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starring: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepperdirected by: Steven Spielberg
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780783238012
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Original recording reissued, Special Edition, NTSC
ISBN: 0783238010
Label: Dreamworks Video
Manufacturer: Dreamworks Video
Model: 0-7832-3801-0
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Dreamworks Video
Release Date: November 02, 1999
Running Time: 169 minutes
Sales Rank: 2392
Studio: Dreamworks Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1998
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
When Steven Spielberg was an adolescent, his first home movie was a backyard war film. When he toured Europe with Duel in his 20s, he saw old men crumble in front of headstones at Omaha Beach. That image became the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, his film of a mission following the D-day invasion that many have called the most realistic--and maybe the best--war film ever. With 1998 production standards, Spielberg has been able to create a stunning, unparalleled view of war as hell. We are at Omaha Beach as troops are slaughtered by Germans yet overcome the almost insurmountable odds.
A stalwart Tom Hanks plays Captain Miller, a soldier's soldier, who takes a small band of troops behind enemy lines to retrieve a private whose three brothers have recently been killed in action. It's a public relations move for the Army, but it has historical precedent dating back to the Civil War. Some critics of the film have labeled the central characters stereotypes. If that is so, this movie gives stereotypes a good name: Tom Sizemore as the deft sergeant, Edward Burns as the hotheaded Private Reiben, Barry Pepper as the religious sniper, Adam Goldberg as the lone Jew, Vin Diesel as the oversize Private Caparzo, Giovanni Ribisi as the soulful medic, and Jeremy Davies, who as a meek corporal gives the film its most memorable performance.
The movie is as heavy and realistic as Spielberg's Oscar-winning Schindler's List, but it's more kinetic. Spielberg and his ace technicians (the film won five Oscars: editing (Michael Kahn), cinematography (Janusz Kaminski), sound, sound effects, and directing) deliver battle sequences that wash over the eyes and hit the gut. The violence is extreme but never gratuitous. The final battle, a dizzying display of gusto, empathy, and chaos, leads to a profound repose. Saving Private Ryan touches us deeper than Schindler because it succinctly links the past with how we should feel today. It's the film Spielberg was destined to make. --Doug Thomas
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The best war film ever
Reviews for this movie are pretty much ineffectual. Everyone's seen this movie and if you haven't you probably don't like war movies. The hype for this movie is right on. It's Visually stunning. It has The best opening scene in any movie. You won't be disappointed in this movie.
After this movie, Steve Spielberg decided to do the Band of Brothers which is also very good.
If you like War Movies and you haven't seen this, you must see it.
Rating:  - A MUST SEE movie
I hope that this is the closest that I ever come to combat in my life. Thank God for the men that put their lives on the line to keep us, and the world, free. Hats off to Spielberg for the realism of the combat. That should be enough for all of us to make a promise to ourselves to personally thank as many vets as we can for serving to keep us free. War is no walk in the park, and this movie comes closest to capturing just how close to hell it really is. This movie teaches a lot about sacrifice, courage, ... Read More
Rating:  - A strange film in many ways.
This is an interesting film but marred in all sorts of funny ways: yukky setimentality intrudes and damages what could have been a very great film.
The opening sequence is based on a similar one in a German film called Stalingrad, and has great impact. When the film came out, this is what impressed people, along with its apparent realism.
Wouldn't it have been a great film if Private Ryan himself had not been much worth saving? He is presented as an heroic figure when we first see ... Read More
Rating: - A flawed gem
First off, everything you may have heard about the opening Normandy sequence is true: this is quite simply the most amazing battle re-creation footage you're ever likely to see. Definitely not for the squeamish, it paints its horrifying portrait without ever allowing the viewer to glory in any kind of "excitement" (which most battle simulations end up doing on some level, even the well-meaning ones). Spielberg uses every ounce of his talent and ingenuity to show combat the way it should be shown: as pure Hell, ... Read More
Rating: - Tell Me I'm A Good Man
All war movies capture a piece of the brutality that is war but only a very few bring forth the full carnage that war is. In SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, director Steven Spielberg drags the viewer out of his seat and throws him into the sound and fury of modern war. Critics have noted that with the opening scene of GIs getting machine gunned by Wehrmacht troopers on Omaha Beach on D-Day, Spielberg begins a three hour howl of pain that affects the soul as much as it does the body. It is impossible to feel nothing even ... Read More
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