Saving Private Ryan

Name: Saving Private Ryan
Genre: Action, Drama, War
Released: July 24, 1998
Duration: 169 min
Rating: 91
Cast: Matt Damon, Tom Hanks

1998

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 38 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 1234 Ratings

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8.8

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8.8	User Score Universal acclaim based on 1234 Ratings

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Saving Private Ryan

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Movie Details & Credits

DreamWorks Distribution | Release Date: July 24, 1998 | TV-MA

Starring: Matt Damon, Tom Hanks

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

Director: Steven Spielberg

Genre(s): Action, Drama, War

Rating: TV-MA

Runtime: 169 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Bob Graham

An overwhelming experience. Read full review

100

Michael Wilmington

A watershed picture, for both Spielberg and war movies. Read full review

100

Rex Reed

Saving Private Ryan is a masterpiece. It cements Steven Spielberg’s reputation as one of the seminal filmmakers of the era. It tells a gallant story of honor and duty and courage under fire. It shows you things about war that have never been seen on a motion picture screen. Read full review

100

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. Read full review

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.

TV Guide Magazine Maitland McDonagh

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

Jonathan Rosenbaum

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

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User Reviews

peopgamer

Feb 15, 2011

A very high quality, which blends extreme action, with a underlying sadness for the disaster that was world war 2. All put together with superb casting.

18 of 22 users found this helpful184

Fuccboi1

Feb 15, 2020

I don't wanna spoiler you mist see this movie its awesome directed by one of the best directors of all time

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

JaredC.

Aug 16, 2007

It takes courage and a well crafted script to pass a movie. But this is something that takes war movies to another level. And I hope to see an amount of continuess war film's exeptionally after this.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

hoops2448

Nov 17, 2011

There are few films that are literally unforgettable and Saving Private Ryan with its shocking imagery, pitch perfect acting and moving score manages to permanently burn itself into your brain.
Despite what everyone remembers of Saving Private Ryan (The Omaha Beach section being the obviousThere are few films that are literally unforgettable and Saving Private Ryan with its shocking imagery, pitch perfect acting and moving score manages to permanently burn itself into your brain.
Despite what everyone remembers of Saving Private Ryan (The Omaha Beach section being the obvious one) its lasting moments are the quiet ones, the ones that show that even through the horrors of war there is still a sense of humanity. Such moments not only provide some much needed levity (Miller and Horvath's discussion in the church being one of the best) as well as allowing the viewer to understand why these characters are worth caring for (Miller and Ryan discuss their families just before the war began). There isn't a moment of Saving Private Ryan where you aren't completely immersed. Both the direction (by Steven Spielberg) and the writing (by Robert Rodat) are brilliant with the latter allowing for a shift between pure darkness and shock to levity and joy in mere moments. In conclusion its Spielberg at the top of his game as he engages with the real emotion behind warfare, both the loss of humanity and the strive to regain it. It engages the viewer by letting him/her decide how to feel about shocking events while sometimes surprising you at the way you might react. Its a masterpiece that will never fail to get to me or as I imagine, almost anyone who watches it.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

FilmClub

Mar 27, 2016

Saving Private Ryan” relates the kind of wartime stories that fathers never tell their families. 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, as well as a generallySaving Private Ryan” relates the kind of wartime stories that fathers never tell their families. 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, as well as a generally effective intimate drama about a handful of men on a mission of debatable value in the middle of the war’s decisive action.

Plunging the viewer headlong into battle in a manner akin to some of the more intense Vietnam films, such as “Platoon,” “Full Metal Jacket” and “Hamburger Hill,” but quite rare for a World War II drama, Spielberg wrenchingly presents combat from the grunt’s p.o.v. as it is fought inch by inch, bullet by bullet, in all its arbitrariness and surreality. Whatever else there is to say about the picture, what remains in the mind is the transforming fear, the sound of ammunition ripping into flesh and metal, the sight of bodies being blown apart, the relentlessness of the pressure and tension, the immense suffering, the feeling of always being on the brink. In retrospect, qualities such as heroism and bravery can be ascribed to the actions of soldiers, the film suggests, but in the moment there is only necessity.

After a brief prologue featuring an older man silently leading his family into the vast military cemetery at Omaha Beach in Normandy, pic drops the audience onto a U.S. landing craft getting ready to unload the first GIs to hit the beach on June 6, 1944. From the opening moments, the anxiety and fiercely discomforting conditions are underlined, and as soon as the gate opens, the German artillery comes raining down.

Many men are mowed down before they can take three steps, but Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks) and his squad — Sgt. Horvath (Tom Sizemore), Pvts. Reiben (Edward Burns), Jackson (Barry Pepper), Mellish (Adam Goldberg) and Caparzo (Vin Diesel) and Medic Wade (Giovanni Ribisi) — painstakingly make it past the many obstacles and are finally able to take one of the enemy’s concrete pillboxes on top of the bluff. Nonstop action lasts 24 minutes, and every one of them is infinitely more intense than anything in the standard work on D-Day, “The Longest Day.”

Robert Rodat’s original screenplay thus transforms to a mission format. Taking on a skinny, timid translator, Cpl. Upham (Jeremy Davies), who has never seen combat, the group, which has previously seen action in North Africa and Italy, treads gingerly through territory that is still riddled with Nazis, as they discover when they come upon a bombed-out village and the first of them is killed.

Such tentative attempts at philosophizing and stabs at profundity succeed in raising some issues that aren’t often considered these days, but they still don’t begin to lend the film the kind of weight in the intellectual arena that would match the action of its purely physical sequences.

Unquestionably, the picture strives to delineate a morality of decency and righteousness in a context defined by hate and inhumanity, but the speechifying here can’t compare in power to the brute force of warfare, which is sufficient commentary by itself.

Finally, nearly two hours in, the squad locates Pvt. Ryan (Matt Damon), who complicates the mission even further by refusing to return, insisting that he has orders of his own to continue fighting. As it happens, a devastated village nearby contains a bridge that must be held, and Miller orders Ryan to stay by him as they try to prevent the Nazis from taking it. What follows is yet another ferocious and protracted battle sequence, small in scale and numbers but gripping in its details, surprises and the way the chaos of fighting is strikingly conveyed. Epilogue connects once again to the personal tribute being paid by the contemporary visitor to Normandy.

Using his technical virtuosity to the utmost, Spielberg is pushing here to claim new ground for himself and for a revival of the World War II film, and scores strongly on both counts. Opting out of the black-and-white of “Schindler’s List” and the longstanding images of the war, Spielberg and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski have desaturated the color in a way that strikingly emphasizes the pale greens of the uniforms and landscapes, blue-grays of the water and skies, and flesh tones; in this context, the red of the blood always jumps out. Frequent hand-held shots add to the intimacy and impact, while a shuttering device makes some of the action appear a bit jumpy, even pixilated, creating an effect that is both ultra-vivid and somewhat jarring.

John Williams’ score is sparing, with music avoided entirely for long stretches but coming into its own elsewhere, notably over the final credits.

Essentially, Spielberg has made an amazing piece of pure, visceral cinema, akin to a great silent film, in which the words are basically superfluous. No further commentary is needed when the raw brutality of combat is presented as indelibly as it is here.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

diogomendes

Mar 21, 2015

"Saving Private Ryan" is a realistic war film that proves itself to be worthy of its own genre, thanks to richly directed performances and tension setup.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

DirtyPoo

Aug 26, 2006

crap!!!!!!!!

0 of 18 users found this helpful

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1	#1 Best Movie of 1998
1	#1 Most Discussed Movie of 1998
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