Today’s quick review: Saving Private Ryan. Three days after the D-Day landing at Omaha Beach, Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) and seven of his men are sent into German territory in search of Private James Ryan (Matt Damon), a missing paratrooper whose three brothers already died in the war. As Miller questions the wisdom of risking his own men for the life of a stranger, they face hardship after hardship to find one soldier in a country full of them.
Saving Private Ryan is a war drama from director Steven Spielberg. Saving Private Ryan follows eight American soldiers on a rescue mission that could be the death of them. The film does an excellent job of capturing the patriotic ideals and the stark realities of World War II, as embodied in the decision to risk several soldiers to save one. Combined with the film’s scope and level of craftsmanship, this is makes Saving Private Ryan a modern classic.
Saving Private Ryan gets a lot of things right, beginning with the scale and brutality of the war. The combat scenes are tense and memorable, showing death and courage on a large scale. The journey of Miller and his men is just as moving, but in subtler ways. They face not only the threat of German troops in contested territory, but the many moral dilemmas posed by war. Seeing them react to these challenges and overcome them is the core of the film.
The whole thing is capped off by top-notch acting from Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, and a supporting cast of familiar faces. Their performances humanize the war, turning a group of otherwise unexceptional soldiers into characters the audience can invest in. Not that much time is spent on any one character, but their brief interactions throughout their journey amount to quite a lot. The film masters the knack of telling a full story without seeming to.
Saving Private Ryan is an excellent pick for anyone who can withstand its intense violence and weighty tone. Saving Private Ryan is a war movie with plenty to offer, from the scale of its combat to the interactions between its characters to the depth of its moral dilemmas. How it ranks among war movies will depend on individual taste, but the film has the all-around quality to win over even skeptical viewers. Give it a watch.
For another war movie about a desperate mission behind enemy lines, try 1917. For another gritty story about a small group of soldiers facing terrible odds during World War II, check out Fury. For a tale of simple survival set earlier in the war, try Dunkirk. For a somber World War II drama told from the Japanese perspective, try Letters from Iwo Jima. For a violent World War II revenge fantasy, try Inglourious Basterds.
8.6 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it an 8.0 to 8.5 for outstanding quality.