The most gut-wrenching war movie I've ever seen.

Rating: Null/10 (4 November 1999)

I've seen lot's of war movies in my 32 years of life, but this one is by far the only one that really, really affected me emotionally. Watching this movie in the theatre, I had knots in my stomach. The emotional impact of the film is something I had never experienced in such intensity. The visuals were absolutely the best, music (while sometimes too melodramatic) was first rate, and the acting was mostly excellent. I will admit that the movie did drag somewhat in the middle stages, but I'm glad it did because I needed the break!
Many people here have said that this movie was not an anti-war movie. Far from the truth. Spielberg has shown what war REALLY IS form a soldiers point of view (witrh some creative liberties thrown in to be sure). He shows us war for what it is...bloody, ugly, violent in the extreme, and most of the time has us wondering "why?" If anyone wants to rush off to war after seeing this film, you have some issues to deal with. And is there something wrong with Spielberg showing soldiers as "heroes?" I didn't see that very much anyway, especially at the beginning...I saw "good-guy" soldiers shooting surrendered Germans..not very heroic, but most likely true. In my opinion, EVERY single person of that generation that went "over there" was a hero, ugly consequences aside.
And to the European crowd who cry about how ther were other nationalities that sacrificed and bled just as much as the "noble Americans" did...we know that. Thats why they called it WORLD war 2. This movie, however, focused on Omaha beach...the most heavily defended beach of D-Day. Americans were there and they were slaughtered by the hundreds. The Brits were over on another beach (Gold) with very little resistance, not the kind that the Americans experienced at Omaha in comparison. This is not to take away the valiant sacrifices of your boys, but to put this mud-slinging in context here. If you want a movie made about your sacrifices specifically, then make one. But don't take away the fact that it was predominatly AMERICANS who bled and bled hard at Omaha. The U.S. flag waving at the beginning and end? Whats the big deal? Ryan was an American soldier in the 101st airborne...what the heck ELSE was Spielgberg supposed to show?? The Union Jack??
At any rate, this movie should be ranked as one of the greatest war movies of this century. If you haven't seen it, you should. World War 2 is not all old black-and-white combat footage you see in documentaries. It's sacrifice, death, struggling, and heroics and rolled into one and chances are there is someone in your family who was over there.