Review of Saving Private Ryan (1998) by Sean L — 10 Sep 2014

It wasn't just bullets and bombs that cleared the way for freedom, but also, and just as crucial to the war effort, the selflessness, courage, honor, and bravery of the men who fought. That selflessness, courage, honor, and bravery was for those in generations later who would view their actions with an understanding of the scale on which these men sacrificed all in the name of liberty and the hope that their descendants would be influenced to lead better lives, to do right by others, to stay true to themselves, and to demonstrate personal valor in all areas of life, in their hearts and souls, words and actions, principles and values.

For all the books and memorials and movies, Saving Private Ryan is perhaps the most obvious but also most important tool through which one may see their courage, sacrifice, and purpose to the greater good not only as it applied to the world in 1942, but in the years following the film's release and, if there is any justice in the world, in the decades -- yea centuries and millennia -- to follow.

Indeed, Saving Private Ryan is absolutely one of, if not the most, important pictures ever made. It's also quite possibly the best. Compared to those of its genre, perhaps only Glory -- a film that shares with Saving Private Ryan themes on the importance of freedom, respect, courage, and personal sacrifice for the greater good -- may be seen as its equal, and for as many other exceptional War pictures as there are, from All Quiet on the Western Front to Platoon, from Sergeant York to Das Boot, no other quite proves the equal of Saving Private Ryan, not only in terms of the importance of the raw grittiness of violence, but the far more crucial elements of humanity that truly convey what the film and its purpose is all about.