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Rating: 5 out of 5
I would like to formally and officially apologize to my boy, Steven Spielberg, and the cast of Saving Private Ryan. I thought the film won the Academy Award for Best Picture. I mean, how didn’t this film win Best Picture? It is one of the best and intense movies ever made. I knew Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director, so I assumed it won Best Picture. When I looked through my list and saw it wasn’t there, I thought something was wrong until I saw that this film LOST to Shakespeare in Love. Of all movies to lose to, it’s that one. The saddest part is, I reviewed that movie and gave it a 4.5 out of 5 rating. If only I saw the competition beforehand, I would’ve given it a lower score. The audacity for that film to beat out one about war and freedom.
Here we go: “Dear Director Spielberg, please forgive me for my disrespect for not knowing that you didn’t win best picture. It is a travesty, and I personally love all your work. If you ever read any of my other reviews, you know this and know how much I think you are the greatest filmmaking mind EVER. Jurassic Park is one of my all-time favorite movies. I saw it in theaters 6 times. Please forgive me, and when I get a podcast going, please come on it. Thank you, from your biggest fan.”
Directed by the amazing, genius mind of Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat, the film is set during the Invasion of Normandy in World War II. The film is known for having one of the most intense, graphic, and gut-wrenching opening and portrayal of war, especially its depiction of the Omaha Beach assault during the Normandy landings. You have been warned. Saving Private Ryan opens with the Allied invasion on the Normandy beach on June 6, 1944. Cpt. Miller (Hanks) and members of the 2nd Ranger Battalion fight, claw and scratch their way to secure the beachhead under significant firepower and death all around. In an office building where women are typing letters to relatives about the death of their loved ones during the invasion, one of them learns that two brothers are killed in action. She does more research and finds that the third brother was killed in New Guinea. The mother of the brothers is about to receive all three letters on the same day. After speaking about it, The United States Army Chief of Staff, George C. Marshall, believes that the best way to relieve some of this mother’s pain is to find the fourth brother, Private James Ryan, who went missing somewhere in France and bring him back home. Orders are given to Cpt. Miller seven other people from the 2nd Ranger Battalion to go look for him and bring him back to his mother. Through this mission, you see the horrors of war and what it means to be a brother to the man beside you in war.
You might not know this by now, but I love great war movies and Steven Spielberg movies. So this is like the best of both worlds. I want to say that Saving Private Ryan is one of the BEST war movies of all time! It ranks up there with Patton, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, and many others. Actually, I am willing to say this is the best war movie of all time. For one, no one protested this war because World War II was a war against true evil and freedom, but that is not the time to explain.
There are so many things that are great about this film. First, let’s talk about the war scenes. From the jump, Spielberg wanted you to know that shit was about to go down and people were not going to make it back home alive. When the Allied Soldiers were in the U-boats going to shore, you can feel the fear and intensity by looking at the men’s faces. As you wait, the first bullet hits the soldier’s, and all hell breaks loose. I have never seen a more intense and gut-wrenching scene in my life. The whole taking the beach is around fifteen to twenty minutes long, and it just doesn’t let up at all. What makes this scene so great is that it doesn’t hold back on what war looks like. When the ramp comes down, they are inhaled with gunfire and have to jump over the side of the boat to get to land and still are attacked. There is a fire team where one tank gets hit and explodes. Another soldier is walking around aimlessly as he is searching for his missing arm. There is confusion on how to clear the beach while others want to not go to their deaths. In one scene, Miller is dragging a man until an explosion hits, killing the man and blowing him up in half. On the beachhead, Miller asks the man to radio in the situation. He gets information and tells the radioman again. He then asks the radioman again until he sees the radioman face blown in. Then the men shoot anyone on the beach along with setting things on fire. It is one of the most intense scenes ever and should’ve won the Academy Award right there.
As the movie progresses, the intensity of war/battles stays around. Spielberg masterfully places them when you least expect it, but you know harm is all around. In one of the towns that is just beyond bombed, Miller and his men are walking through and Caparzo wants to take one of the children to safety. As he is doing this, he gets shot, and then there is an intense sniper shootout. After winning, Miller and his men talk to one of the commanding officers. The officer takes off his boot, and a beam hits the wall. On the other side was a German war group. It is freaking intense because the two groups are yelling at each other until there is a shootout and the German soldiers are killed. Besides the final war scene, there is one where when Wade gets killed, and the men start losing their way. They manage to capture a German soldier, and as they let him go and all the men lose their minds because of their anger. Miller tells his story to get out of the pool.
There is so much to this film that it is crazy. One is the thought of being brothers in war. Men you trained with are gone, and the terrors of war show on the men’s faces. One way this is shown is when Millers’ men arrive at a camp and ask about Ryan. While looking through dog tags, Millers’ men are disrespectful by throwing the dog tags around and laughing. The scene just makes you feel sad because as they are doing this, soldiers are walking by and seeing this as they lost their fellow brother in war.
Honestly, the cinematography is AMAZING in the film. It makes you feel like you are right in the action and thick of the scenes. You can almost feel every emotion of the cast and what they are going through. After the invasion scene, I love how the camera does this overhead shot of the beach showing all the warships. Another great scene is when the men are walking in the field, and in the distance, you see flashes of light from the bombs exploding. It looks like lightning in the distance. The film is just appealing to the eye all around.
As far as the cast goes, this movie almost had EVERYONE! First, Tom Hanks is always a pleasure to watch. Once again, this movie had everyone. Here is a list of many of the people in it and they all did a fantastic job: Edward Burns, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore as Technical Sergeant Mike Horvath, Jeremy Davies, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Dennis Farina, Ted Danson, Harve Presnell, Bryan Cranston, David Wohl, Nathan Fillion, Paul Giamatti, and Ryan Hurst. Also, Corporal Timothy Upham is a straight-up punk bitch! How you let your homeboy die, and then you want to be the hero and hold people prisoner. Naw homie! You should’ve done more, you punk ass bitch!
Saving Private Ryan is one of the best war films ever made, and it is a travesty that it lost Best Picture. What were you thinking, Academy?!?! Steven Spielberg does it again as he shows his filmmaking abilities and shows the world a gut-wrenching take on war. Watch this movie and go honor those who have fallen in battle.
