Saving Private Ryan (1998)

All Critics (95) | Top Critics (21) | Fresh (97) | Rotten (7) | DVD (47)

No further commentary is needed when the raw brutality of combat is presented as indelibly as it is here.

September 9, 2008 Full Review | Comments (2)

Todd McCarthy

Variety

Top Critic

I found it tediously manipulative despite its Herculean energy.

April 27, 2007 Full Review | Comments (39)

Andrew Sarris

New York Observer

Top Critic

Why did Spielberg make it? He wants us to imagine we can feel the terror of being there, but does that make us any wiser about this or any other conflict? Probably not.

June 24, 2006 Full Review | Comments (30)

Derek Adams

Time Out

Top Critic

The greatest Steven Spielberg movie since the last great one? Sure.

July 12, 2002 Full Review | Comments (2)

Liam Lacey

Globe and Mail

Top Critic

A powerful and impressive milestone in the realistic depiction of combat, Saving Private Ryan is as much an experience we live through as a film we watch on screen.

February 14, 2001 Full Review | Comment (1)

Kenneth Turan

Los Angeles Times

Top Critic

Saving Private Ryan is not a film that one takes pleasure in, or even enjoys in the usual sense, but rather, it's a movie that elicits a hushed admiration and an uneasy appreciation.

January 1, 2000 Full Review | Comments (2)

Joe Baltake

Sacramento Bee

Top Critic

Thanks to Hanks, and Spielberg's technical finesse, this develops into a powerful and potent portrayal of men at war, and those opening 20 minutes are worth the price of entry alone.

October 3, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Film4

Bloody, tragic war epic doesn't hold back.

December 15, 2010 Full Review | Comment (1)

Charles Cassady

Common Sense Media

The back of the box calls is "the movie that helped the world to remember," but Saving Private Ryan still suffers from a forgettable second act.

May 10, 2010 Full Review | Comments (2)

Eric Henderson

Slant Magazine

What, asks the film, is the worth of a single human soul? (Blu-ray Edition)

April 30, 2010 Full Review | Comment (1)

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

It deserved all the honors it received, looks and sounds great on Blu-ray, and safely remains among the best war movies of all time.

April 30, 2010 Full Review | Comment (1)

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

Saving Private Ryan set a new benchmark for realism in WWII films, and defined war movies for a generation. A film of scope and vision rarely experienced, its award-winning cinematography and sound editing helped convey the blood-chilling images of

February 17, 2010 Full Review | Comment (1)

AskMen.com Staff

AskMen.com

Private Ryan resembles the director's other so-called mature efforts by putting a positive spin on unspeakable horrors.

August 21, 2009 Full Review | Comment (1)

Rob Nelson

City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul

Violent, harrowing, and horrific; you bet. This is not a movie to take your children to see, or even a date. And it's definitely not worth seeing alone. How the ratings board gave this movie an "R" rating is a mystery. Well, maybe not.

April 14, 2009 Full Review | Comments (130)

Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

I personally have never fought in a war before but I would go out on a limb and say that the first twenty minutes of the film may be the most realistic war scene I have seen.

January 2, 2009 | Comment (1)

Kevin McCarthy

BDK Reviews

It's forty minutes of steely violence and two hours of cliche-ridden flab.

August 18, 2007 Full Review | Comments (45)

Rob Gonsalves

eFilmCritic.com

Saving Private Ryan is an incredible movie, a near-masterpiece.

May 26, 2006 Full Review | Comment (1)

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

The opening 30 minutes are so devastating that much of what follows ends up feeling anticlimactic. Good, but overrated.

March 4, 2006 | Comments (3)

Chuck O'Leary

FulvueDrive-in.com

The movie epitomizes the paradox of all great filmmaking: It's a thrillingly violent war drama about an unbearably painful subject.

December 11, 2005 Full Review | Comment (1)

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

• 1. Pvt. James Ryan: Picture a girl who just took a nosedive from the ugly tree and hit every branch coming down.
  – Submitted by Friso C (3 months ago)
• 1. Sgt. Horvath: Maybe saving Private Ryan is the one decent thing we did in this war.
  – Submitted by Cody H (5 months ago)
• 1. Cpl. Upham: So where you from, Captain? What did you do before the war?
  2. Capt. John Miller: What's the pool up to?
  3. Cpl. Upham: I think it's at 300.
  4. Capt. John Miller: I'll tell you what. When it gets to 500 then I'll tell you and we'll split it.
  5. Cpl. Upham: Well in that case, sir, as someone under your command, I would ask that we wait until it gets up 1000.
  6. Capt. John Miller: What if we don't live that long?
  7. Cpl. Upham: ...500?
  8. Capt. John Miller: 500.
  – Submitted by Cody H (5 months ago)
• 1. Pvt. Mellish: He's good.
  2. Pvt. Caparzo: I love him.
  – Submitted by Cody H (5 months ago)
• 1. Capt. John Miller: [struggling to speak]
  2. Pvt. James Ryan: Whats that sir?
  3. Capt. John Miller: [pulling Ryan closer] E-Earn this. Earn it.
  – Submitted by Giovanni R (6 months ago)
• 1. Capt. John Miller: MAYBE YOU SHOULD SHUT UP!
  – Submitted by Conner W (7 months ago)