Fantastic Movie!

Rating: 10/10 (30 September 2014)

The 1998 war/drama film "Saving Private Ryan" directed by Steven Spielberg was an incredible film that was very realistic and had a storyline that kept viewers captivated until the very end. The film was rated R due to its gory war scenes and use of profanity. No young child should see the violence that this film captured to create realistic war scenes. The setting of this movie was the Invasion of Normandy during World War II. The explicit scenes had blood pouring out of soldiers, soldiers with limbs cut off, men screaming and shaking, and soldiers being shot. All of this captured the brutality of World War II in such a way that the audience could feel the adrenaline and fear that each one of those soldiers would have been facing out on the battle field. The gruesomeness of the movie forces the viewer to have respect for the soldiers for moving forward with their duties even though they are surrounded by death of not only their enemies but their friends.
The special effects throughout the entire movie were incredible. The explosions of fire and dust were very realistic to an actual bomb going off. All of the sounds of gun shots gave the image of a battle field even when one closed their eyes. It had to have taken a lot of effort to put together scenes where so many men were shot in various places. The opening battle scene, where the United States Army was trying to secure Omaha Beach was almost as if World War II was recorded and the real footage was put into the movie. Men had blood spewing out of their wounds where they were shot, some of their limbs were completely gone, and one man laid on the ground holding his intestines into his body. Another scene had a soldier being held by his friends after being shot many times. Each wound had blood pouring out of it so realistically that I had to turn away from the screen. These are just a few examples of the almost too realistic wounds that could make the audience feel nauseous if they were too squeamish about blood.
The storyline to the movie was one that could capture the attention of a wide range of audiences. It was a movie on history, war, friendships, comradery and family. Several of the infantry members sent on the mission to find a man who lost all of his brothers to war could not understand why they had to risk their lives to tell a single man he was allowed to go home. Many of them started out their journey mocking the boy, saying he would not be worth it. When they finally found him and told him that he was allowed to go home and he refused to leave the men he was with behind, it sparked a fire in the men that the audience could see. The inspiration the audience felt when a man who just found out he had lost three of his brothers stays to help defend the people in his unit was overwhelming. Not only did he stay and so did the rest of the men who came to find him, but most of those men died willingly to protect their country and save the young boy to give him a chance at going home alive.
Tom Hanks portrayed Captain Miller, one of the main characters throughout the movie. He did a fantastic job with presenting the characters mental dilemmas. We see him struggling throughout the movie with an uncontrollable shaking hand but whenever someone asked if he was alright, he avoided the question and just moved on. We are able to tell that the war is taking a toll on his mental health because often we see him staring off, hearing nothing, when he is in the middle of combat. The viewer sympathizes because we see the tremendous amount of stress he is under. He sees all of the same things that the soldiers he is commanding are, yet he has to remain strong and act as though none of the brutality phases him. The movie ends in a heart wrenching scene where Captain Miller dies saving Private Ryan, even though he had the chance to go home and see his wife before he made the decision to stay and help defend the small group of men Private Ryan did not want to abandon. His final words hit home to Private Ryan and the audience as he tells Private Ryan to "earn it". The impact that those two words had on Private Ryan are taken throughout his life because at the end of the movie we see him getting emotional in front of Captain Millers grave, where he asks his wife if he was a decent man. It was a tear jerking moment as the audience got to whiteness a grown soldier asking for the respect of a man who died saving his life. All 170 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan" were captivating and exhilarating. As I sat watching the film I felt as though I was on the battle field with these men getting to know each and every one of them. Each personality came through even if they did not speak many words. This film is a 5 star movie and is worth seeing because it will have you trying to fight back the tears, whether male or female at the end.