Saving Private Ryan

Matt Damon is Private James Francis Ryan; somewhere in Normandy, 1944. Tom Hanks is Captain John Miller, instructed to locate and return Ryan to the safety of home in light of the demise of all three of his siblings. Spielberg’s war movie was hailed as an instant classic on its release in 1998, most especially for his recreation of the Normandy landings in the film’s opening half an hour: an intensely sustained barrage that ups the ante on Peckinpah, Woo, et al.

Stephen Ambrose was a big influence on Robert Rodat’s screenplay, and the film feels authentic even in its hokier moments. (Scott Frank and Frank Darabont apparently also did uncredited rewrites on the script.) At the Academy Awards, Spielberg was named Best Director, and there were prizes in many of the technical departments: camera, editing, sound. But the award for Best Picture that year went to Shakespeare in Love, and for some of us, The Thin Red Line hits a deeper note.

Content Considerations: Graphic violence

Spielberg created one of his greatest films, an old-fashioned war picture to rule them all – gripping, utterly uncynical, with viscerally convincing and audacious battle sequences. It was a staggeringly effective action film… War is not glamorised in Saving Private Ryan, but the spectacular inferno is brilliantly created.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Soberingly magnificent.

Janet Maslin, New York Times

Spielberg has taken us back to basics — back to art, back to amazement at the film medium itself.

David Denby, New York Magazine

Media Partner