As close as I'll ever get to combat.

Rating: Null/10 (5 January 2000)

It may be silly to say this, but I feel like I just survived World War II. But that's silly, of course I never fought in World War II. I'm only eighteen years old. But I still feel like I survived the war, because I just watched Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan."
With most reviews I write for IMDB, I begin writing with a sense of purpose. I know what I want to say and how I want to say it. This time I'm at a loss. "Saving Private Ryan" shocked me out of any senses I had left, it disturbed me more than many other movies films ever had. In fact, the only comparable film I can even think of is another by Spielberg, "Schindler's List." Both classify as what I call "super-realism." The film is so realistic, so believable that one immediately forgets that they are watching actors on celluloid and is transported to the actual event.
Such is the case with this entire film, especially the opening D-Day invasion. The outstanding acting crew of Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, among others, become real soldiers. We fight along side them. When people suffer, we cannot help but feel their pain.
I think the most striking thing about this film from a technical perspective was the phenomenal cinematographer of Janusz Kaminski. As he did with "Schindler's List," Kaminski achieves a consistent newsreel effect, but this time the camerawork is more frantic, more likely to take us by surprise. Particularly during the D-Day sequence, we are as confused and blind-sided as many of the actual soldiers, and this adds to the intensity. Beyond Kaminski, everybody involved deserves a standing ovation, or perhaps more fittingly, a salute for making a film this great.
I feel like I'm getting hysterical, and I really don't want to. Suffice it to say that "Saving Private Ryan" is a phenomenal film capable of extraordinary emotional impact, able to make us week, tremble, and practically scream out with near-agony. This film conveys the truth about war, and only those who do not fear the truth will be able to watch it. Of course, a warning is needed. Few films are as graphically violent as this one, but few have as much of a reason to be.
If nothing else I've yet said made any sense, maybe this will. See "Saving Private Ryan." Or better yet, experience "Saving Private Ryan."
**** out of ****.