Impossible to Rate "Saving Private Ryan"

Rating: 10/10 (9 March 2007)

The long opening D-Day battle scene in "Saving Private Ryan" is a true shocker, and you'd better believe what I say. I almost left the theater the first time I saw it on a big screen; I can just barely stand it on a TV screen. I can't watch "Saving Private Ryan" without bawling, and that's not like me at all. How can I rate the damn thing when I can't even see it through my tears? Tom Hanks as Captain John H. Miller. Matt Damon as Private James Francis Ryan. Ted Danson as Captain Fred Hamill. Jeremy Davies as Corporal Timothy P. Upham. And all the rest of the actors, even Vin Diesel as short-lived Private Adrian Caparzo. Stellar line-up.
Listen: Tom Hanks always turns in a great acting performance, even when the film into which he's thrust doesn't give him much of a chance. I don't mean this film; I'm thinking of an inferior screenplay like "Cast Away." Even there, Hanks almost made it great. In "Saving Private Ryan" the screenplay and Hanks are really, truly great.
I don't hand out tens easily.
Enough said? Yes.