SAVING PRIVATE RYAN RATING: 8 / 10 --> Great movie
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Director Steven Spielberg takes us through another destructive time in our human history. World War II is the setting, and the American Armed Forces are the group sent in to fight for their country. This most devastating and realistic portrayal of actual combat earned Spielberg an Oscar for Best Director.
PLOT: A troupe of eight soldiers is given a mission to rescue one James Francis Ryan from the depths of the war. This order is trickled down directly from the top, after it is learned that the Ryan family has lost their three only other sons in the same war.
CRITIQUE: Absolutely genuine, graphic, testament of the actual horrors of war given by the way of skilled direction, a solid cast of performances, a genuinely touching conclusion and an unapologetic portrayal of the humanity and inhumanity suffered by all. Now despite having seen this film after all of the hoopla was over, I still managed to be extremely impressed by its gripping tale, authenticity and ultimate raw power. The first and last scenes were the ones that had me clenched heartily to my seat, feeling the intensity, the bravery and the insanity within all of the panic. While other sequences had me literally crying for their pain, their loss and their lives given away to free and save others. Unlike THE THIN RED LINE (6/10), this movie actually had a plot and drawn-out characters to whom we could relate and invest our attention.
Its biggest compliment relates to its extensive three hour run-time, which didn't seem to phase me one bit. This film had me by the balls from the get-go and kept pounding me with an interesting array of characters, solid guidance and a cast that was primed for the occasion. Standouts included Giovanni Ribisi and Tom Sizemore in my eyes, but all were extremely integral to the whole of the story. I commend Spielberg for bringing out the best in his players, and bringing to screen a variant version of "just another War movie". I did find that the fast-action camera technique was a tad overused, but who am I to argue with a genius of American cinema. All in all, an engaging film about a bleak subject told via a simple story, great characters, realistic and gruesome combat scenes, and a vision of a man graced with the talent to direct it all into a coherent and emotional page of human and cinematic history.
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: (Some facts courtesy of the IMDb) There is only one woman who has a speaking part in this film (Need confirmation on this.) Don't blink, or you may miss actor Ted Danson and Dennis Farina's very small roles in this movie. All the principal actors in this movie underwent several weeks of grueling army training, except for Matt Damon, who was spared so that the other actors would resent him, and would convey that resentment in their performances. Director Steven Spielberg considered casting Matt Damon only after viewing his performance in 1996's COURAGE UNDER FIRE, but thought that he was too skinny (Ironically, Damon had specifically lost 40 pounds for his role in the film and become quite ill after the filming because of his newfound weight). But after fellow actor Robin Williams introduced Damon to Spielberg on the set of GOOD WILL HUNTING (8/10), Spielberg changed his mind, and cast the hot, young star in the role of Private Ryan. This movie is actually based upon the true story of the Niland brothers. One was killed on D-Day while in the 82nd Airborne, one was killed on Utah Beach with the 4th Infantry Division, and a third was killed that same week in Burma. Mrs. Niland received all three death notification telegrams on the same day. The fourth son was serving with the 101st Airborne and was pulled out of the front lines. The Edith Piaf song that the soldiers question the meaning of before the final battle is the same song that the commandos of 1967's THE DIRTY DOZEN question in their tents. There was some uncredited rewriting done on Robert Rodat's original script, by the director of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (8.5/10), Frank Darabont. Rodat's previous screenplay was for the Jeff Daniels/Anna Paquin goose story, FLY AWAY HOME. Real amputees were used for the shots of people with limbs missing. The last film that the three producers (Ian Bryce, Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn) from this film produced together was HARD RAIN (7/10).
Review Date: April 4, 1999
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: Robert Rodat
Producers: Ian Bryce, Mark Gordon, Gary Levinsohn
and Steven Spielberg
Actors: Tom Hanks as Captain John Miller
Tom Sizemore as Sergeant Horvath
Matt Damon as James Ryan
Genre: War
Year of Release: 1998
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