Saving Private Ryan (1998)

It still blows my mind that Shakespeare in Love won Best Picture over Saving Private Ryan.

When considering the shot within the context of the film, that last shot of the American flag waving in the wind always moves me.

My dear Mrs Ryan:

It's with the most profound sense of joy that I write to inform you your son, Private James Ryan, is well and, at this very moment, on his way home from European battlefields. Reports from the front indicate James did his duty in combat with great courage and steadfast dedication, even after he was informed of the tragic loss your family has suffered in this great campaign to rid the world of tyranny and oppression. I take great pleasure in joining the Secretary of War, the men and women of the U.S. Army, and the citizens of a grateful nation in wishing you good health and many years of happiness with James at your side. Nothing, not even the safe return of a beloved son, can compensate you, or the thousands of other American families, who have suffered great loss in this tragic war.

I might share with you some words which have sustained me through long, dark nights of peril, loss, and heartache. And I quote: "I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the alter of freedom." -Abraham Lincoln.

Yours very sincerely and respectfully,

George C. Marshall, General, Chief of Staff

General Colin Powell introducing the film at the 1999 Oscars.

Maybe I need to rewatch it but I didnt like this movie when I saw it back in the day.

Funny how few of the actors went on to big careers.

After the first 20 minutes it was a pretty traditional war movie.

I’m afraid all combat movies bore me.

Very well made

[quote]After the first 20 minutes it was a pretty traditional war movie.

Which is why Shakespeare In Love won best picture. It was really an original movie and the script was very witty. All the actors were great. Saving Private Ryan, was an excellent movie, but it was intentionally manipulative.

R10 That's Spielberg for you!

The Thin Red Line was also a great war movie that was nominated for Best Picture.

[quote]R10 Shakespeare In Love … was really an original movie and the script was very witty. All the actors were great.

I agree 100%

Don’t know why some seem to have viciously TURNED on this very classy, beautifully made film.

I think because it starred Gwyneth r13.

And produced by Weinstein

[quote]Matt Damn

Hot Damn! He's a big ol' FAG!

So what? He did a good job.

^^ re:

[quote] And produced by Weinstein

[quote]The Thin Red Line was also a great war movie that was nominated for Best Picture.

On my list of Most Overrated Movies. Visually, it was stunning. But it was a bore. And the pacing - twice I thought the movie was over, then it started up again. It's pretty much ignored now.

The opening scene on the beach was depicted realistically and showed what a battlefield is really like. Spielberg did good.

R20 - Everyone agrees about the first 20 minutes. But the movie was two hours and 49 minutes. There's a whole stretch that mirrors any number of movies made in the 40s, with all the soldiers from different ethnic groups, same personalities...etc.

I remember making a “commitment” to go to the theatre and see this movie. As a crying jag. I knew I needed a good cry and I knew this movie would open the faucets. It did. But it didn’t do anything more than any other well made war movie did.

And there are a lot of well made war movies.

The beach scenes were very good with one exception: the blood. There was too much.

I assume it was done to demonstrate all the bullets hitting, and/or for dramatic effect, but veterans of that landing, and other WWII vets, said it didn’t happen that way.

Matt Damon in the late 90s was such a boyfriend material all over.

Tom Sizemore probably would have gone on to an award-winning career, if he hadn’t had addiction issues.

Love the first 20 ish minutes and the last bit, but the middle drags.

I liked it SPR & unlike Schindler's List, for example, it still holds up well as a movie. I remember watching the beach scene in a theatre & it was intense. As illustrated in the beach scenes, a lot of those guys never got off a shot because they just weren't prepared for what was coming and the Germans were just flabbergasted that the Americans just kept coming & coming, even though they were mowing them down with machine guy fire. It's also the movie that solidified Tom Hanks as The Movie Star of our day, though it's interesting that no one else besides Damon (who's not one of the more interesting characters of the movie) went on to big careers.

Not as good as "Shaving Ryan's Privates." Now, that was a classic.

[quote]I liked it SPR & unlike Schindler's List, for example, it still holds up well as a movie.

Schindler's List hold up very well. It's just a difficult movie to watch.