Great film, but not the best...

Rating: Null/10 (6 November 2001)

As well as giving a brief review of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, I would also like to give a little bit of the history behind it. Granted, I have not read all 1300+ of the previous reviews that are already here as I begin to type, but I did read one review that I feel I must correct.
Somebody said that the film was loosely based on the Sullivans, who were five brothers from Waterloo, Iowa who all died when their ship, the Juneau, was torpedoed off Guadalcanal in November 1942. This person was misinformed. The Sullivans were indeed real men who died in the PTO of the war, and were even mentioned in "Saving Private Ryan" (their deaths were the reason that the four Ryan boys were supposedly split up into different units), but the story was in no way based on them.
It is, however, loosely based on the Niland brothers. The real Private Ryan was Sergeant Fritz Niland of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment (P.I.R.). He is mentioned in Stephen Ambrose's novel "Band of Brothers" as a friend of Donald Malarkey's and Warren "Skip" Muck's (played by Scott Grimes and Richard Speight Jr., respectively, in the HBO miniseries.) Shortly after D-Day, Sergeant Niland learned that his brother Bob had been killed. Bob was part of the 82nd Airborne, which was another regiment that jumped behind enemy lines in the early hours of D-Day. Niland then discovered that another brother, who had been a platoon leader in the 4th Infantry Division, had been killed at Utah Beach. When he returned to his company, a fellow soldier was looking for Niland to tell him that his third and final brother had been killed in the China-Burma-India theater, and that he was supposed to be sent home immediately -- and he was. No secret search mission. No babysitting bridges. No defying orders. However, like Private Ryan, he did return home to a mother who had recently received death notices for three of her sons.
There might be some spoilers here, I guess. Nothing that ruins the ending of the film, though.
Saving Private Ryan's realism is undoubtedly one of the best when it comes to war films (I think "Band of Brothers" outdid it, though... then again that came three years later.) The opening D-Day sequence is spectacular, and it really gave the sense of what it was like to be there. Random moments stuck in my head much after the movie had progressed into its search for Ryan ("These're all we've got between us and the Almighty!" --referring to the cross-steel objects that had been placed on the beach by the Germans in order to rip apart landing crafts on a high tide but actually worked to the advantage of the invading Americans; Captain Miller's (Hanks) shouting "tell Shore Party this, tell Shore Party that!" only to find out that the radio man had a giant hole puncturing his face and that the radio was busted; one soldier getting shot in the helmet and Private Caparzo (Vin Diesel) saying "Lucky b*****d," then the soldier takes off his helmet and is shot in the head; and of course, the terrifying "Mama!" screams.) All of these elements, plus the incredible special effects, sounds, realistic-looking beach and amazing costumes make the scene one of the best combat sequences ever filmed. I really did feel like I was there.
The rest of the movie went downhill. The first time I saw it, I thought the whole movie was fantastic, but on later viewings (the seventh, the eighth... the twelfth, the thirteenth... yes, that many) I realized I didn't like it as much as I originally thought I did. Captain Miller and seven men, who are undoubtedly part of the stereotypical combat squad (the hick sharpshooter, the Italian guy, the Jew, the worried guy, the annoying guy everyone hates, the brave Sarge, and the medic who is more concerned about the safety of others than the safety of himself) are sent on a mission to rescue Private James Ryan who has lost three brothers within a week and is to be sent home immediately. Ryan jumped into Normandy with the 506th P.I.R., part of the 101st Airborne (the same Airborne our friends of Easy Company in "Band of Brothers" are in), but he's been misdropped and is lost somewhere behind enemy lines... as were about half of the men dropped into Normandy early on D-Day. Misdrops were everywhere. Sergeant Horvath (Tom Sizemore) calls the mission "finding a needle in a haystack" and Miller corrects him, "It's like finding a needle in a stack of needles."
The rest of the movie is fantastic in realistically portraying the horrors of war, and the acting is superb by every actor who commits themselves to a role. The actors portray a bunch of World War II Army Rangers as accurately as they can. Much of this is probably thanks to Captain Dale Dye, who put them through a boot camp before the movie began shooting. Dye makes a brief appearance as the War Department Colonel in the beginning of the film (and for "Band of Brothers," which he also helped with to transform actors into soldiers, he had a much larger role as Colonel Robert Sink, and does a great job representing him.) However, as I watched it more and more, the plot grew weak and boring for me. That's something I never thought I'd admit, but I'm admitting it now. I guess I like things of this measure to have actually happened, such as Band of Brothers actually happened... I don't know, it's something about eight guys wondering through all of France to find one guy that begins to disturb me now. I can't put my finger on why. Oh well. It's still a great film, but simply not the best...
Check out The Thin Red Line for a more philosophical approach and Band of Brothers for a brilliant approach to real events and real characters.
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN - 8/10