps? What did freedom mean to the hundreds of thousands of American men that were conscripted against their will to risk their necks abroad? What could WWII have possibly meant to a black person in American society circa 1944? What exactly did this great watershed of human freedom do for them? How about the millions crushed under the Iron Curtain, thanks to a great Allied partner like JOSEPH STALIN? Good old Uncle Joseph. I imagine you will hear a very wide variety of responses and attitudes regarding any of these questions, but don't expect anything but meaningless platitudes and modern, anachronisitic propaganda from guys like Ambrose and Spielberg, or the families and descendants of soldiers. The dead themselves would have a LOT of interesting things to say, if they could only talk, right? I dare you to ask several different veterans about what they really think now or thought then about the war. You'll be surprised.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: not disappointed
Comment: Movie is as realistic as can be. I should know,for I was in the european theatre of war, serving in the 9th Infantry division.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Movie!!
Comment: This is an outstanding movie that this generation/Hollywood can't grasp. It has honor, integrity, courage, self sacrifice. These WWII soldiers are the best, especially when compared to the current selfish generation/Hollywood crowd who don't know what the words honor, integrity or courage mean.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The most realistic harrowing battle scenes ever filmed...
Comment: Steven Spielberg makes a unique motion picture in regards to the D-Day invasion of World War II just in the gritty reality of the detail... For more than twenty minutes he revives for us the landing at Omaha beach... No one was prepared for how horrific it really was... No one understood what was going on: The terror, the chaos, the maelstrom of bullets, the near-deafening explosions...You really got a sense of what these guys had to go through...

Within that perplexity, the focus settles on six soldiers under the command of Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) after they've survived their terrible hours breaking through the first line of German defense, they're given a strange perilous mission, to find one man, Pvt. Ryan (Matt Damon), a paratrooper who's somewhere behind German lines... For them, it's an abstruse order, but they have to get it done...

Throughout the film, Spielberg's attention to detail is amazing... For me, the most chilling scene in the movie is the death of an American officer... It's one of the most intimate... It's also a slightly confusing moment because two German characters resemble each other so greatly...

Toward the middle, a German soldier called "Steamboat Willie" is introduced... By the end of the film, he has become the 'bad' German... Later in the movie, another German is involved in the final fight... He takes part in an exceedingly painful scene of hand-to-hand combat with the American soldier... The two German soldiers have similar short haircuts and black uniforms... Because they looked so much alike, many of us have believed that they're one character... They're not, and the distinction of the two is very significant...

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