#205 - Saving Private Ryan – (75%)

This movie was released in 1998 and was directed Steven Spielberg and stars Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Matt Damon & Tom Sizemore. This was produced on a budget of $70m and went on to make a huge success at the box office making $482.3m. This film is seen as epic and described as one of the greatest films ever made and one of the most influential war films ever. This was well received and at the time was seen in amazing.

The plot will be a brief one as I will give an overview and then I know there a long ramble of mine coming your way when the plot is done so brace yourself. The movie follows a troop of American Soldiers that land of Omaha beach on D-Day. They have a mission of advancing beyond the beach and capturing it. Which they do successfully and once this objective is completed, they get sent a new set of objectives well one objective in fact and that is to find Private Ryan and bring him home safe. This is one of a band of brothers that have all been killed in the line of duty and someone in the senior offices of the US decides that this last brother is the one to be saved so this group of soldiers travel into France in an attempt to track this guy down and bring him back safe. They end up supporting various missions and objectives and they take on tanks invading the town of rubble where they are holding out. They are put under extreme pressures throughout and you naturally become attached to each of the characters and they are all likeable for different reasons and they capture some German’s early on and they decide to let the last one there go by being to blind folded and told to walk away, little do they realise that this act of kindness may come back to hurt them but that is enough spoilers.

Another movie that my score is lower and in this case quite a bit lower than the other guys as IMDb gave it a 8.6/10 and a whopping 93% from Rotten Tomatoes, that I feel this will be a case of justifying my low score. The problem I have with this movie is the plot and the fact that a whole platoon of troops was sent to rescue one person in the middle of the D-day landings and having a group go off in search of one individual. This is my bugbear of this movie. Beyond that there is little wrong with this movie, but this one thing has irritated me to the point where I cannot get over it in terms of the story and anything else. Yes, I am fully aware what the name of the film is but I still cannot get over that one point. I will come back around and explain why this movie is a great one and you should watch it, but I will come to that next. The opening sequence of this movie is mind blowing and scarily accurate for the D-Day landings based on my knowledge of that day makes this whole scene is just unbelievable. The fact that this movie has got this scene spot on makes that day and those heroes on that beach seem even more amazing. On many occasions I will watch the opening of this movie and then switch off, not bothering with the rest. The respect I have for those on that beach that stepped off the boats and marched towards machine guns to reach the top of the beach is awe inspiring and they should never be forgotten. I will also add that I am aware that soldiers that was there that day cannot watch this film because it was too accurate. If you do not watch this movie then follow my lead and watch the opening blood thirsty and quite in your face beginning of this movie if nothing else. Don’t get me wrong the rest of this movie is still good and worth a watch but after this opening scene the fictional element of this movie, which maybe why I have a beef about this movie. This movie paved the way for Spielberg’s tv series of Band Of Brothers and for me that was better than this movie as it followed a true story. I cannot recommend this movie enough but I would suggest watching the opening scene if not the whole thing and I’d also suggested watching the 10 (I think) part series of Band of Brothers.