Saving Private Ryan

January 16, 2005

Rated: R Runtime: 169 min Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The Army, in its infinite wisdom, does some really stupid things. The premise of the movie (and it’s based on a true story) is that the Ryan family sent four brothers into the war, three of which were killed at or around D-Day. When a certain General learns of the fate of the Ryan brothers he decides that it would be “the decent thing” to send in troops to get the one remaining Ryan brother out of the war.

OK, I’ll concede that it’s the decent thing to do, but what about the mothers of the men who were killed just to try and save Private Ryan? What about their families?

As I’m sure you are well aware Spielberg won many awards for this movie, and they were all quite deserved. Simply put, Saving Private Ryan is a masterpiece and really should be required viewing for any movie buff and a required part of any war film buff’s library.

The opening sequence is about 30 minutes long and deals with the D-day invasion. If you’ve never been truly convinced that “war is hell”, you will be after viewing this. I can’t say enough about the quality of the filming and special effects. I haven’t seen a battle first hand so I can’t tell you for certain that this depiction is accurate, but many veterans who have seen it report that it’s as close to the real thing as would be possible.

Acting is top notch as well with everyone turning in amazing performances. These characters are 100% believable and deal with quite trying conditions in exactly the manner as would be expected. They don’t always get along, and they aren’t all “brave little soldiers”, but that’s just the way things are. People do the best they can given their circumstances.

After seeing this film in the theaters I rated it 4 stars instead of 5 as I felt it was too long and moved too slowly in parts. After seeing it on DVD however I’ve raised my rating to 5 stars. Yes, it’s still slow in some parts and might have benefited from a little editing, but I can’t find any sequence in the film that could be cut without hurting the movie. If the action is too tense for some, or if the movie is too long you can just pause the movie, take a break then come back to it later.

Posted by John | Filed Under 5 Stars, DVD, Drama, Edward Burns, Matt Damon, R, Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore