Here's Johnny Wad's. It came seconds before I was falling asleep, so I just threw it in place... here ya go..
To me, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is masterpiece of a war movie that may forever render conventional approaches to the genre obsolete. The trailers that are showing in theaters and on TV don’t (or can’t) hint at the manner in which this film presents the war experience. This film is so shockingly realistic that it makes previous efforts look like a bunch of kids playing army in the backyard. The D-day sequence is the most disturbing 20 minutes of film that I’ve ever seen in my life. The sound and visual fury of the battle is almost unbearably realistic. Your heart will pound, you will grip you chair until your hands hurt, you will sweat, you will shake with adrenaline, and no matter what amount of gore and violence you have seen in movies before, you may find yourself occasionally turning away from the screen in this one. By the end of the D-Day sequence all memories of past war films will be wiped out. In this movie, your favorite GI may get blown apart without warning, without a trace of melodrama. The battle sequences are punctuated by mundane, almost boring conversations among the GIs that serve to give the film some breathing room and help establish bonds with the characters. The dialogue could have been done in a way that was overly sentimental or philosophical, but instead it is kept relatively simple and seems very true to the type of characters portrayed. Despite some moments of relative calm, this film is full of tension for almost the entire way. I left the theater somewhat drained and shaky. I think that this film’s highest achievement is that it dares to show war from the soldiers’ point of view without passing judgment on their actions. Though the GIs are portrayed in the most human terms, this movie not only shows them committing acts of inhuman violence, but it makes the viewer sympathize with these acts, and even wish for them.
The technical virtuosity of this film is stunning, especially because of its complete servitude to the story. I can’t adequately describe the battle scenes; I know of nothing else like them in film. The sound effects are Academy Award winner all the way, as good as any I’ve ever heard. I suspect that this film was also accented with fair bit of CGI, but if so, it was used too well to be noticed.
Without exception, the cast is outstanding. Tom Sizemore’s performance as Sergeant Horvath is a real standout - Oscar-quality. Tom Hanks is as good as he’s ever been. It’s just a terrific ensemble performance.
John Williams’ score is very sparse, mainly confined to the modern-day prologue and epilogue and end titles. The film could have done with virtually no music at all, but at no point was the score obtrusive.
I generally have a problem with Spielberg’s heavy handed approach, and there is some of that in this movie. But for the most part, Spielberg lets the audience see this story with their own eyes instead of his. The only significant problem I had with the movie was with the stateside scenes where the military brass are shown deciding to send a team for Private Ryan. Though this sequence illustrates the motivation for finding Private Ryan, it seems that this could have been accomplished in a way that kept the film moving along better. SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is not entirely devoid of the trademark Spielberg sentimentality and gadgets, but this time he doesn’t force feed the emotions to you. He lets you see a war the way it looked to a bunch of guys that just wanted to do whatever it took to get home alive.
