One of the greatest war films ever made is reason enough for me to disregard anything I have against Steven Spielberg. Spielberg is awesome, but he has annoyed me from time to time with his way of sugar coating film endings. I guess I am kind of partial to movies with odd abrupt endings that either make you think or just catch you off guard so that you go out of the theater with a “wow” face. That is another story entirely though; the point is, Spielberg has a tendency to make clean and happy endings to his films which sometimes feels almost boring. Thankfully he is so good at directing that usually the rest of the film makes up for that. Saving Private Ryan is still one of my all time favorites with the powerful story written by Robert Rodat and the excellent directing I already mentioned.
I am sure you have all seen this one before, but if for some reason you did not check it out, then you need to rent this one. My only regret is that I do not own this on Blu-ray and therefore I am tempted to purchase a second copy just to have the HD. Getting on with the reason this movie is so good. The acting is tremendous by Tom Hanks; he always plays parts with amazing talent, but this one really strikes me as one of his best. If you do not feel the passion in that final scene with Hanks and Damon then, well you should probably stop watching movies. The cast is very impressive to say the least. The cast includes Matt Damon, Giovanni Ribisi, Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, Paul Giamatti, and Ted Danson. I am sure there are a lot more, but those are the ones that stuck out in my mind. It is always amazing how many different big names they can get in these war movies. Barry Pepper is his natural edgy character in this one and Sizemore has a good time as well. I could have gone for a little more of Damon, but that obviously would not have worked well with the story. Overall, the acting is excellent and that is just one more thing to add to the already great film.
The directing is where this movie really gets to me. The film is gritty and powerful just like a war movie should be. There are plenty of slow parts to build the depth of characters and give you reason to care about them, but then it is back into the action and Spielberg made it look awesome. The D-Day recreation is a perfect example of Spielberg’s directing talent. It is painful to watch because it is so realistic. One thing I find odd is how big blockbusters often come out in pairs as far as theme goes. Like Volcano and Dante’s Peak, Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line came out around the same time. The Thin Red Line is a great movie as well, but it is very different from Saving Private Ryan. Even the sounds of weapons firing seem completely different and it is not nearly as flashy as Spielberg’s creation. My guess is that they held it until January of the next year so that it would not be overshadowed completely by Saving Private Ryan and was still in the running for some awards.
If you are a fan of war films and you have not seen this one then you are truly missing a remarkable film. I rarely find movies that I would consider to be a 9 out of 10 or higher, but when I do I have no problem adding them to my collection. That is no doubt the case with this one. The writing, directing, and acting are all some of the best. It is definitely a war movie more than anything else, so if you are not the kind that can sit through a couple hours of realistic war carnage then this one will not be for you. In fact, if that is difficult for you to watch then you will likely have to quit watching right in the beginning where they start with D-Day. The language and violence is as bad as it gets, but that is to be expected in a war film. Not surprisingly, at the time of writing this movie is at #46 on imdb’s list of top movies of all time.
The Skinny Version
Raw Score: 912,998
Sharon Movie? No
Director: Steven Spieberg
Writer: Robert Rodat
Genre: Action/Drama/War















