Spielberg Does It Again!

Rating: 10/10 (14 December 2014)

A few years after winning his first Oscar for his best movie (Schindler's List) Spielberg wins his second Best Directing Oscar for his next war epic, Saving Private Ryan, arguably the greatest war movie of all time. In my opinion, this is tied with Apocalypse Now as the best. Both are fantastic war movies, but they're too different to really pick which is better. But I do agree when people say this should have won the Oscar for Best Picture. My favourite movie of the year was American History X, but Saving Private Ryan was a better piece of film. The movie that beat Saving Private Ryan, Shakespeare in Love, was a great and deserving flick, but not as deserving as this.
This movie has a very simple concept, a war Captain (Hanks) leads a group of eight soldiers in the Normandy invasion during the Second World War to rescue a Private Ryan (Damon) and bring him back to his mother. The closer the group gets, the deadlier the mission becomes with the men dying one by one. Why are eight men risking their lives just to save one?
Best war movie or not, this is the most realistic, bar none. The camera is shaky and distorted to capture the most realistic experience possible. Even more realistic than Schindler's List. So much that it looks like actual found footage. That is what makes the movie so brilliant, and so disturbing. The deadlier the mission becomes, the more exciting the movie gets. A fascinating tale of courage and heroism, the end result will leave you clapping with joy.