Saving Private Ryan-No Smart-Ass Remarks for This Masterpiece
Talk about your war films. Saving Private Ryan is certainly one of the best films, if not the best film ever made about World War II. Many films about the WWII are not highly character driven, whereas Saving Private Ryan successfully creates characters that one sympathizes with and cares about. Thus, when the bullets are flying pass the characters, there is a real tension on the part of the viewer which is often missing from other films of this type.
Saving Private Ryan’s opening sequence, recounts a small slice of what the storming of the beaches at Normany looked like. This now famous scene expertly conveys, again a small slice, of the horror of that day. The story itself, as the name indicates, revolves around one Private Ryan, Private James Ryan. We learn that all three of Private Ryan’s brothers have recently died and that his mother will be receiving the news shortly. The army concludes there is no other choice than to save Private Ryan. As they are not sure where Ryan is the unenviable task of locating Ryan falls about the shoulders of John Miller, played extremely well by Tom Hanks.
Saving Private Ryan is a masterpiece of modern cinema for numerous reasons. Obviously director Steven Spielberg hit a total and complete home run on this project. The cinematography is worthy of study, the shots are often lined up to perfection, natural lighting is, at times, used brilliantly. Other, sometimes overlooked areas, such as sound design, are given great attention which injects the entire film and, in particular, the numerous battle sequences with tremendous tension.
Speaking of all the battle sequences, it would be easy to go on and on about how great they are, however, they are not the true heart of the film. The heart of the film is the excellent script penned by Robert Rodat and the tremendous acting performances by the cast of well-known actors. Spielberg does a fantastic job in somehow extracting great and good performance out of actors, such as Matt Damon who have a range roughly equal to a second basemen with a broken leg. That in and of itself deserves an award.
Saving Private Ryan, simply works in every way. Parts of Saving Private Ryan are very intense and thus should not be recommended for young children. I am sure many a parent took their child to this film, only to perhaps regret it later. Make no mistake this is a winner and will be a stunning film to watch in high-definition, especially if you have a top of the line surround sound system. This is certainly amongst the best of Spielberg’s and Hank’s work to date. With a budget of around $70 to $80 million
Saving Private Ryan serves as a textbook example of what the ratio of dollar to image on screen should be and if anything Saving Private Ryan should have earned even more than its roughly $500 million box office. It is likely the intensity of the film and the fact that it was not suitable for young children that keep the box office numbers where they are, for this is one fine film.
Story A+
Acting A
Visuals A+
Originality/Innovation A (This is a great script by Rodat who manages to paint a different and more personal picture of modern war than we often see on the big screen.)
Enjoyability Grade A+
Home Theater/HD Factor A+
Overall Grade A+
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