The brilliance of Saving Private Ryan

[CA4Now]

I can't believe that it came out 20 years ago.

Twenty years ago, Tom Hanks’ Capt. John Miller looked up at Matt Damon’s young title character in “Saving Private Ryan” and whispered in a raspy voice, “Earn this.”

'Saving Private Ryan' at 20: How Spielberg's vivid D-Day story changed war movies forever

[ironpony]

Originally Posted by sammy87

You can argue the story is a bit hokey and the final scene of holding the bridge and hope arrives at the very end....but the way it was filmed was a game changer. War movies before all seem a bit corny, but SPR was way ahead of its time as far as filming action sequences.

I remember reading that SPR got a lot of it's inspiration from battle scenes, from Platoon (1986) though, but I can't remember where I read that.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by Ralph_Kirk

Well, Spielberg also made "Ready Player One."

Every director, no matter how good, fails once in a while.

Sometimes, the failure isn't the movie's fault. It could be a failure for the subject matter, from the mood of the time, from marketing the movie wrong, or dozens of reasons that have nothing to do with the movie itself.

Amistad, the movie Spielberg directed just before Saving Private Ryan, wasn't a big hit. Terminal, another one that starred Tom Hanks, wasn't a hit either. Bridge of Spies, a later movie, wasn't a hit.

All were as good as Saving Private Ryan in their own ways, but they just didn't match the mood of the audience when they were released.

Personally, I found Bridge of Spies to be just as gripping a drama emotionally as Saving Private Ryan. It didn't have the action, but it had the same emotional intensity.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by Ralph_Kirk

Well, Spielberg also made "Ready Player One."

Which seemed to have done fairly well.

Box Office: Steven Spielberg's 'Ready Player One' Races Past $300M Global:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottme.../#1f707dd72855

[Moth]

SPR was very good for the realism of battle it depicted. And it did not shy away from showing GIs as viscous in the heat of battle.

My grandfather, who was there, said the plot was not very believable as nobody would sent an elite unit to rescue one guy no matter the family circumstances.

The final battle was gripping, but of course, Spielberg had to insert the ultra-sentimental, final words from Tom Hanks ending. It's what he does.

All in all, pretty good.

As our British friends what they think about it.