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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:19

Fresh:17

Rotten:2

Average Rating:7.9/10

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 - 19 (sorted by date)
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No further commentary is needed when the raw brutality of combat is presented as indelibly as it is here.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
09/09/08
Todd McCarthy
Todd McCarthy
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
07/12/02
Liam Lacey
Liam Lacey
Globe and Mail
Top Critic Icon 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.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
02/14/01
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
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Launches and climaxes with two of the greatest extended battle sequences ever put on film.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
01/01/00
Bob Graham
Bob Graham
San Francisco Chronicle
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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

Using the overpowering techniques of modern film, Steven Spielberg has cut through the glory-tinged gauze that shrouds World War II to reveal its brutal reality, creating a phenomenology of violence unsurpassed in the history of cinema.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Gary Kamiya
Gary Kamiya
Salon.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

For those who are willing to brave the movie's shocking and unforgettable images, Saving Private Ryan offers a singular motion picture experience.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
01/01/00
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A soberly magnificent new war film.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
01/01/00
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Feels like the first truly honest attempt to deal with the horrors of combat - and the terrible responsibility shared by all survivors.

comment Comment
01/01/00
John Hartl
John Hartl
Film.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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

Spielberg opens in flashback with a half-hour set piece brilliant enough to climax any other masterpiece.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Mike Clark
Mike Clark
USA Today
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Spielberg has captured the hair-trigger instability of modern combat.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A flawed but masterful film.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Peter Brunette
Peter Brunette
Film.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A war film that, entirely aware of its genre's conventions, transcends them as it transcends the simplistic moralities that inform its predecessors, to take the high, morally haunting ground.

Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | comment Comment
01/01/00
Richard Schickel
Richard Schickel
TIME Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Has 'masterpiece' written all over it.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Robert Horton
Robert Horton
Film.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A powerful experience.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
01/01/00
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

As compelling, intimate and brutally realistic an account of men at war as you’ve ever seen.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
01/01/00
Susan Stark
Susan Stark
Detroit News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Gripping and satisfying in a way that no mere summer event movie could ever be.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Ted Fry
Ted Fry
Film.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 19 (sorted by date)
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