Der Soldat James Ryan (1998)

Der Soldat James Ryan: Directed by Steven Spielberg. With Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper. Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.

“Itu0026#39;s been over a year since first seeing Saving Private Ryan — itu0026#39;s a worthy effort by Speilberg–his best since Shindleru0026#39;s List by far. Youu0026#39;ve probably heard about the amount of violence, blood, and gore and thatu0026#39;s all true–itu0026#39;s got the Viet Nam movie style violence (and then some) but itu0026#39;s not gratuitous. Were it sanitized like early WWII movies, modern audiences probably wouldnu0026#39;t take it as seriously.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe movie has that trademark Speilberg style–the structure is all tied up and unified from beginning to end, the emotional symbols abound, the music swelling when heu0026#39;s working at your emotions, the hand held camera that worked so well in Shindleru0026#39;s List to give you a feeling of participation, camera angles and periods of silence to disorient you (like Shindler), suspense techniques learned from Hitch… Itu0026#39;s a movie that stays with you for a period afterwards.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHanks will be the early front runner for Oscar after this flick–Academy members like him AND it IS his best acting job ever. While Speilberg will likely be criticized for attempting to manipulate the audienceu0026#39;s emotions while keeping a distance from the inner core of his characters, Tom Hanks reveals a really complex military leader in this story, and does so without overacting–somehow it comes from within. While you may not empathize deeply with many of the platoon, you will still feel something because of the relationship that is formed with Hanks.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAfter the initial set-up, you will have the opportunity to participate in the D-Day operation and experience the horror of it. Those who have been in a real war can comment about how realistic or not Speilberg captures its chaotic horror in this scene.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn my case I again feel very lucky that my draft number was high, so I never had to face Nam like many of my classmates. Speilberg reminds us brutally in u0026quot;Saving Private Ryanu0026quot; that we All have a debt to pay to the brave souls who have sacrificed so much for us. What Tom Hanks does with his performance is to remind us of this debt in a very personal way.”