Review of Saving Private Ryan (1998) by Writefilmlive21 — 30 Nov 2012

"Saving Private Ryan" is a stunning and emotional powerhouse of a war film. Featuring a cast of great actors and performances, and helmed by the masterful Spielberg, this movie is a gritty, harsh and shocking look at WWII through the eyes of a group of soldiers sent behind enemy lines to save a stranded private.

The opening D-Day sequence is visceral and brutally intense, full of gruesome and disturbing imagery, and communicates the true horror and scale of the invasion. The time shared between these soldiers, through both stories they tell and arguments they have, is genuinely authentic and you become attached to every character.

And of course, the final conflict is where it all comes to a head, in probably the most intense, dramatic and realistic battle scene ever made. It may be pretty dark and depressing, but ultimately you are left with an incredible cinematic achievement - a solid 5-star war film that communicates with frightening efficiency the true brutality that must have been one of the world's darkest chapters in history.