Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Does anyone still believe WWII was the good war, and that cynicism, spin control and U.S. brutality were born in Vietnam? If so, Steven Spielberg's visceral re-creation of the Second World War experience will be a shocker: The film's battle scenes are anarchic, bloody, frenzied and studded with atrocious acts. Screenwriter Robert Rodat's script (based loosely on an actual incident and heavily indebted to historian Stephen Ambrose), however, sticks to familiar ground. Battle-scarred Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) is sent on a special mission to retrieve one Private Ryan (Matt Damon), who merits heroic efforts because he's the sole survivor of four enlisted brothers, and his safe return is conceived as a home-front morale booster. Miller's hand-picked squadron is a checklist of war-movie types -- hard-nosed sergeant (Tom Sizemore); decent private (Vin Diesel); Brooklyn wiseass (Edward Burns), introspective medic (Giovanni Ribisi); tough Jew (Adam Goldberg); pious Southern sharpshooter (Barry Pepper); and bookish corporal (Jeremy Davies) with no frontline experience -- whose destinies follow a well-worn path.

The exception is the GI who clings to the hope that war exposes the hidden strength in men, and instead has the worst wrenched out of him in a scene that elicits scattered applause but seems designed to evoke a mixture of pity and contempt. The movie's greatest strength lies in phenomenal performances that reach from the leads right down to the smallest supporting roles: Hanks' affability is worked under Miller's hardened skin, and Damon gives Ryan a boyish determination as convincing as it is naive. Spielberg does some of his best work (the pointless present-day framing sequence notwithstanding), but follows in distinguished footsteps: Among the films that shouldn't be lost in the rush to praise are Samuel Fuller's harrowing Big Red One, whose credo -- "the only glory in war is surviving" -- could be this movie's own.

PERFORMER, CHARACTER

Tom Hanks, Captain Miller

Tom Sizemore, Sergeant Horvath

Edward Burns, Private Reiben

Barry Pepper Private, Jackson

Adam Goldberg, Private Mellish

Vin Diesel, Private Caparzo

Giovanni Ribisi, T/4 Medic Wade

Jeremy Davies, Corporal Upham

Matt Damon, Private Ryan

Ted Danson, Captain Hamill

Paul Giamatti, Sergeant Hill

Dennis Farina, Lieutenant Colonel Anderson

Joerg Stadler, Steamboat Willie

Maximilian Martini, Corporal Henderson

Harve Presnell, Gen. Marshal

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Producer, Steven Spielberg

Co-Producer, Bonnie Curtis and Allison Lyon Segan

Director, Steven Spielberg

Write, Robert Rodat

Cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski

Editor, Michael Kahn

Music Compose,: John Williams

Production Design, Tom Sanders

Art Director, Daniel T. Dorrance

Sound, Gary Rydstrom

Special Effects, Neil Corbould and Carol McAulay

Costume Design, Joanna Johnston

Stunts, Simon Crane