Saving Private Ryan

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On Sky Movies Screen 1 11/11/09 13:40

Director: Steven Spielberg

Stars: Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Matt Damon

Year: 1998 Running Time: 169 mins Rating:

Steven Spielberg won a second directing Oscar for his incendiary story of a World War Two rescue mission. After barely surviving the D-Day landings, Army captain Tom Hanks leads a small team of US soldiers to find and rescue a young private whose brothers have all been killed in action. Despite its distinctly American bias, Spielberg hits hard with an enthralling, based-on-fact war story. The hellish opening sequence is an astonishing experience in itself.

Review

Private Ryan's three brothers are all killed in action within a few days. Top brass decides that the last Ryan boy (Matt Damon) must be found, rescued and brought home.

An eight-man mission, led by Capt Miller (Hanks) and Sgt Horvath (Tom Sizemore), who have just been through the hell of the D-Day landings, is raised for the task. Naturally, as is common in 'patrol' type films, most of them won't survive.

Winner of the Best Director and Best Cinematography Oscars, plus three other statuettes, the film has some explosive action scenes, very moving moments and a brilliant, if sickeningly graphic account of the Omaha Beach landing.

Outside of its many powerful scenes, however, it's often slow and talky, too much time being given over to the agonisings of the Hanks character.

The film's 170-minute running time does make itself felt but fans of authentic-feeling war films (with strong stomachs) will find much to admire in this one.