Saving Private Ryan

1998.

Not yet released / #71

Winner of 5 Academy Awards.

After the D-Day landing, Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) leads a squad of Army rangers into the French countryside to rescue Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), a downed paratrooper. Once they find him, they agree to help him defend a bridge from the Germans.

Eddie: SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is the best war movie ever made. Where do I begin? Hanks and Damon are great, and their scene together reminds the audience of their humanity. Incredibly, Damon improvised most of his monologue (and Hanks skipped most of his). The real heroes of the movie are the supporting cast. Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, and Adam Goldberg are funny, wry, and vulnerable. Vin Diesel and Giovanni Ribisi rip your heart apart like sticky bombs. That's right. Vin Diesel actually acts! Paul Giamatti, Ted Danson, and Dennis Farina turn in a solid day's work to round out the supporting cast. Damn you, Steven Spielberg, for putting together such a solid cast and shooting the movie like a WWII documentary. By desaturating the colors and strobing the first reel of the movie, Spielberg throws us into it headlong.

Sarah: This movie manages to be completely moving and sentimental without glorifying the war. And though there is violence, none of it seems gratuitous. I'm amazed by that. This film has it all - amazing performers, solid story, and a master director. I think if one of these things was out of balance, it would be easy for this to turn into just another war story. Eddie commented on the supporting cast, and I agree they make this film strong. We get to know each one as a complex, flawed individual. It's these nuances that help make the film real.

If you've never seen it, see it! But keep your tissues near.

Why You Should See It: For Eddie, it's the scene in the church when Medic Irwin Wade (Ribisi) tells the other soldiers about his mother - about waiting up to see her when she got home from work, but then pretending he was asleep when she got home. "I don't know why I did that," he tells them. For Sarah, it's the scene between Captain Miller and Private Ryan, talking about their lives back home - the moment when Ryan realizes that he will never see his brothers again. Either way, heart-wrenching stuff.