The most realistic harrowing battle scenes ever filmed...

Rating: 9/10 (26 October 2008)

Steven Spielberg makes a unique motion picture in regards to the D-Day invasion of World War II just in the gritty reality of the detail For more than twenty minutes he revives for us the landing at Omaha beach No one was prepared for how horrific it really was No one understood what was going on: The terror, the chaos, the maelstrom of bullets, the near-deafening explosionsYou really got a sense of what these guys had to go through
Within that perplexity, the focus settles on six soldiers under the command of Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) after they've survived their terrible hours breaking through the first line of German defense, they're given a strange perilous mission, to find one man, Pvt. Ryan (Matt Damon), a paratrooper who's somewhere behind German lines For them, it's an abstruse order, but they have to get it done
Throughout the film, Spielberg's attention to detail is amazing For me, the most chilling scene in the movie is the death of an American officer It's one of the most intimate It's also a slightly confusing moment because two German characters resemble each other so greatly
Toward the middle, a German soldier called "Steamboat Willie" is introduced By the end of the film, he has become the 'bad' German Later in the movie, another German is involved in the final fight He takes part in an exceedingly painful scene of hand-to-hand combat with the American soldier The two German soldiers have similar short haircuts and black uniforms Because they looked so much alike, many of us have believed that they're one character They're not, and the distinction of the two is very significant