Saving Private Ryan (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) | 
| Director: Steven Spielberg
Actors: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper
Studio: Dreamworks Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.99
Buy Used: $6.96
You Save: $13.03 (65%)
New (42) Used (39) from $6.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  1693 reviews
Sales Rank: 7078
Format: Ac-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 2
Running Time: 170
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.7 x 0.9
MPN: DRWD91700D
ISBN: 1417006919
UPC: 678149170023
EAN: 9781417006915
ASIN: B0001NBLVI
Theatrical Release Date: July 24, 1998
Release Date: May 25, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 01/11/2005 Run time: 169 minutes Rating: R
Amazon.com essential video
When Steven Spielberg was an adolescent, his first home movie was a backyard war film. When he toured Europe with Duel in his 20s, he saw old men crumble in front of headstones at Omaha Beach. That image became the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, his film of a mission following the D-day invasion that many have called the most realistic--and maybe the best--war film ever. With 1998 production standards, Spielberg has been able to create a stunning, unparalleled view of war as hell. We are at Omaha Beach as troops are slaughtered by Germans yet overcome the almost insurmountable odds. A stalwart Tom Hanks plays Captain Miller, a soldier's soldier, who takes a small band of troops behind enemy lines to retrieve a private whose three brothers have recently been killed in action. It's a public relations move for the Army, but it has historical precedent dating back to the Civil War. Some critics of the film have labeled the central characters stereotypes. If that is so, this movie gives stereotypes a good name: Tom Sizemore as the deft sergeant, Edward Burns as the hotheaded Private Reiben, Barry Pepper as the religious sniper, Adam Goldberg as the lone Jew, Vin Diesel as the oversize Private Caparzo, Giovanni Ribisi as the soulful medic, and Jeremy Davies, who as a meek corporal gives the film its most memorable performance. The movie is as heavy and realistic as Spielberg's Oscar-winning Schindler's List, but it's more kinetic. Spielberg and his ace technicians (the film won five Oscars: editing (Michael Kahn), cinematography (Janusz Kaminski), sound, sound effects, and directing) deliver battle sequences that wash over the eyes and hit the gut. The violence is extreme but never gratuitous. The final battle, a dizzying display of gusto, empathy, and chaos, leads to a profound repose. Saving Private Ryan touches us deeper than Schindler because it succinctly links the past with how we should feel today. It's the film Spielberg was destined to make. --Doug Thomas
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1688 more reviews...
 The Opening Scene Alone Makes It Worth It January 3, 2009
When I saw the movie originally the opening scene was one of the most memorable even put on screen and captured the horror, fear and determination in those 20 plus minutes unlike any other, with portions that would make you cringe.
And yes the movie is not perfect, especially since it had to live up to the opening scene, but overall it was still very good with more scenes that worked than didn't. Yes some were poor, and the ending left something to be desired and did not live up to the rest of the film, but so many scenes, such as in the house where the one soldier whispered to another, was chilling.
The cast did an outstanding job and Tom Hanks turned in a wonderful, low key performance. Other than the one resolution at the end, on rewatching the movie some of the minor things I thought about that were problematic when I first viewed the film were not something I noticed.
If for nothing else, the opening half hour along of this movie is more than most can ever attain.
 A good movie December 29, 2008
No problem there--the last decade or so of war movies have definitely raised the bar on purported realism, and this is a seminal example. Many problems, however, with the bonus materials, particularly 'Into The Breach,' a quick making-of documentary included on this disc. What bothers me the most is hearing non-combatants, people that NEVER served personally, trying to tell other non-combatants what they should think about the war. Typical example: 'Freedom is never free.' Maybe so, chief. But then how many also honorably laid down their lives in the name of communism or fascism, instead of democracy or freedom? How many cared less about politics, but wanted some adventure, even the thrill of murdering strangers on foreign soil? What did World War II mean to American citizens of Japanese descent that (by executive order) were put into internment camps? What did freedom mean to the hundreds of thousands of American men that were conscripted against their will to risk their necks abroad? What could WWII have possibly meant to a black person in American society circa 1944? What exactly did this great watershed of human freedom do for them? How about the millions crushed under the Iron Curtain, thanks to a great Allied partner like JOSEPH STALIN? Good old Uncle Joseph. I imagine you will hear a very wide variety of responses and attitudes regarding any of these questions, but don't expect anything but meaningless platitudes and modern, anachronisitic propaganda from guys like Ambrose and Spielberg, or the families and descendants of soldiers. The dead themselves would have a LOT of interesting things to say, if they could only talk, right? I dare you to ask several different veterans about what they really think now or thought then about the war. You'll be surprised.
not disappointed December 16, 2008
Movie is as realistic as can be. I should know,for I was in the european theatre of war, serving in the 9th Infantry division.
Outstanding Movie!! December 16, 2008
This is an outstanding movie that this generation/Hollywood can't grasp. It has honor, integrity, courage, self sacrifice. These WWII soldiers are the best, especially when compared to the current selfish generation/Hollywood crowd who don't know what the words honor, integrity or courage mean.
The most realistic harrowing battle scenes ever filmed... December 14, 2008
Steven Spielberg makes a unique motion picture in regards to the D-Day invasion of World War II just in the gritty reality of the detail... For more than twenty minutes he revives for us the landing at Omaha beach... No one was prepared for how horrific it really was... No one understood what was going on: The terror, the chaos, the maelstrom of bullets, the near-deafening explosions...You really got a sense of what these guys had to go through...
Within that perplexity, the focus settles on six soldiers under the command of Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) after they've survived their terrible hours breaking through the first line of German defense, they're given a strange perilous mission, to find one man, Pvt. Ryan (Matt Damon), a paratrooper who's somewhere behind German lines... For them, it's an abstruse order, but they have to get it done...
Throughout the film, Spielberg's attention to detail is amazing... For me, the most chilling scene in the movie is the death of an American officer... It's one of the most intimate... It's also a slightly confusing moment because two German characters resemble each other so greatly...
Toward the middle, a German soldier called "Steamboat Willie" is introduced... By the end of the film, he has become the 'bad' German... Later in the movie, another German is involved in the final fight... He takes part in an exceedingly painful scene of hand-to-hand combat with the American soldier... The two German soldiers have similar short haircuts and black uniforms... Because they looked so much alike, many of us have believed that they're one character... They're not, and the distinction of the two is very significant...
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