Review of Saving Private Ryan (1998) by Griffin B — 01 Dec 2013

A very generic war movie that still manages to be quite powerful and convincing, largely due to the performances of Tom Hanks and Matt Damon. I was not fond of the manipulative shock-tactics employed in this movie, but luckily, they are rarely used.

There is one particular scene involving a knife that was, to me, totally unnecessary and, basically, torture-porn (although I'm sure Spielberg had the opposite in mind, I found it just as manipulative).

Also, in the opening of the film, Spielberg gets downright creative with the various different ways he shows soldiers getting killed. Showing people getting shot to death isn't enough? Although I will admit that seeing the bloody tide sweeping the bodies away effected me.

It was an extremely heart-wrenching image. I also found the ending to be very powerful. I might complain about the constant graininess and desaturation, which becomes an eyesore for me after awhile, but I wouldn't consider that a flaw.

I just personally find it annoying. Overall it's a very good, solid film that somewhat pays homage to old fashioned John Wayne type war movies. I'm not sure why it gets so much insane praise, though.

I think The Thin Red Line is much better.