Saving Private Ryan

I have never been affected by a movie the way Saving Private Ryan affected me. That movie really took me out of my seat in the movie theater and practically had me believing I was really in the battle with John Miller. When somebody was dying in that movie, it felt as if you could almost feel their pain. Speilberg did an unbelievable job of putting realism into this movie with the camera-work and everything else. Simply amazing. An all time great.

My grandfather fought in WW2 somehow surviving D-Day. He was apart of Operation Neptune and stormed the beaches of Normandy. He told us a lot of war stories but rarely ever spoke about that day. Before he passed away he did an interview with a local newspaper and detailed what he saw despite it being very difficult for him to speak about. He loved watching war movies... not sure exactly why. Some about that soldier life never really leaves them I guess. He absolutely hated Pearl Harbor cause of the horrible way they portray the military to be a bunch of toothbrush wielding babies who don't know what to do in the event of being attacked. He had a friend stationed there who lost his life and thinks that movie is a disgusting display of ignorance. Soldiers don't take girlfriends on private plane rides. And they most definitely know how to swim. Maybe I'll give that movie a good ripping one day.

But Saving Private Ryan was a respectable "I can't watch this" reaction. He said no movie has come that close to capturing what that day was like. He said it was too realistic. Whether or not the story is based on real or fiction, that intro was 100% realistic. I'm not sure if he ever did finish watching it but he appreciated it for capturing that chaos like no other movie has before. I watched the movie a dozen times now and keep it in my collection as a reminder of my grandfather. A scene he was technically in. Which makes me appreciate how strong of a person he really is.

War is hell and this movie not only shows that while being an entertaining experience but also captured what soldiers are left behind with. My grandfather was not afraid of anything. I've seen this man walk into a cellar full of black widows to get firewood and not even shake them off. The only time he ever experienced fear was when he went to bed. His nightmares of his time during the war would haunt him in his sleep. This movie helped me understand why.

I went to see Saving Private Ryan twice in the theatre. I was very impressed the first time I saw it, and the battle scenes were so haunting that I felt it would be worthwhile going again. While I again enjoyed them, they obviously did not have the same impact as when seen for the first time and this caused me to give greater attention to the remainder of the film. It didn't hold up well.

I feel it would have been best for Spielberg to have begun this film right off in the boat. No advance warning, no sentimentality. It would have been perhaps the most amazing first scene in cinematic history. But he had to overdo it. The first graveyard scene can be accepted, though it is undesirable. But the second was insulting, not just to me, but to the film itself and the message it had attempted to convey. He can understate well, as the scene in which Mrs. Ryan is told of the fate of her sons proves.

(The rule which is so often broken by film makers today is don't tell, show. But they are so used to talking down to the audience that it is seen as desirable and normal. I see it as manipulative and condescending).

It also seemed as if I could actually see the seams in the movie, the transition from one scene to the next. It was obvious that it was _written_. Yes, of course, all screenplays are written. But a truly good film can draw you in to the point where it IS reality. SPR did not do that for me. I'm sure there has already been sufficient comment on the stereotypicality of the characters. And of course the scene in which there is an argument over whether or not to take the child along with them.

There is a sense in which films like this are protected from artistic judgment because it is felt that the message they are conveying is so important. I believe this is part of the reason it has received as much praise as it has. While the battle scenes and cinematography are truly magnificent, those things alone are not enough for a film to be considered the greatest film of all time, nor even the greatest war film of all time.

The first 23 minutes of this film is rated at a 12.

My good friend and I took our sons, 17 at the time, to see this in a theater. I am a senior military officer who experienced combat in 1967 - 68 - 69. We wanted the boys to see the horror of war, the slaughter.

I have had to pack up the personal effects of my comrade to send back to his mother after he was killed in the Viet Nam war. Those of you who have not done this cannot even comprehend.

After the opening combat scenes the film was an 8. Well done.

War is hell and to those of us who have been there ... well I don't know what to say.

Neither of our sons joined the military ... thank God.

Steven Spielberg makes a unique motion picture in regards to the D-Day invasion of World War II just in the gritty reality of the detail… For more than twenty minutes he revives for us the landing at Omaha beach… No one was prepared for how horrific it really was… No one understood what was going on: The terror, the chaos, the maelstrom of bullets, the near-deafening explosions…You really got a sense of what these guys had to go through…

Within that perplexity, the focus settles on six soldiers under the command of Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) after they've survived their terrible hours breaking through the first line of German defense, they're given a strange perilous mission, to find one man, Pvt. Ryan (Matt Damon), a paratrooper who's somewhere behind German lines… For them, it's an abstruse order, but they have to get it done…

Throughout the film, Spielberg's attention to detail is amazing… For me, the most chilling scene in the movie is the death of an American officer… It's one of the most intimate… It's also a slightly confusing moment because two German characters resemble each other so greatly…

Toward the middle, a German soldier called "Steamboat Willie" is introduced… By the end of the film, he has become the 'bad' German… Later in the movie, another German is involved in the final fight… He takes part in an exceedingly painful scene of hand-to-hand combat with the American soldier… The two German soldiers have similar short haircuts and black uniforms… Because they looked so much alike, many of us have believed that they're one character… They're not, and the distinction of the two is very significant