Search - Saving Private Ryan on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Graphic Violence, Not For Children, Profanity, Watch With Your Teen, War Violence Movie Release: 1998 DVD Release: 11/02/1999 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Edition: Special Collection Audio Tracks: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 49 mins Studio: DreamWorks Total Copies: 3 Genres: War, Combat Films, War Epic, Ensemble Film See Also: Saving Private Ryan [DTS], Saving Private Ryan [D-Day 60th Anniversary Commemorative Edition], Saving Private Ryan [D-Day 60th Anniversary Commemorative Edition] [DTS], Saving Private Ryan [Special Edition]

Steven Spielberg directed this powerful, realistic re-creation of WWII's D-day invasion and the immediate aftermath. The story opens with a prologue in which a veteran brings his family to the American cemetery at Normandy, and a flashback then joins Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks) and GIs in a landing craft making the June 6, 1944, approach to Omaha Beach to face devastating German artillery fire. This mass slaughter of American soldiers is depicted in a compelling, unforgettable 24-minute sequence. Miller's men slowly move forward to finally take a concrete pillbox. On the beach littered with bodies is one with the name "Ryan" stenciled on his backpack. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall (Harve Presnell), learning that three Ryan brothers from the same family have all been killed in a single week, requests that the surviving brother, Pvt. James Ryan (Matt Damon), be located and brought back to the United States. Capt. Miller gets the assignment, and he chooses a translator, Cpl. Upham (Jeremy Davis), skilled in language but not in combat, to join his squad of right-hand man Sgt. Horvath (Tom Sizemore), plus privates Mellish (Adam Goldberg), Medic Wade (Giovanni Ribisi), cynical Reiben (Edward Burns) from Brooklyn, Italian-American Caparzo (Vin Diesel), and religious Southerner Jackson (Barry Pepper), an ace sharpshooter who calls on the Lord while taking aim. Having previously experienced action in Italy and North Africa, the close-knit squad sets out through areas still thick with Nazis. After they lose one man in a skirmish at a bombed village, some in the group begin to question the logic of losing more lives to save a single soldier. The film's historical consultant is Stephen E. Ambrose, and the incident is based on a true occurance in Ambrose's 1994 bestseller -D-Day: June 6, 1944. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Tom Hanks - Capt. John Miller
Edward Burns - Private Richard Reiben
Tom Sizemore - Sgt. Horvath
Jeremy Davies - Cpl. Upham
Vin Diesel - Pvt. Caparzo

One of the most important World War II films of our time and winner of five Academy Awards, Saving Private Ryan is a seemingly routine DVD, but it packs a big punch. In addition to standard DVD extras such as production notes, cast and crew bios and the theatrical trailer, this disc includes "Into the Breach", a 25-minute making-of featurette that is both an informative history lesson on D-day and a story of Spielberg's fascination with war. "Into the Breach" includes interviews with D-day survivors as well as of Spielberg and his father and spotlights his early student war films Escape to Nowhere and Fighter Squadron. The film itself receives a great transfer in widescreen 1:85, and Dolby Digital or 5:1 Surround. ~ Arthur Borman, All Movie Guide