Barnes & Noble

Steven Spielberg's 1998 film Saving Private Ryan instantly took its place in the pantheon of great war movies by setting a new standard for its shockingly realistic D-Day sequences -- scenes that redefined the graphic depiction of film violence. When a platoon, led by Tom Hanks, receives orders to rescue the title character (Matt Damon) from behind enemy lines, the value of a life is questioned. Can Ryan be worth the potential sacrifice of eight men? Spielberg put his young actors through a modified boot camp, and their harrowing real-life experience informs their portrayals. Tom Sizemore (one of the many psychos in Natural Born Killers) displays great humanity as Sergeant Horvath, while Giovanni Ribisi and Barry Pepper turn in career-making performances as a medic and a sniper. Through it all, Spielberg's remarkable, unfussy technique keeps the narrative's preachiness from overwhelming the film. He and Academy Award-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski always place the camera in exactly the right perspective to the action, providing even the quiet moments with great power. Squeamish viewers be forewarned: The violence here is truly brutal. But that is part of Spielberg's point: War is hell. Or, as Hanks puts it: "Every time I kill somebody, I get farther away from home." Ben Wolf

All Movie Guide

Steven Spielberg directed this powerful, realistic re-creation of WWII's D-day invasion and the immediate aftermath. The story opens with a prologue in which a veteran brings his family to the American cemetery at Normandy, and a flashback then joins Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks) and GIs in a landing craft making the June 6, 1944, approach to Omaha Beach to face devastating German artillery fire. This mass slaughter of American soldiers is depicted in a compelling, unforgettable 24-minute sequence. Miller's men slowly move forward to finally take a concrete pillbox. On the beach littered with bodies is one with the name "Ryan" stenciled on his backpack. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall (Harve Presnell), learning that three Ryan brothers from the same family have all been killed in a single week, requests that the surviving brother, Pvt. James Ryan (Matt Damon), be located and brought back to the United States. Capt. Miller gets the assignment, and he chooses a translator, Cpl. Upham (Jeremy Davis), skilled in language but not in combat, to join his squad of right-hand man Sgt. Horvath (Tom Sizemore), plus privates Mellish (Adam Goldberg), Medic Wade (Giovanni Ribisi), cynical Reiben (Edward Burns) from Brooklyn, Italian-American Caparzo (Vin Diesel), and religious Southerner Jackson (Barry Pepper), an ace sharpshooter who calls on the Lord while taking aim. Having previously experienced action in Italy and North Africa, the close-knit squad sets out through areas still thick with Nazis. After they lose one man in a skirmish at a bombed village, some in the group begin to question the logic of losing more lives to save a single soldier. The film's historical consultant is Stephen E. Ambrose, and the incident is based on a true occurance in Ambrose's 1994 bestseller D-Day: June 6, 1944. Bhob Stewart

Product Details

• UPC: 667068443325
• Source: DREAMWORKS VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Time: 2:49:00
• Sales Rank: 2,304

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