One Line Review: Saving Private Ryan is a result of the extreme dedication of the director, heart-pouring Performances of the Cast, and elite cinematography.

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Youtube Trailer Saving Private Ryan

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Starring: Matt Damon, Tom Hanks

Director: Steven Spielberg

Release Date: 24 July 1998

Introduction

On this day, “Saving Private Ryan” made its first appearance in the theatres of Hollywood. As far as my mind can remember, this might be the only film that managed to create world-class cinematography with just a 70 million dollar budget and that cinematography led them to collect 480 million dollars in the box office and an Oscar for the same.  

Let’s look deep…

Trivia

The director hired Matt Damon because he wanted someone unknown and Typical American-looking guy to play the role of Private Ryan. But before the film even got released, Matt won the Oscars for his role in his previous film Good Will Hunting and became an insane sensation. It kind of ruined the director’s plan, isn’t it?

Iconic dialogues from this movie

Cpl. Upham: So where you from, Captain? What did you do before the war?

Capt. John Miller: What’s the pool up to?

Cpl. Upham: I think it’s at 300.

Capt. John Miller: I’ll tell you what. When it gets to 500 then I’ll tell you and we’ll split it.

Cpl. Upham: Well in that case, sir, as someone under your command, I would ask that we wait until it gets up at 1000.

Capt. John Miller: What if we don’t live that long?

Cpl. Upham: …500?

Capt. John Miller: 500.”

“Capt. John Miller: (Gets Bunker gunner’s attention then jumps back into cover)

Capt. John Miller: [get’s Bunker gunner’s attention then jumps back into cover]

Sgt. Horvath: If your Mother saw you do that she’d be very upset!
Capt. John Miller: I thought you were my mother.

Critic Reviews

“An old-fashioned war picture to rule them all – gripping, utterly uncynical, with viscerally convincing and audacious battle sequences.”  Guardian

Plot Summary

Captain John Miller is given the assignment to find and extract Private James Ryan who parachuted in Normandy, France but never returned. All three brothers of Private Ryan are sacrificed in the war. So, the captain and his team go into the horrible and horrific battlefield again to find the missing private.

Perfect mimicry of war

The creative crew of this movie managed to create something that elevated this movie and prevented it from being counted alongside the movies like “Revolution”, “God and generals” and “Alexander”. Those were the movies that tried to rip off the audiences by showing bizarre quality and quantity of war scenes. This movie is way more different from those films. Because it presented to the audience a perfect mimicry of real war horror.

The beach landing scene told it all. It was gruesome. It did not hide anything from us and truly gave us a sense of what it is like to be on a battleground. No one was presented as a war hero in this movie. The beautiful thing is that everyone was so terrified on the battlefield. Isn’t it so natural and convincing? There was nothing in the war zone that looked artificial and too modern. There were no balls of flames flying in the sky and hitting the ground. There was just dust and debris all around. World war theme at its prime. 

Director’s hard work

After watching the movie my eyes were full of tears and I was really moved. I realized that we civilians, do not have a tad bit of idea of what those men and women in uniform go through.

But, was it my own realization or they made us think like that through their creativity and persistence? Oscars gave the answer to this question before it was even asked. This movie won an Oscar for best cinematography. The opening scene at Omaha beach was called bloody, Hut number, and terrible. The amount of work and time the director gave this movie is commendable. It serves as an inspiration for the directors. No wonder why this movie comes on the top list every time we search for the best world war movies.

Conclusion

Saving private Ryan raised the bar for war epics and only a few films have managed to reach that high ever since. I’m eagerly waiting for more movies like them. It’s a challenge and a request combined.