kiss your cross and hug your Thompson, when that hatch opens, your in gods hands...

Rating: 9/10 (30 November 2008)

After seeing this movie for the first time last night, The only word that can be used to describe this movie is "spectacular".
I chose to rent this movie simply because of the outstanding reviews. Everyone who saw it said that it was a masterpiece, so i knew that i had to see it. I've seen plenty of war movies, some bad, some excellent. Before I move on, I have to say that this is the closest thing there is to Band of Brothers. After watching Band of Brothers countless times, my expectations for Saving Private Ryan were extremely high, but it met them in the end. The only major problem I had with this film was the fact that I had tons of trouble renting it due to me being 15 years of age.
The first scene of the movie shows Ryan as an elderly man visiting an American WWII cemetery in France, and i think that the movie could have done without that scene. That scene tells you right of the bat that Private Ryan lives through the movie, and that someone close to him in the movie dies. Putting that scene aside, the first combat scene takes place on the shores of Omaha Beach, the most gruesome battle of all the beach heads. When it shows the 101st airborne preparing to hit the beaches in the boats, you almost feel as nervous as they are, and as soon as the boat hatch opens, you feel helpless, almost as if you were on the beach, left to die. The entire scene is absolutely jaw dropping, and it drags you through the beach, showing you all the hell and carnage that took place that day.
The rest of the movie is very straight forward. A small group of men set out to rescue a "Private Ryan". They barely have any idea who he is or where he's located, All they know is his name, and why they need to find him. The acting is really great, and Tom Hanks was as great as I expected.
But, there were a few to many conflicts between the soldiers that really shouldn't of happened, and the soldiers in the film don't realize that the Germans are people to, and they are killing Americans for the same reason they're killing Germans. But I guess soldiers back then didn't realize that either, so it doesn't matter, but it will get to you while you watch the film. Overall, this move was of course "spectacular", and it definitely deserves a purchase.