Genre Grandeur January Finale – Saving Private Ryan (1998) – Encore Review 12 – MovieRob

For this month’s next review for Genre Grandeur – Movies Told in Flashback (Movies where the main character is telling a story of something that happened in the past.) here’s a review of Saving Private Ryan (1998) by ME

In case you missed any of the reviews, here’s a recap:

Revenge (1954) – David
Out of the Past (1947) – James
Stalag 17 (1953) – Rob
Champion (1949) – David
The Godfather Part II (1974) – J-Dub
The Green Mile (1999) – Rob
Le Crime De Monsieur Lange (1936) – David
Citizen Kane (1941) – James
61* (2001) – Rob
Rashomon (1950) – David
Slumdog Millionaire (2008) – Darren
Titanic (1997) – Rob
In Cold Blood (1967) – David
A Letter to Three Wives (1949) – David
Saving Private Ryan (1998) – Rob

In addition, I watched 6 movies in my companion series Genre Guesstimation. unfortunately, none of these films will now be considered among my favorites in the genre.

Next month’s genre has been chosen by Richard of Kirkham A Movie A Day and we will be reviewing our favorite Geriatric Story Movies (Movies about elderly characters.)

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of Feb by sending them to geriatric@movierob.net

Try to think out of the box!

Let’s see what I thought of this movie:

___________________________________________________

“Picture a girl who took a nosedive from the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.” – Private Ryan

Number of Times Seen – Too many times to count (Twice in the theater, video, DVD, 2 May 2013, 1 Jul 2014, 22 Feb 2016, 2 Jul 2017, 9 Jul 2017, 12 Jun 2018, 4 Jun 2019, 7 Jan 2020, 7 Nov 2021, 31 Mar 2022, 6 Jun 2022, 29 Mar 2023 and 30 Jan 2024)

Link to original review – Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here and Here

Brief Synopsis – Following the D-Day invasion of Normandy, a squad of soldiers are sent to find a soldier who’s three brothers were all killed recently in battle.

My Take on it – This is one of the most realistic war films ever made and is so amazing to watch no matter how many times I’ve already seen it. Steven Spielberg created a companion film for Schindler’s List (1993) which shows a different aspect of World war II. The cast is spectacular and Tom Hanks leads an all star group of actors here. The action scenes are extremely graphic and realistic in the way that they tell this harrowing tale. The music by John Williams is superb and really gives a patriotic feel throughout. The characters are developed well and create a reason for the viewer to care more about them as things move along. The fact that this film didn’t win Best Picture at the Oscars that year will go down in history as being one of the biggest blunders in Oscar history (and there are numerous ones over the near Century of the award). It still won Steven Spielberg a second Career Oscar for Best Director, but that still doesn’t do enough justice for this film. The special effects help make things seem even more realistic in the way it depicts war. The message of the film is superb and resonates even 25 years later as being so evergreen and true.

Highly Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Steven Spielberg claimed that he considered the film a passion project as a gift to his aging father, a World War II veteran. He further claimed that he made the picture against his commercial instincts, believing there would not be a wide audience for a World War II movie with graphic violence, and was pleasantly surprised when it became a blockbuster hit. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (10/10) (no change from original review)