One of Spielberg's finest.

Rating: 9/10 (2 October 2006)

'Saving Private Ryan' is not meant to glorify war, rather, it tries to show the audience the pain and suffering of not soldiers, but people.
Beginning with the fateful D-Day which has influenced popular video games and other war movies, a company of soldiers is given the mission of pulling a private out from the war front. Confused and annoyed at this objective, the soldiers travel across Normandy in search of someone they never knew, let alone cared about.
The band of soldiers have a hard time coming to terms with such an obscure mission. However, they cannot bail out of the objective. After all, they are in the army. Obeying orders can be the difference between winning or losing.
Steven Spielberg masterfully creates a duality in the characters: at once they are soldiers, yet at heart they are only civilians. The cast of characters are exceptional: Captain Miller (played by Tom Hanks), keeps the group together and just wants to get the objective over and done with. Pvt. Daniel Jackson (Barry Pepper) is the Godfearing soldier who believes his Lord has given him such talent with the sniper rifle. Pvt. Richard Reibens (Edward Burns) is the one who questions the authority, and feels the mission is unnecessary, and the rest round up the company beautifully. These men are not cookie cutter soldiers: They talk with each other, have feelings, reflect upon their actions; Spielberg brings out the 'other' side of the men at war, and this is what the audience (especially war veterans) can relate to.
The direction is great. Spielberg's shots are moving: War is dirty and horrifying, and the bonding between the soldiers are sensitive scenes. The cinematography is excellent, some of the best I have seen from any movie. The sound aspects are just as good, if not better, in depicting the harshness of war.
'Saving Private Ryan' is a movie not to be missed, partly because it is arguably the greatest war movie ever made, and partly because it will deter those from the idea of another great war.