Saving Private Ryan has an excellent if weird premise at its heart. It’s excellent for it’s plausibility and humanity, and yet weird for how the desire to save one life, amidst so much wasteful and indiscriminate death, and at the cost of yet more lives, makes war itself and our relationship with it seem very paradoxical.
That premise is that the US military, upon learning that three of fours brothers Ryan, all enlisted in the US armed forces, have been killed, decide that the fourth and final surviving brother, the titular Private Ryan (played by Matt Damon) must be found, saved, and sent home to his grieving but hopefully grateful family.
A stirring quote from an American master of stirring quotes, Abe Lincoln, is used to bookend the movie, as are more contemporary scenes of the elderly Ryan visiting a US armed forces cemetery. I won’t say more than that regarding the plot, as I don’t want to spoil the movie for anyone coming to it fresh. Suffice it to say that from the opening scene of the WWII action, as US troops land on Omaha beach, on D-Day, the film grips the viewer and takes them on an intense and thrilling journey.
Everything about this film is extremely well done, from the meticulous attention to detail in terms of settings and uniforms, equipment, etc, to the superb direction and acting – Tom Hanks is particularly brilliant – making for a film that combines a serious-minded depiction of both the excitement and horrors of war with a sense of respect for history and an adroit gift for moving and exciting strorytelling.
In a word, brilliant!