A film I will never forget

Rating: 10/10 (15 September 1998)

When I went to see this film I thought I knew what to expect--a gory, realistic war drama about a group of men whom we come to have emotions for, not unlike the characters in "Platoon" or "Full Metal Jacket," but I was sorely mistaken.
This film was not only realistic, it was heart-wrenching and thrilling, and never before has a film had such an emotional impact on me. Never before have I pitied and felt so strongly for characters in a movie because I always found most movies to merely be entertainment, with the exception of a few other films dealing with equally significant issues, but something was different about "Saving Private Ryan". It made me reflect on my own life and I actually found myself thanking God that I have never experienced something as horrifying and gruesome as the experience of the soldiers as portrayed in the opening and closing scenes.
A month after seeing it, I still find myself contemplating the horror experienced by so many men, and I can't fathom the misery, anguish, and suffering encountered by those soldiers. The character Private Ryan was superfluous to the story, a mere gimmick in my mind for Spielberg to portray the Hell that must be combat.