A stalwart Tom Hanks plays Captain Miller, a soldier's soldier, who takes a small band of troops behind enemy lines to retrieve a private whose three brothers have recently been killed in action. It's a public relations move for the Army, but it has historical precedent dating back to the Civil War. Some critics of the film have labeled the central characters stereotypes. If that is so, this movie gives stereotypes a good name: Tom Sizemore as the deft sergeant, Edward Burns as the hotheaded Private Reiben, Barry Pepper as the religious sniper, Adam Goldberg as the lone Jew, Vin Diesel as the oversize Private Caparzo, Giovanni Ribisi as the soulful medic, and Jeremy Davies, who as a meek corporal gives the film its most memorable performance.

The movie is as heavy and realistic as Spielberg's Oscar-winning Schindler's List, but it's more kinetic. Spielberg and his ace technicians (the film won five Oscars: editing (Michael Kahn), cinematography (Janusz Kaminski), sound, sound effects, and directing) deliver battle sequences that wash over the eyes and hit the gut. The violence is extreme but never gratuitous. The final battle, a dizzying display of gusto, empathy, and chaos, leads to a profound repose. Saving Private Ryan touches us deeper than Schindler because it succinctly links the past with how we should feel today. It's the film Spielberg was destined to make. --Doug Thomas

Saving Private Ryan (Special Limited Edition)

• Forrest Gump (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)
• Band of Brothers
• Braveheart (Special Collector's Edition)
• Gladiator (Widescreen Edition)
• We Were Soldiers (Widescreen Edition)
• Schindler's List (Widescreen Edition)
• Black Hawk Down [Region 2]
• Platoon (Special Edition)
• The Patriot (Special Edition)
• {SIMILAR.PRODUCTNAME}

Everyone's seen this movie and if you haven't you probably don't like war movies. The hype for this movie is right on. You won't be disappointed in this movie. It's Visually stunning. If you like War Movies and you haven't seen this, you must see it. After this movie, Steve Spielberg decided to do the Band of Brothers which is also very good. Reviews for this movie are pretty much ineffectual. It has The best opening scene in any movie.

That should be enough for all of us to make a promise to ourselves to personally thank as many vets as we can for serving to keep us free. Hats off to Spielberg for the realism of the combat.

War is no walk in the park, and this movie comes closest to capturing just how close to hell it really is. A great movie for this era.

Thank God for the men that put their lives on the line to keep us, and the world, free. A must see for all kids as soon as they are capable of handling it.

Sometimes there are causes greater than our own selves which are worth sacrificing for. Too many men of that generation have passed away - this captures a little bit of what was special about that generation.

I hope that this is the closest that I ever come to combat in my life. This movie teaches a lot about sacrifice, courage, heroism, and emotion.

No disrespect to anyone, but why is it that whenever we see a US flag, or hear the mention of someone like President Lincoln, an orchestra always starts to play. Why was it set in the present, with the body of the film as a flashback. That would have, perhaps, have said more about the nature of war, fate and taking orders. When hundreds of dead American troops are shown lying dead in the surf, there is a musical soundtrack, an orchestra in a minor key. But supposing he had been crying and hiding behind a tree. He is presented as an heroic figure when we first see him, holding a bazooka.

Wouldn't it have been a great film if Private Ryan himself had not been much worth saving. It has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. When the film came out, this is what impressed people, along with its apparent realism. Surely, the sight of hundreds of young men lying dead on a beach is melancholy enough. I could not see the purpose to trying to anchor it in the present, in some way. The opening sequence is based on a similar one in a German film called Stalingrad, and has great impact. This is an interesting film but marred in all sorts of funny ways: yukky setimentality intrudes and damages what could have been a very great film.

Why.

The first time I saw it, I was caught up from the beginning and the rest of the film seemed to hold me equally well. But upon further viewings, the flimsiness and basic illogic of the central plot become far more noticeable. There are still several compelling scenes here, and Tom Hanks gives the performance of his career (his "dramatic" career anyway - I'm one who still believes there's much to be said for Tom's earlier work in comedy) but there just seems to be an overall "falseness" in the structure that undercuts some of the film's power. well, I'm not sure. As for the rest of the movie which follows this opening sequence. Spielberg uses every ounce of his talent and ingenuity to show combat the way it should be shown: as pure Hell, a nightmare that it is impossible to waken from. Warts and all, it's the kind that only a truly great director could make - and the opening alone is worth the cost. But by all means see this movie.

Just don't expect a masterpiece; think of it more as a flawed gem. I wish a better framing story could have been found. Definitely not for the squeamish, it paints its horrifying portrait without ever allowing the viewer to glory in any kind of "excitement" (which most battle simulations end up doing on some level, even the well-meaning ones). First off, everything you may have heard about the opening Normandy sequence is true: this is quite simply the most amazing battle re-creation footage you're ever likely to see. I don't know, it's a toss-up.

To know that he is one who has tried his best to live the Good Life somehow lets him sleep at night. What makes this insane struggle to quantify the unquantifiable work is the realization that the ability to judge the worth of such a sacrifice cannot be realized until much later when the now elderly Private Ryan pauses in front of the grave of Capt. It is this subtext of ethics versus pragmatism that imbues the film with the multi-layers of interpretation that result in equally multi-viewings. There are numerous scenes in which a soldier will pause while directly involved in a life and death struggle to detach himself from the fray to consider some basic concepts that mark him as human. We in the audience can share this most intimate of moments. It is impossible to feel nothing even for the Germans who die by the hundreds. The question of the morality to do this while others are equally deserving a ticket home is announced by Ryan (Matt Damon) himself who refuses to leave while his comrades need him.

Tom Hanks is Captain Miller who has the thankless task of bringing home Private Ryan whose three other brothers have died in battle. Miller to pass judgment on an event that for everyone save him is only of historical interest.

Critics have noted that with the opening scene of GIs getting machine gunned by Wehrmacht troopers on Omaha Beach on D-Day, Spielberg begins a three hour howl of pain that affects the soul as much as it does the body. Nearly everyone in Capt. Miller's squad also wonders whether their lives are collectively worth the one whose three brothers were killed.

In SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, director Steven Spielberg drags the viewer out of his seat and throws him into the sound and fury of modern war. All war movies capture a piece of the brutality that is war but only a very few bring forth the full carnage that war is. Jeremy Davies plays a GI interpreter who must face the morality of what it means to use his linguistic skills as simply one more element for killing the enemy.