Director Steven Spielberg's World War II tour de force chronicles the journey of a GI squad on a dangerous mission behind enemy lines. Led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks), the unit is under orders to track down a soldier, Private Ryan (Matt Damon), so he might return home to his mother in America, where she is grieving the unimaginable loss of her three other sons to the war. The first unforgettable 20 minutes of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN realistically and horrifically depicts the Normandy invasion as Miller. his second-in-command, Sergeant Horvath (Tom Sizemore), and the others in the unit land at Omaha Beach. Before the film began shooting, Hanks and the actors in his squad went through a one-week boot camp in the woods. All the actors, except Hanks, wanted to quit, but Hanks rallied their spirits by reminding them of the incredible tribulations endured by the real veterans of World War II. Production designer Tom Sanders found a beach in Ireland that perfectly matched the landscape of Normandy's. Spielberg gave great credit to the Irish army who helped re-create the Omaha Beach scenes.
Steven Spielberg's award-winning film is a brutal look at the devastation that war leaves behind, both physically and emotionally. Standouts in the film include Tom Hanks as the seemingly hardened leader, Ed Burns as the cocky New Yorker, and Jeremy Davies as the wanna-be writer who'd rather be carrying a typewriter than a gun. A closing battle nearly matches the opening scene's in impact, and Spielberg concludes matters with a present-tense bookend, as in SCHINDLER'S LIST, that drills the point home.
Theatrical release: July 24, 1998.
The film was shot in England, Ireland, and France.
Estimated budget: $70 million.
The film grossed more than $215 million at the domestic box office and nearly $375 million worldwide.
Steven Spielberg won an Academy Award for Best Director for SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.
In preparation for their roles, the actors went through a week of boot camp with retired Marine Dale Dye-- except Matt Damon (Private Ryan), who was excused from the training so that a real-life resentment of him by the others would be formed.
D day, June 6, 1944, was the largest invasion in military history--175,000 soldiers of the Allied Expeditionary Force invaded Normandy.
Spielberg was honored with the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film, presented to him by Prince Andrew for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, in Los Angeles in November 2000.
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85
Single Side - Dual Layer
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Dolby Surround - English
Additional Release Material:
Introduction - 1. Message From Steven Spielberg
Behind-the-Scenes Footage
Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical Trailer
Interactive Features:
Interactive Menus
Text/Photo Galleries:
Production Notes
Director of Photography
Janusz Kaminski:
Production Designer
Thomas Sanders: Production Designer
Review 1:
"...Unprecedented immediacy [in] the battle scenes....Uniformly superb performances..."
Source: Movieline's Hollywood Life
p.91 06/01/1999
Review 2:
Ranked #3 in Entertainment Weekly's "10 Favorite Films of the '90s" -- "...[A] masterpiece....One soul-shattering experience..."
Source: Entertainment Weekly
pp.159-60 04/01/2000
Review 3:
"...Sheer gut-wrenching immediacy....[Spielberg] has come of age as an artist..."
Source: Sight and Sound
p.34-52 09/01/1998
Review 4:
"...Soberly magnificent....It is the ultimate devastating letter home..."
Source: New York Times
p.E14 07/24/1998
Review 5:
"...Effective the film is, communicating the gruesome nature of combat as few anti-war films ever have..."
Source: Box Office
p.63 09/01/1998
Review 6:
"...A powerful and impressive milestone in the realistic depiction of combat, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is as much an experience we live through as a film we watch on screen..."
Source: Los Angeles Times
p.C1 07/24/1998
Review 7:
"[I]t remains a spectacular, unequalled piece of action film-making."
Source: Uncut
p.184 12/01/2004
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