Saving Private Ryan

From a formal point of view, i.e., from the perspective of the film craft, there is not much to criticize about the film, almost nothing. It is an emotionally and extremely expensive blockbuster, which rightfully belongs in film history, especially with its opening 15-minute battle sequence. There could be endless things to say about Steven Spielberg's directing abilities, about how he can work with visual composition, build up a scene, and direct actors - and it would all be praise. However, what concerns me more is the formulaic script, the same problem I had with Spielberg's Schindler's List. When I compare this film to Klimov's drama Come and See, for example, I clearly feel Spielberg's superficiality. To label this film as just a popcorn flick would be grossly unfair, as there are incomparably worse films of its kind. It is undoubtedly an attempt at a serious war drama, but I fail to understand why Spielberg is not satisfied with real stories and real war history and feels the need to produce fiction. Sometimes the unnecessary pathos also bothered me, especially toward the end. Overall impression: 70%. (13/06/2006)

I'm neither a fan nor a great connoisseur of war movies, but show me one that is more emotionally packed than this Spielberg masterpiece. The opening with the Normandy landings will deservedly go down in film history as one of the most impressive scenes ever. The final battle is another perfect display of military strategy, and the film as a whole is a relentless exhibition of one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Amazing atmosphere, amazing actors, brilliant camera work and harsh reality in every way. No one will ever make something like that again, I'll bet. (31/05/2012)

It is certainly not a flawless film, but technically it is so brilliant that I’m happy to forgive all its shortcomings. Steven Spielberg shows us a real war like nobody has before. Tom Hanks is a genius, as well as Spielberg and Janusz Kaminski. For me, the best war film of all time. (08/11/2003)

I remember Irreversible, There Will Be Blood, The Revenant, Children of Men, and Se7en as films that moved me from needing to see a film in terms of its content to being a dusty formalist. This has now also turned me into a bitter poisonous old man swooning at digital semi-animated films with giant resolution and 60 frames, but I won't deny the occasional worry about whether I've just lost my sensitivity over time and simply become cynical. After the last screening of Private Ryan, I can be completely at ease because I didn't blink for 145 minutes (not counting the four terrible scenes that don't take place in Normandy). It's not just about the movement and composition of shots, but also about the material (Kaminski used a chemical to stretch the film windows to desaturate the colors by removing the silver fibers, a method made famous by Khondji in Se7en, by the way) or the acknowledgement and exploitation of technical limitations (fragmentation, the expansiveness of the light sources). All this in angles yet unseen, often giving the impression that the camera was there by mistake. After all, during the opening sequence, many of the actors and extras involved reportedly did not see the camera and crew at all through the smoke, explosions, and pervasive chaos. Not surprisingly, Private Ryan was at the birth of the perception of World War II and is behind the subsequent wave of films, TV shows, and computer games that have attempted to convey that chaos and destruction with a similar intensity to what was achieved here. PS: I recently saw a piece of this film on some modern TV at a friend's house, where the picture is edited to look like it was shot at a higher frame rate, and I nearly kicked the place apart. I'm kinda sad that a lot of people will only see the film in that format anymore. (15/01/2022)

Yes, I like war films. Yes, Spielberg's technical processing of the film seems to bring fiction as close as possible to the reality of war. Still, I consider this film to be only slightly above average, because it says nothing about the war as such. It's a nice recruitment drive on the subject of all of us in the army are friends and we love each other, which is nice, but it feels just like the colored drawings on the promotional posters from World War II. I don't believe even a syllable of the story, so the film only gets points with me for the fight sequences (which are truly riveting) and excellent acting performances. I prefer to overlook the agitation subtext... (27/01/2004)