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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Saving Private Ryan
DreamWorks Distribution


8.5

based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 122 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for intense prolonged realistically graphic sequences of war violence, and for language

Starring Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Adam Goldberg, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, and Matt Damon

During the WWII D-Day invasion, a squad of soldiers led by Captain John Miller (Hanks) is sent into Normandy to find Private James Ryan (Damon), and return him to his mother in America. She has already lost three other sons in this war.

GENRE(S):	War
WRITTEN BY:	Robert Rodat
DIRECTED BY:	Steven Spielberg
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 2, 1999 Video: November 2, 1999 Theatrical: July 24, 1998
RUNNING TIME:	170 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

TNT RoughCut Andy Jones

Spectacular, wrenching masterpiece that unflinchingly documents the random horror, the grisly spectacle and the ugliness of war.

100

San Francisco Examiner G. Allen Johnson

The effect is riveting and frightening. You feel you are under siege with the combatants.

100

Variety Todd McCarthy

A searingly visceral combat picture, Steven Spielberg’s third World War II drama is arguably second to none as a vivid, realistic and bloody portrait of armed conflict.

100

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Steven Spielberg's best war film -- and one of the two or three best movies the director has made.

100

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Searing, heartbreaking, so intense it turns your body into a single tube of clenched muscle, this is simply the greatest war movie ever made, and one of the great American movies.

100

USA Today Mike Clark

The rawest, most sustained screen portrayal of 20th century combat.

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A watershed picture, for both Spielberg and war movies.

100

Mr. Showbiz Richard T. Jameson

No Hollywood film within recent memory has achieved such richness and originality of texture, such a compelling amalgam of passionate human drama and awesome technique.

100

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

One of the best films ever made in this country, filled with our proudest national virtues, cognizant of our deeply rooted human weaknesses and frighteningly able to evoke emotions.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

An overwhelming experience.

100

Time Richard Schickel

A war film that, entirely aware of its genre's conventions, transcends them as it transcends the simplistic moralities that inform its predecessors, to take the high, morally haunting ground.

100

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

Steven Spielberg's soberly magnificent new war film, the second such pinnacle in a career of magical versatility, has been made in the same spirit of urgent communication. It is the ultimate devastating letter home.

100

Film.com Ted Fry

In striving to duplicate reality, Spielberg has gone reality one better -- he's playing war, but it's a game no one would ever willingly join in.

100

Dallas Observer Peter Rainer

He (Spielberg) commemorates the soldiers in that vast Normandy cemetery in the most absolute and honorable way possible.

100

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

An excellent movie, as effective in battle scenes as it is in that of soldiers ruminating on an Edith Piaf song.

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A movie of staggering virtuosity and raw lyric power, a masterpiece of terror, chaos, blood, and courage.

100

New York Post Rod Dreher

A film of such cyclonic visual and emotional power, of such dazzling virtuosity and shattering humanity, that it is difficult to endure, yet alone describe. Savagely beautiful and savagely true, Saving Private Ryan is an excruciating masterpiece.

100

ReelViews James Berardinelli

For those who are willing to brave the movie's shocking and unforgettable images, Saving Private Ryan offers a singular motion picture experience.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This film embodies ideas. After the immediate experience begins to fade, the implications remain and grow.

Slate David Edelstein

What Steven Spielberg has accomplished in Saving Private Ryan is to make violence terrible again.

Film.com Robert Horton

A magnificent piece of movie-making.

Film.com John Hartl

Feels like the first truly honest attempt to deal with the horrors of combat - and the terrible responsibility shared by all survivors.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

A bitter, bloody masterpiece with adrenalized emotions and hyper-realized images, this is perhaps as close to battle as any sane human being should ever hope to tread.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The movie's greatest strength lies in phenomenal performances that reach from the leads right down to the smallest supporting roles.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

If Steven Spielberg's emotional intelligence matched his visual genius, his honorably flawed new film might qualify for one of the greatest-ever American WWII movies.

Newsweek David Ansen

Raises Hollywood's depiction of war to a new level.

Film.com Peter Brunette

An exceptionally intense movie whose sheer filmmaking power ultimately transcends all its (many) limitations.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Its relatively minor imperfections seem more glaring when compared to the near flawlessness of the film's lyrical, scorching start.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A startling reminder of exactly how spectacular a director Spielberg can be when he allows himself to be challenged by a subject (in this case World War II) that pushes against his limits.

Salon.com Gary Kamiya

Using the overpowering techniques of modern film, Steven Spielberg has cut through the glory-tinged gauze that shrouds World War II to reveal its brutal reality, creating a phenomenology of violence unsurpassed in the history of cinema.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Steven Spielberg's new film begins as a monumental epic; then it diminishes; and, by its finish, is baffling. [August 24, 1998]

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

A horror movie based on history, offering some of the most spectacularly brutal, viscerally intense battle scenes ever brought to a Hollywood movie.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The story raises hard moral questions relating to the relative value of human lives and the overwhelming debt that may be felt by those who benefit when others sacrifice. But the movie falls short of excellence because it doesn't so much explore these issues as finesse them in an action-filled climax.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Nothing that suggests an independent vision, unless you count seeing more limbs blown off than usual.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 122 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Daniel D gave it a9:
A true work of art and masterpiece in every sense of the word. Maybe it's just because I'm a fan but I don't think I'm being biased when I say that this is one of the greatest motion pictures in the history of the cinema. The only thing that prevents me from giving it a perfect rating is because I feel the graphic detail of violence, however realistic and brutal reminder of how horrific war can be, leaves no room for imagination. But other than that this is an exceptional film.

Bob K gave it a10:
I love how all the people that don't like this movie say "This movie is disgusting and sucks". That's all they can say, and Germans do not look like the bad guys all that much. In the beginning American Soldiers kill two Germans for no reason and the sniper shows mercy by not taking off Carpazo's head. They were about to kill the German guy who had no weapons or anything.

Jake R gave it a10:
The greatest war movie ever made! Period. This is also another great Tom Hanks and Steven Spielburg film that is destined to become a classic. This movie is not for the weak stomached or the faint. This sucker is rough and doesn't stop for the whole 3 hours of shooting, disemberment and gore.

Tom H gave it a10:
This is one of the very few films that I would rate 10. No, it's not about limbs flying off, and no, it's not all about death. This movie mixes a high-tide of powerful anti-war emotions, and sadness that still keeps you excited and has you gripped.

R. Lopez gave it a10:
Astounding!! Saving Private Ryan is one of those rarities, it's a war film with heart. This amazing WWII film stars Tom Hanks as Capt. John Miller a solider who' seen too much and who is done with war, during D-Day him and his unit are ordered to find a single solider by the name of John Francis Ryan a private in the airborne division who just recently lost all three of his brothers in combat, now Miller and his men have to bring Ryan back alive while out running the Nazis and there conscious. Saving Private Ryan is a dedication to the men who died to protect there nation and there freedom they were soldiers who battled against oppression and evil. they fought for what they believed was right and conquered and this film shows that one man is just as important as the rest. I very highly recommend this astounding Motion picture.

Jack S. gave it a10:
What can I say? This has been one of the BEST war movies ever! The fighting is realistic, peoples limbs were really blown off like that. It had some great and epic battle scenes.

Duane F. gave it a10:
This is an awesome movie and again if anyone rates this movie with a 0 or less is a complete f*cking idiot. For anyone who doesn't get why this movie is great (especially Americans) I just have to say you have never been to war and you probably don't deserve the freedoms that your country allows you. I just returned from a 3 year tour in Iraq. It's too bad the government doesn't allow the army to scout out ungrateful bastards that use their freedom to demean our country and spit on our flag and blow these useless f*ckers away.

Saving Private Ryan DreamWorks Distribution

Saving Private Ryan
DreamWorks Distribution