Saving Private Ryan Reviews

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Bloody, tragic war epic doesn't hold back.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10

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

Full Review | Original Score: 94/100

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

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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 | Original Score: C-

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.

| Original Score: 5/5

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

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

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

I found it tediously manipulative despite its Herculean energy.

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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.

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

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

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

| Original Score: 7/10

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

Full Review | Original Score: A-

Neither wholly condemning war, nor spouting patriotism, Spielberg shows us the price we pay.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

Saving Private Ryan is a first-class war movie with some absolutely brilliant, gut-wrenching moments, especially the beginning minutes.

Full Review | Original Score: A-

Most of the film is an accomplished, visionary work.

| Original Score: A

It's Spielberg at his best, although the movie doesn't match the primal thrills of Jaws or the overwhelming excellence of Schindler's List.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

Even the music score by John Williams, one of the most important ingredients of Spielberg's magic formula, is hardly memorable. The acting, on the other hand, is very good.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10

The first half hour alone forever redefines the war movie genre. Ryan has just one minor flaw: the plot is completely contrived. And if you can characterize a weak story as just a minor flaw... well, that's some damn fine filmmaking.

| Original Score: A