Review of Saving Private Ryan (1998) by Caz H — 05 Oct 2013

Far more grisly that I expected this really evokes the true horrors of war in a way I've not seen very often before: the scenes of war are stunningly shot and refreshingly unsentimental for the most part.

The characters are also easy to care about and the dilemmas they face are realistically drawn. Hanks obviously gives a stand out performance alongside Damon who is as brilliant as he is far more brief.

However I feel I'm missing what everyone else saw in this film as I was unable to fully connect and shed the tears I was expected to cry. There was something about the overall 'message' of the film that I found hard to get on board with and I never fully understood the various arguments for the main plot of the film: although the ending rammed home exactly what I should be taking away, it just didn't sit as easily with me as maybe it should.

It's an incredibly accomplished film and I can see why everyone was so taken with it, but the 'moral' just didn't quite gel for me.