Realistically great but grim!

Rating: 9/10 (22 February 2011)

This has got to be one of the best movies ever made! If its not my favorite, then its definitely one of them! From the introductory D-Day scene to the final battle in Ramelle, Spielberg does a fantastic job making the viewers feel like they're in the soldiers' shoes. The horror these men have to encounter throughout the film's battles is something that has definitely changed the war movie genre for good, as for the audiences viewing it, making it a model for its genre.
Even though it may occasionally seem patriotic (frequent when it comes to WW2 movies, right?), Saving Private Ryan portrays human beings as being fragile and not necessarily persuaded by the cause they're fighting for. Captain Miller (Tom Hanks), for instance, only goes on with this mission that his men consider suicidal because he's fed up with this whole manslaughter and just wants to go home.
The only problem I'd give to this movie would be that the German soldier who grimly kills private Mellish (Adam Goldberg) is the same one the unit encountered and nearly executed while taking control of the radar site. The fact that the same guys had to run coincidently into the same soldier again, out of the 100 or so other Germans in the battle, was kinda dumb, but that little problem was not enough to ruin the movie by a long shot!
I can't believe this movie didn't get the Academy Award for best picture, but it definitely earned its 5 others for directing, photography, editing, sound and sound effects!
I strongly recommend this film for about everything in it, from the acting and morality to the incredibly realistic special effects.