One of the best films of the year

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 1998)

The opening 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan are some of the most brutal images put on screen. I don't care what you've seen before, this is absolutely shocking. There were times when it was difficult to watch these events flash in front of my eyes. War is not pretty, and Speilberg shows you this in a way that will grab you, a man holding his intestines is crying for his mother, another man who loses an arm confusingly tries to pick it up with his other hand. You know that this is not gonna be a pretty ride.
Saving Private Ryan is Speilberg's follow up to last year's highly underrated film, Amistad. Tom Hanks is Captain Miller, who gets word of Private Ryan (Matt Damon), who lost all of his brothers in the war (he still doesn't know it yet), Private Ryan is therefore granted a safe trip back home, and it's up to Captain Miller and seven others to make sure that he makes his return home as soon as possible. The only problem is that they don't know exactly where he is, just somewhere behind enemy lines. The eight begin their journey and on their way each of their characters are revealed, we find out that Captain Miller, as tough as he is, wants nothing more than to get out of the violence and tragedy that he has to deal with everyday. He just wants to return home, as does almost everybody else.
Speilberg is in top form again, and although it's not as perfect as his masterpiece, Schindler's List, it does rank as the best film of 1998 (so far). The performances are top-notch and incredibly real, especially Tom Hanks' character.
So what can you say? Speilberg has done it again. Never before has war been shown so realistically before. If there is one film that can show the atrocities that soldiers had to go through every day, SPR is the one. Is it the best war film ever made?... I don't think so. But is it a damn good one?... definitely