Review of Saving Private Ryan (1998) by Mustisthecat — 01 Aug 2011

Everything a war-flick fan needs. Guns, tanks, blood, lots of history, excellent battle scenes and some drama. There is hardly any movie that can resemble Saving Private Ryan in its character. The Omaha Beach scene at the beginning is going to be ever famous in movie history.

The story here is said with no playing with reality. People die in the most gruesome ways, sometimes because of their stupidity or just plainly because they are unlucky. Both American and German soldiers aren`t portraid as black and white.

None is all good or all bad. We know that they are men struggling to survive a time when there are no rules other than to kill or be killed. Some are blind with hatred, others psyche goes to ashes, just a few are able to sustain their sanity.

The story is fine and very touching, mostly because Tom Hanks gave his character a complicated and likeable personality. Other actors play their roles well, so the movie can`t be said as a one man show.

The second best actor I`d say was the American medic. The ending of the movie might be seen as positive or negative - everyone can see it differently. I sticked to the characters so it was very sad for me.

Other than that this movie is a wonderful showing of cinematography`s evolution and the hardware that was used in WWII. The armored vehicles are exceptionally well made. Fake, but still only an advanced history buff can see the difference (the wrong wheels on the Tiger I for example).

I watched this film many times until I could memorise it 100%. Took me like 30 viewings but it`s worth it. Ofcourse I come back to it from time to time.