| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998) |
| Director | Steven Spielberg |
| Writer | Robert Rodat |
| Lead Actor | Tom Hanks |
| Cast | Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi |
| Genre | Drama, War |
| Release Date | July 24, 1998 (United States) |
| Duration | 2h 49m (169 min) |
| Budget | $70 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDb Rating | 8.6/10 |
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SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
Steven Spielberg’s powerful World War II combat epic follows a squad of American rangers from an excruciatingly bloody and chaotic landing on Omaha Beach through a deadly, weeklong, needle in a haystack search for a paratrooper who is the only survivor among four brothers. Is this a mission of decency or insanity? In the context of war as horror, we must decide.
While most of the actors are newcomers who form a gritty ensemble and provide valuable moments, Tom Hanks as the nice, smart, brave but vulnerable group leader gives another performance of the type that’s turning him into a movie legend. But director Spielberg is the star. The film’s major achievement is recreating the experience of combat (especially chance, pain and death) in all its terror and confusion, intense and close-up, yet on a human scale.
The characters and incidents are fresh (including a sharpshooter who prays as he works), although there are inevitable contrivances (waiting for the climactic battle in a ruined French village, the G.I.’s listen to songs by Edith Piaf). But many scenes will soon be in textbooks a mad argument over whether to shoot a prisoner, rummaging through dogtags of the dead, women (almost in assembly line) typing letters of condolence to parents of the dead.
The theme is surely that there is no morality to war, only random cruelty. But the film’s positive message is to remember, two generations later, how terrible it was to win this war and what it cost those who fought it. Flawed but masterful; recommended, but for mature audiences.
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