Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Very few movies are there which influences us in a very intense way. Saving Private Ryan is one of its kinds. Steven Spielberg has redefined the genre of war movies; perhaps no one can ever precede his masterpiece. Watching this movie is worth a lifetime experience. The opening scene pertaining to the Normandy’s beach assault on D-Day 1944 is one of the gruesome footage ever put up on the big screen. No war movies have ever been so accurate to show the mayhem in a discrete style.

The story begins with Second World War’s momentous D-Day invasion, then moves beyond the brutal beach assault & introduces us to a squad of American soldiers under the command of Captain John Miller. This squad of eight embarks into a dangerous mission where they must find a paratrooper named Private James Ryan, whose three brothers were killed in combat. Faced with impossible odds, these men question their orders & try to figure out whether it’s really worth to risk the lives of eight for saving one. Eventually these men seek for their own answers & hope to feat over an uncertain future.

Tom Hanks as Captain John Miller immortalized the character of a rational officer caught under extraordinary circumstances. This was one of his best screen performances since Forrest Gump. Each casts were able to stretch out the characters in a very plausible way, undeniably noteworthy.

It really doesn’t matter the legitimacy of the plot; what really matters is how well it stood in the final act. Armed with John Williams’s poignant tune, this movie serves as a memoir for all those lives lost in the tragic war. This is an epic tale which should be cherished by every movie aficionados.

My Rating : 10/10

2 comments:

  1. Easily one of my favorite war movies of all time. It is the quintessential anti-war war film. Beautifully shot, wonderfully acted. Engaging and thought provoking story. It has been 12 years since its release, and I am still trying to figure out how it lost to SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE.

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  2. I agree. Certainly the most influential war film of the last twenty years. The cinematography is now standard in war films (ex. Band of Brothers). Two amazing set pieces at the beginning and end. An intriguing twist as to who dies. Two of the most poignant deaths in screen history. Moral dilemmas. Great acting. The loss to "Shakespeare" will always be the most bizarre event in Oscar history.

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