Saving Private Ryan

"I just know that every man I kill, the farther away from home I feel."

Last night I needed to kill two hours or so, I was going to watch Das Boot but it's four hours (practically), so I looked through my DVD's and when I looked at Saving Private Ryan it was like love at first sight (again) so I popped it in my laptop and decided to watch it seeing as it's been nearly a year since I last saw it, I think.

• Title: Saving Private Ryan
• Year of Release: 1998
• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Genre: War/Drama
• Rating: 8.5/10

For those who have been living under a rock on Mars since 1998, I'll explain to their deprived mind what this brilliant film is about. It opens on Omaha Beach, when all the boats are about to approach land, everyone is nervous as hell, eight men in particular are the center of the opening. These eight men are sent on a very conflicting, almost pointless, immoral mission. The eight men must risk their life, to save one man, Private James Francis Ryan. Why? Well, you'll just have to watch and see..

This comes very close to having one of the best openings in film history, now I'm not talking about the very sad opening with the old man walking through the War Grave, tears in his eyes, I'm going to talk about the Omaha Beach opening part. To watch this film in surround sound would be such an outstanding experience. Watching the opening with my headphones alone was amazing, you can really feel the bullets fly past your head, the sound effects was amazing. Not only were the effects amazing, but it was very dramatic and sad at the same time. To see so many bodies drop like flies having been so insignificant to the battle, so many friends and families would be torn apart because every one of those deaths. It's easy to just look at the opening as an exciting "action" segment, but it's so much more, beneath the surface. It's very graphic to help intensify the scene, to help you realise how extreme war really is, but of course, you cannot and will not really know without experience of war itself (so I don't, obviously).

I can easily imagine people simplifying this film to an action movie, which believe me it is not. Throughout the film it blends both action and dramatic scenes perfectly. I can promise you this is not a slow film which you feel is a burden to watch simply to see how great it is, it's a film that will actually keep you interested throughout, you can admire it from the beginning to end, you won't have to think back on it to just like it like with some films. It's two hours and forty minutes roughly, sure that's long for most people, but as I've said, it won't drag. It does have very conflicting scenes involving the soldiers, where they will question the importance of the mission, the tragic nature of war, etc, but then it will fade into a great scene with explosions and flying bullets. I can't help but feel I'm simplifying the film in this paragraph.

I've barely scrapped the surface of what makes this such a great film, but if you simply watch the trailer you will quickly see whether this is a film for you, which I'm sure it is. It's quite gruesome, but it's not ridiculous like in a lot of films, it's brutally realistic. Stereotypically speaking, both males and females will like this film, at least respect it, a lot. You will not be bored. It's amazing.

Click me to go to the trailer!