Sorely needed VIOLENT war movie.

Rating: 8/10 (18 November 1998)

Couldn't be bothered to read all the comments, but it seems like everything's been said. But I would like to add that whilst SPR is a damn good movie, and that the actual depiction of war reaches a new level of realism (and this is mainly WHY it is such a landmark movie), various parts of it have been ripped off (for want of a better expression) other, better movies.
The 'shellshocked perspectives' (where everything goes silent during the intense battle-scenes) appear to have been lifted from Kurosawa's (far superior) "RAN", particularly the much talked about 'man-picks-up-severed-arm' shot.
The inexperienced non-infantry soldier attached to the squad idea was put to far better use by Wolfgang Peterson in "DAS BOOT", and the basic plot outline doesn't really deviate from the standard WW2 action movies that the film critiques.
In the Mr Showbiz interview, Spielberg said he was trying not to use the war as a "springboard to false adventure", but he has instead used the war as a springboard to re-examine the 'adventure' of war. The war itself is marginalised, the experience of war is the subject, and is examined simply through the harrowing recreation of it.
Mr Showbiz also compared the film's opening scene to that of "The Wild Bunch", and it does have the same power. The difference is that the latter film would maintain a certain greatness MINUS the violence, whereas SPR rides on the power of its opening scene.
As pure technique, Saving Private Ryan is genius, and ranks among the most noble achievements of cinema in recent memory. But as an original work of true greatness, it is something less. 9 out of 10.