SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
Release Date: July 24, 1998 Starring: Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward J. Burns, Jeremy Davies, Matt Damon, Dennis Farina, Ted Danson, Harve Presnell Directed by: Steven Spielberg Distributed by: DreamWorks Pictures MPAA Rating: R (intense prolonged realistically graphic sequences of war violence, language) URL: http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio/reviews/1998/saving.htm
It's a dismal day on the northwestern coast of France: the skies are heavily overcast, the seas are choppy, the winds are high. At the Dog Green sector of Omaha Beach, things are particularly gruesome: tens of thousands of American infantrymen push relentlessly toward the sand in troop transports. Then the army of boats land, and the ramps drop, and there's a split second where everyone gets their first look at France. Then the German gunners fill the air with rifle fire and troops are cut down by the hundreds - some before taking their first step. Others are killed on the beaches, or in the water, but eventually - if only by sheer numbers - the Allied invasion force at Normandy wins the day and gets a small foothold in Nazi France.
Such is the opening scene in Steven Spielberg's latest epic masterpiece, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, a scene which some thought might have earned the movie an NC-17 classification if the movie had been directed by any other man. Such claims are not far off base, in the sense that Spielberg incorporates an awesomely stunning amount of realism into his latest product. The intense violence, largely concentrated to the first twenty or thirty minutes, is a no-holds-barred look at the Great War. Men die explicitly and and in utter chaos. At first glance, it would be easy to earmark such a crass depiction as nothing but gratuitous violence. But after only moments of viewing, Spielberg does the near-impossible. He puts every member of the audience there at Dog Green on June 6, 1944.
Even after the opening-scene slaughter, everything remains authentic. Mid-forties jargon, olive green uniforms, bulky grey helmets, original automatic weapons, and more are all replicated in stunning detail and attention to realism. On those terms, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is to World War II what TITANIC was to its namesake oceanliner. If there's anything about the movie that Spielberg does the most, it's in creating an authentic, believable, and complete atmosphere for the story. Tramping around the French countryside night and day, everyone watching is in a complete sense of awe at the time travel they have just undergone. This benchmark statement of set and production design is accented and furthered by the acting corps.
Tom Hanks (THAT THING YOU DO!), Tom Sizemore (THE RELIC), and Ed Burns (SHE'S THE ONE) are the lead players in a squad of US Army Rangers with the mission of locating Private James Ryan. Ryan has three brothers, all of whom have already been killed, and the War Department, fearing a scandal, gives Captain Miller (Hanks) and his team the job of finding the remaining Ryan. Each and every member of the team is believable and solid in nature, as the joke, laugh, cry, and suffer through war and its facilities. Hanks is not outstanding but is wonderful as ever, exuding an aura that only comes from a man who has two successive Best Actor nominations. His lead is essential in this movie, and contributes greatly to making SAVING PRIVATE RYAN Spielberg's finest film since SCHINDLER'S LIST. In comparison to his last feature, AMISTAD, Spielberg exchanges a more colorful set for a more action-filled script; this works out for the better with a 170-minute running time. All-in-all, the definitive must-see feature of the summer, and possibly the year.
FINAL AWARD FOR "SAVING PRIVATE RYAN": 4.0 stars - an excellent movie.
-- Craig Roush kinnopio@execpc.com -- Kinnopio's Movie Reviews http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews