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Movies / On DVD / Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan

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Saving Private Ryan (1998)

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Reviews Counted:91

Fresh:82

Rotten:9

Average Rating:8.1/10

Consensus: Anchored by another winning performance from Hanks, Spielberg's unflinchingly realistic war film virtually redefines the genre.

Runtime: 2 hrs 49 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Director Steven Spielberg's World War II tour de force chronicles the journey of a GI squad on a dangerous mission behind enemy lines. Led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks), the unit is under... Director Steven Spielberg's World War II tour de force chronicles the journey of a GI squad on a dangerous mission behind enemy lines. Led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks), the unit is under orders to track down a soldier, Private Ryan (Matt Damon), so he might return home to his mother in America, where she is grieving the unimaginable loss of her three other sons to the war. The first unforgettable 20 minutes of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN realistically and horrifically depicts the Normandy invasion as Miller. his second-in-command, Sergeant Horvath (Tom Sizemore), and the others in the unit land at Omaha Beach. Before the film began shooting, Hanks and the actors in his squad went through a one-week boot camp in the woods. All the actors, except Hanks, wanted to quit, but Hanks rallied their spirits by reminding them of the incredible tribulations endured by the real veterans of World War II. Production designer Tom Sanders found a beach in Ireland that perfectly matched the landscape of Normandy's. Spielberg gave great credit to the Irish army who helped re-create the Omaha Beach scenes. [More]

Starring: Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Jeremy Davies, Edward Burns

Starring: Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Jeremy Davies, Edward Burns, Matt Damon, Giovanni Ribisi, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Vin Diesel, Ted Danson, Paul Giamatti, Dennis Farina, Harve Presnell, Bryan Cranston

Director: Steven Spielberg

Director: Steven Spielberg
Screenwriter: Robert Rodat
Producer: Steven Spielberg, Ian Bryce, Mark Gordon, Gary Levinsohn
Composer: John Williams

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Feb 2, 2010

[DVD Details]
 
 

DVD Features:

  • Region [unknown]
  • Special Edition
 
 
 
 

Reviews for Saving Private Ryan

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1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating)
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
03/24/02
Boston Phoenix
N/R

Spielberg has taken us back to basics -- back to art, back to amazement at the film medium itself.

Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment Comment
01/01/00
David Denby
David Denby
New York Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Spielberg throws you right down there in the middle of all the action, and you have no choice but to experience it.

Full Review Source: Matt's Movie Reviews | comment Comment
01/01/00
Matt Easterbrook
Matt Easterbrook
Matt's Movie Reviews

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Hollywood.com | comment Comment
08/22/03
Hollywood.com

I found it tediously manipulative despite its Herculean energy.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment 1 Comment
04/27/07
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Spielberg trades in his usually powerful ideals for an unsettling combination of phony humanism and pandering realism.

Full Review Source: Matinee Magazine | comment 3 Comments
04/30/01
Chuck Rudolph
Chuck Rudolph
Matinee Magazine

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.

Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment 21 Comments
04/14/09
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

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.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment 5 Comments
06/24/06
Derek Adams
Derek Adams
Time Out

If you enjoy war movies then you'll find this a 5/5 flick; I don't, so go figure.

Full Review Source: Dark Horizons | comment 22 Comments
04/02/05
Garth Franklin
Garth Franklin
Dark Horizons

For all the care and thoughtfulness that follow in the story, I never could shake the impression that all I was watching was every other war film Spielberg had ever seen.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment 14 Comments
01/01/00
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The only thing surprising about Saving Private Ryan is how conventional it is. I fully expected a much more 'noir' vision of WWII along the lines of Oliver Stone's Platoon.

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment 7 Comments
01/01/00
Louis Proyect
Louis Proyect
rec.arts.movies.reviews

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

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment 14 Comments
08/18/07
Rob Gonsalves
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com

Except for the maudlin bookends from the present day that frame the story, Spielberg doesn't over-sentimentalize.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
01/01/00
E! Online

El desembarco en Normandía es un evento famoso de la Historia, pero nunca había sido fotografiado en esta forma.

Full Review Source: Cinenganos | comment Comment
09/03/01
Alex Ramirez
Alex Ramirez
Cinenganos

This is an important film that deconstructs war machines into separate, frightened men as it so likely was.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
04/17/01
Almar Haflidason
Almar Haflidason
BBC

A message which can never be spoken too often, or for too long.

Full Review Source: Film Written Magazine | comment Comment
04/02/01
Andrew Howe
Andrew Howe
Film Written Magazine

The diverse effects that war has on human nature has never been captured with such aching reality.

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
01/01/00
Andrew L. Urban
Andrew L. Urban
Urban Cinefile

Spectacular, wrenching masterpiece that unflinchingly documents the random horror, the grisly spectacle and the ugliness of war.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Andy Jones
Andy Jones
TNT's Rough Cut

An intense, technically brilliant, wonderfully acted film.

Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
01/01/00
Arthur Lazere
Arthur Lazere
culturevulture.net

You feel you are under siege with the combatants.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Examiner | comment Comment
01/01/00
Barbara Shulgasser
Barbara Shulgasser
San Francisco Examiner
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating)
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