| Product: |
Saving Private Ryan (DVD) |
| Date: |
06/05/01 (13 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Realistic, Tom Hanks brilliant, Lots of depth
Disadvantages: Too gory for some?
Rather famous for one of the most shocking but realistic opening battle sequences ever. Saving Private Ryan is one of the most powerful, riveting and memorable films around. Never before has the fear and hostility of war been so vividly captured.
As the film opens we are thrown straight into the US D-Day assault on Omaha beach. With such consummate skill Spielberg evokes the gut wrenching hostility of the conflict. There are bullets ripping into bodies, soldiers flailing depserately in the water. There is even one soldier searching around for his severed arm. This aint meant to be some spectacle though. You are supposed to be hit by the sickening nature of it all and it succeeds brilliantly, leaving you rather shaken.
After this opening scene Tom Hanks and his are given orders to locate and bring home in Nazi controlled France a Private James Ryan to his Mother whose whose other three sons have been killed in action. As the mission goes on we are shown various powerful moments like an argument over whether to save a French child, a screwed up attack on a German bunker...
As lives are inevitably lost over these issues doubts grow about the mission and it raises quite a few questions about war especially the matter of whether one person's life is more important that another's.
Hanks excels as the leader, Divided by his duty to appear strong for his men and suffering from his own crumbling morality, he pulls of a particulalry moving performance. For a war film to have such a deep character it is even more impressive.
There are quite a few graphic scenes throughout. Kids beware and some adults as well but these scenes are never there for the hell of it. They are there to capture the full awfulness of the situation. It wouldnt be the same without it.
This film really is quite amazing. It captures the essence of war unlike any other film before it and adds many deep characters and events and questions to t
he mix. A classic.
Summary:
|
|
