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Reviews of Saving Private Ryan
Great Film
Posted : 3 months, 1 week ago on 2 August 2009 04:19
(A review of Saving Private Ryan)If I hadn't heard vets say that the opening 20 minutes of the film were the most realistic movie portrayal of the battlefield conditions (i.e. the terror and hubbub), then I might have written it off as gratuitously violent. Not that the first 20 minutes had all that much to do with the overall plot, but kudos for realism.
The rest of the movie is a well laid out plot.
I love the way that the men work up a real hate for Ryan as they slog through dangerous territory trying to find him. Then they meet the man and he's so hard to hate. He regrets the men lost to find him and he refuses to take his easy ticket out of the war. He is going to stay and fight to hold the bridge, just like the other soldiers who were already there.
I haven't seen a movie released in the last 10 years that I enjoyed more than SPR.
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One of the greatest War films on Celluloid.
Posted : 11 months ago on 10 December 2008 08:38
(A review of Saving Private Ryan)''He better be worth it. He better go home and cure a disease, or invent a longer-lasting light bulb.''
Following the Normandy Landings, a group of US soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
Tom Hanks: Capt. John H. Miller
Spielberg continues what he does best with Saving Private Ryan, a film so graphic in its Second World War battlefield depictions that many veterans have called it the closest thing to being there. The explicit scenes of gushing arteries, severed limbs and faceless corpses come fast and furious, numbing us into the reality of the setting. In fact, if we didn't know Spielberg as a serious artist with noble objectives, we might be tempted to call him a shock artist obsessed with blood, guts, splatter and gore.
Steven Spielberg's genius stems from his ability to always know, exactly where he wants to show his viewer and to transport them there. If he wants to aim for our emotions, he'll make us fall in love with a brown and wrinkly alien we might otherwise find grotesque and scary. If he wants to make us inch the blanket up over our eyes in fear, he'll crank up the grim orchestral music and put us up lose and personal, with a toothy shark nemesis. And if he wants us to truly understand an entirely different kind of horror, he'll show us small children leaping into a pool of outhouse waste, to escape their murderous Holocaust captors. He isn't afraid to dirty his hands with any material he selects.
But what do we do know about Spielberg? We know he would not take us down such a rocky road without a reason. In Saving Private Ryan, the obvious rationalization is to help us understand not where he's coming from, but where the men we will ultimately spend nearly three hours with are coming from. It's in this hell on earth that Cpt. John Miller and his small group of soldiers (fine actors like Edward Burns, Tim Sizemore and Barry Pepper among them) must not only survive with sanity intact, but carry out orders. And not all of those orders make sense at the time, if ever. Case in point, Hanks and his men are sent to locate one Private James Ryan (Matt Damon). Private Ryan is no POW, no casualty, but a soldier still serving somewhere within the vast U.S. Forces, if he's still alive, that is. During WW2, with a communication system that is a technological relic by today's standards.
''My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust.''
Each man has a unique background, skill or specialized field. Whether it be an expert marksman or a Jewish veteran and fighter at war. IT all adds to the gritty realism and the taste of war, that your granddad would remember.
The mission they face, is a very hard venture, not just logistically, but emotionally. Private Ryan is sought so he can be sent home to his mom, who has just lost her three other sons virtually at once. As he himself admits, Private Ryan has displayed no more courage than his fellow soldiers. Why should he get to leave? Indeed that question crops up in the minds of Hanks' soldiers. Why is one man's life worth risking those of a group of men? they ask. It's an interesting angle for a film about heroes and rationality. We often think of soldiers doing their job with no questions asked, happy to put their lives on the line for their fellow team mates. We forget they are human beings like us, flesh and blood.
What Saving Private Ryan does extremely well, is show the world the harsh reality of war. Such as letting prisoners go only to return in circulation later, Allied Soldiers killing prisoners or surrendering Nazis because they are bitter, it all shows that the only fairness in war is the unfairness of it. The story about a squad of soldiers sent to retrieve the surviving brother of three dead soldiers is told with competency and due reverence from all perspectives of the characters involved. It is an uncommon and intriguing drama, but it serves as an excuse to describe a setting, rather than the other way around. The story manages to move us through all sorts of different landscapes and scenarios, giving us an unforgettable glimpse of a world unknown to most of us, and terrifying to those who are familiar with it from personal experience.
And therein lies one of the biggest strengths of Saving Private Ryan. It's a very human story told in extreme circumstances. It covers all the traditional struggles like inner turmoil, terror, carnage yet has a level of sophistication absent from most other war films, particularly those inspired by The Last Great War. Hanks isn't Patton, but a schoolteacher, a human being, someone we can relate to, who secretly cries at the enormity of it all. The enemy fighters don't have horns, but uniforms and feelings just like the Americans. The soldiers are heroes, but reluctant ones.
Spielberg is a master at telling the story of war and men. Saving Private Ryan is not his best, but it certainly comes close.
''I just know that every man I kill, the farther away from home I feel.''
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Saving Private Ryan review
Posted : 11 months, 1 week ago on 1 December 2008 01:57
(A review of Saving Private Ryan)One of the greatest depictions of WWII. well made, well acted. this movie broke my heart and gave me chills. I cant tell anyone how great this movie is, you just have to see it. Even if you don't like war movies this is more than just that. Its important for people to see what these people went through for our freedom.
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Steven Spielberg's second crowning achievement
Posted : 1 year ago on 17 October 2008 11:32
(A review of Saving Private Ryan)"The boy's alive and we're going to send someone to save him... and we are going to get him the hell out of there."
The directorial career of Steven Spielberg commenced in the early years of the 1970s. Spielberg originally directed Duel before progressing onto further projects such as The Sugarland Express, Jaws, and the excellent Indiana Jones adventures (beginning with Raiders of the Lost Ark). These few years established Spielberg as an accomplished purveyor of light-hearted blockbusters and good fun action movies. It was in 1993 that Spielberg demonstrated his ability to direct powerful and mature films. Schindler's List denoted a crucial addition to Spielberg's extensive résumé: a modern masterpiece that personified good (Schindler) and evil (Amon Goeth), playing out the struggle against the tragic backdrop of the Holocaust.
1997 marked the release of two further additions to the Spielberg canon - Amistad and The Lost World: Jurassic Park. These films are fine examples of Spielberg as a thinker and as an entertainer. For 1998's Saving Private Ryan, these two characteristics are deftly merged. Not only is Saving Private Ryan an extremely powerful and deeply philosophical affair, but it's also very entertaining and utterly riveting for its entire duration.
D-Day: Tuesday, June 6th, 1944. At 6:30am that ill-fated morning, an initial assault wave disembarked at Omaha Beach. This first assault wave comprised of 96 tanks, almost 1500 assault infantry, and a task force of engineers to clear the landing area of obstructions. In the hours preceding the landing, the German shore defences were heavily pulverised by Allied artillery, naval guns, and aerial barrages. However as the first landing craft came within a quarter-mile of shore...it became apparent that the German fortifications hadn't been neutralised. Rough seas and poor visibility had hampered the artillery bombardments, with overcast conditions amplifying the margin of error for the bombing runs. Consequently, a majority of the bombs hit too far inland. Establishing the beachhead would prove to be far more gruelling than originally envisaged. As the landing crafts hit the sand, the infantry immediately found themselves under concentrated small-arms, mortar and artillery fire from enemy fortifications that covered Omaha Beach. Burdened by heavy equipment, weakened by seasickness, exhausted, and disoriented by the mayhem surrounding them, the disembarking infantry had to travel through knee-deep to waist-high water, making them easy targets for the German soldiers. Upon reaching shore, they then had to move up 200 yards of open beach before reaching any form of cover. All this while avoiding enemy fire, which fell thick and fast all around them. This event was a violent massacre.
The story conveyed in Saving Private Ryan is prefaced with the D-Day landing at Omaha Beach. This beginning is commonly regarded as the best battle sequence ever committed to celluloid. It's also frequently regarded as the best war scene in cinematic history. This sequence depicts the Omaha Beach landing from the perspective of the soldiers who fought it. This is a brilliant scene, not only in terms of technique but in its unparalleled ability to have a viewer completely immersed as the anarchic mayhem transpires. This is certainly the most violent, gory, visceral cinematic depiction of war I have ever witnessed. Spielberg spares the viewer nothing of the horrors of war as he uses every tactic at his disposal to convey the utter turmoil and futile waste that lies at the core of any engagement. The audience is presented with unforgettable, haunting images of bodies being cut to pieces by bullets, limbs being blown off, entrails spilling out, as well as a range of additional assorted examples of carnage. When the tide comes in at the battle's conclusion, with the waves breaking on the body-strewn beach, the water is crimson. It's jaw-droppingly compelling material, and all the more sobering when you realise that this isn't fiction - this actually occurred to the mostly young, inexperienced soldiers. Spielberg and his cast & crew have produced an astonishingly faithful recreation of the war experience. Shell-shocked D-Day veterans reportedly staggered out of theatres mumbling "someone finally showed what it was really like". Steven Spielberg won a Best Director Oscar for his efforts of course.
The story following this phenomenal opening sequence is a simple one. A group of eight soldiers, led by D-Day survivor and hero Captain Miller (Hanks), are dispatched to find a soldier who is currently believed to be stuck behind enemy lines. This soldier they're searching for is Private James Ryan (Damon) whose three other brothers were killed in action. To avoid the devastation of Ryan's mother suffering the loss of her last son, General George C. Marshall (Presnell) orders these aforementioned eight soldiers to find Private Ryan and bring him back home. Screenwriter Robert Rodat adapted the story from a real-life situation.
This is an incisive, philosophical story. The underlying theme that runs the length of the movie is in regards to the value of a single human soul. As the eight-man platoon suffers casualties, is it really worth it just to save one man? Are there lives in this world more important than others? As the soldiers strive to complete their objective, their loyalties begin to blur and they begin to question the necessity of the mission. Spielberg vividly contrasts the faceless carnage of the Omaha Beach landing with the extremely personal and shocking deaths of some of the soldiers during their mission. Thousands died on Omaha beach, including many close friends of the surviving men. Yet the nature of this mission - which a majority of the men see as "Fubar" - causes them to question the value they place on their own lives as well as the lives of their friends. As events unfold, these soldiers commit acts of vengeance and rage that they themselves would most likely never have thought themselves capable of mere days beforehand.
The three-act structure of Saving Private Ryan is moderately straightforward. The movie is book-ended by two major battle sequences. In between these two major battles there are smaller skirmishes and relatively subdued character-building moments. Consequently the entire film is absorbing, engrossing, mesmerising and totally enthralling. Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan is an emotionally intense journey through the battlegrounds of occupied France during World War II. Director Spielberg delivers one of the greatest war movies of all time, if not the greatest war movie in history. But, despite being set against the background of WWII, this isn't just a war movie; this is a human drama first and a war adventure second. It commemorates the preservation of hope, courage, and sacrifice in the cauldron of fear and devastation that was WWII, or any war for that matter. These virtues shine brightest throughout humanity's gloomiest hours. Spielberg understands that in art one must show the horrors of a certain situation in order to suitably illustrate the full potential of the human spirit. All of the verisimilitude merely exists to transport us into the hearts and minds of those who tolerated such taxing circumstances so that we may perhaps identify with them, and maybe become acquainted with ourselves a bit better along the way.
As escapist entertainment (something that Spielberg also relishes) Saving Private Ryan is a masterpiece that offers a rollercoaster ride yet to be equalled or surpassed.
The authenticity of its period depiction is truly astounding. Spielberg opted for the film to be shot in bleached colour, with lenses similar to those available during the 1940s to give the impression of actual documentary footage. The director employs other methods to encapsulate the essence of combat - gritty hand-held cameras, a slight speeding up of the images, muted colours, and an assortment of different kinds of film stock. Altogether this adds up to a dizzying, exhausting assault on the senses. Needless to say, the film confidently won the Oscar for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing.
The searing and uncompromising images of violence and gore almost earned an NC-17 rating from the MPAA. However the gore is by no means exploitative or exaggerated. Instead of dwelling on geysers of blood being spilled, the film continues to rapidly move along at lightning pace.
If you're avoiding the movie due to the three-hour running time, then you're avoiding it for all the wrong reasons. 160 minutes has never flown by so fast. You'll be so captivated by the brilliant filmmaking that you won't ever be reduced to boredom. The film is also remarkably visceral. Spielberg very sparingly employs CGI. Things are generally kept practical, and the rare instances of CGI are so subtle that you won't notice. Even about 20 amputee stuntmen were employed and fitted with prosthetic limbs.
Words cannot accurately describe how remarkable the sound design truly is. Loud accurate gun noises, deafening explosions and explicit stabbings are among the moments perfectly topped off by the terrific sound mix. Needless to say, the film earned an Academy Award for both Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing.
There's an absolutely astonishing cast at the centre of the film. Tom Hanks once again delivers an impeccable performance. He was nominated for an Oscar, naturally. The excellent ensemble cast also includes Tom Sizemore, Matt Damon, Edward Burns, Jeremy Davies, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg, Barry Pepper, Ted Danson, Paul Giamatti and Giovanni Ribisi. They all look the part and convey the emotional necessities of their respective characters.
In the film there is no specific human villain. Even the harsh ideology and inhumane beliefs of Nazi Germany aren't presented as the evil to be overcome. Instead war and the blistering impact it has on soldiers is the real enemy.
John Williams was nominated for an Oscar for his terrific music. In my opinion this must be considered as one of Williams' finest scores. The music is touching and poignant, heroic and emotive. Music is never employed during the action sequences simply because (as Spielberg once explained) it reminds the audience that they're watching a movie. Instead of music, the ambient sound effects permeate the battles. This works perfectly. Other Oscar nominations included Best Writing and Best Make-Up. It deserved both of these awards in my books.
After the masterpiece of Schindler's List, nobody could imagine Spielberg crafting another masterpiece of such brilliance. But Saving Private Ryan is proof the director is capable of making another film of such a high standard. In my opinion, Saving Private Ryan earns the honour of being the greatest war film in history. It's gripping, engrossing, and uncompromising. Spielberg strikes the perfect balance of confronting horror and poignant human drama. The director's dexterous touch is readily apparent throughout this film, particularly in his inspired use of camera framing and movement as well as the soundtrack that plays a crucial role.
Saving Private Ryan is the most powerful and accurate cinematic rendering of World War II. Nothing you've ever read in history books can prepare you for the uncompromising way Spielberg brings the war to life…he does so with great attention to detail and a genuine passion for honesty toward his subject matter. Some bitterly complain about this film being potent American propaganda. The same can be said about any war film. This particular war film is based on a real mission that was carried out by American soldiers. If you think this is propaganda then you're unbelievably narrow-minded.
In one of the biggest Oscar blunders in history, the Academy overlooked this masterpiece and awarded Best Picture to Shakespeare in Love. How this happened is simply beyond me...
10/10
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I Liked It
Posted : 1 year, 7 months ago on 30 March 2008 11:44
(A review of Saving Private Ryan)Signifies the brutality of war. I appreciate this film because it shows the general public how real war is.
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Saving Private Ryan review
Posted : 2 years, 2 months ago on 18 August 2007 06:27
(A review of Saving Private Ryan)This film is definitely one of my favourite war films. This is thanks, in part, to its brutal realism, particularly from the opening scenes. The first time I watched the assault on Normandy beach I was close to vomiting. The violence is horrendous, but what makes it so difficult to watch is the fact that it is the reenactment of a true event. This isn't a laughable gore-fest cooked up in the mind of some generic horror director, normal human beings had to experience it. The landing is an incredible achievement.
From then on, people from all over start to criticise the plot, for various reasons. The main gripe for a lot of people is how this is pure American patriotism at its most potent. I personally couldn't care less if the British are underrepresented in this film, American forces were involved in taking this beach and, shock horror, American-only platoons went on missions after D-Day.
Tom Hanks puts in another superb performance as the captain of 8 men sent on a mission to find and bring home a soldier whose siblings have died in the war already. The action is so intense throughout the whole film, and the support cast is fantastic, playing characters that you can sympathise with and enjoy watching. I became attached to them and I guess that's what makes the final scenes so difficult to watch. In short, an amazing film about amazing people living through a terrible period of human history.
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