SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (DREAMWORKS) RUNNING TIME: 2 HOURS 48 MINUTES. STARRING TOM HANKS, EDWARD BURNS, TOM SIZEMORE AND MATT DAMON DIRECTED BY STEVEN SPIELBERG Already being hailed as the 'Greatest War Movie Ever Made,' Saving Private Ryan is an harrowing, saddening and riveting movie. It may not be the greatest war movie in my opinion, but it's certainly one of the best war movies made, and one of the best of 1998. Tom Hanks stars as a Captain who's troop has to find Private Ryan (Damon) who has a ticket home because his three brothers have been killed in action. Action, drama and even some humour occur as the troop journeys through wartime France to find him.
After the disappointing Amistad (1997) Spielberg has returned to form with this excellent movie. I'm not the war movie genre biggest fan, but I found this film to be gripping, and very scary, thanks to the excellent cast, direction and terrifying battle scenes. Tom Hanks is superb, straying away from his usually soppy dramatic roles, such as in Forrest Gump (1994). This time, he plays the role with gritty realism, and is much better for it. Occasionally he overacts the sentimentally, but he generally delivers a fine performance. Edward Burns, looking a lot like Armageddon's Ben Affleck, also delivers a top notch performance, moving away from his roles in films such as She's The One (1996) Tom Sizemore makes less of an impact, but is still watchable, and Matt Damon reinforcing his position as one of the finest young actors working today.
Spielberg directs very well, putting the audience right in the heart of the action of the battle scenes. And what battle scenes they are! They're truly terrifying, yet the audience cannot drag their eyes away from the screen. The battle scenes are filmed with a jerky hand-held camera, and the panic and confusion felt by the soldiers is emphasized by this technique. The gore and violence isn't spared either, which body parts flying, and blood spurting. This film is certainly not for kids and sensitive adults.
Other factors help Saving Private Ryan be a masterpiece of 90's film making. The cinematography is excellent, and the music score by John William's is also superb. It is never intrusive, and adds to the drama on-screen.
But while they are thousands of good things great about Private Ryan, there's one major flaw that detracts the genius of the film: the writing. It is unusually flat, with many of the speeches strangely weak. The film never really makes any profound statements. This is not a major gripe, as Private Ryan is a film of action, not words. Still, the script could of been a lot better. Thankfully, the actors help partly to rectify the situation with their great delivery of their lines.
Saving Private Ryan, in the end, is an excellent film, but not the 'greatest war movie' due to it's weak acting. This film should be viewed by everyone who has the stomach for it, as it's rewarding and extremely worthwhile. It really shouldn't be missed, and Dreamworks SKG has finally found it's first hit movie.
RATING=**** OUT OF *****
©1998 DAVID WILCOCK david.wilcock@btinternet.com Visit the Wilcock Movie Page! http://wilcockmovie.home.ml.org -OR- http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/9061 Recieve Wilcock Movie Page Reviews via E-MAIL Send a blank E-MAIL to wmp-reviews-subscribe@makelist.com to join the mailing list!
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