Keep in mind while you reed this, I am 15. On Saturday, July
the 25th, my dad and I went to see Saving Private Ryan. I must say
that the movie was a great movie, and will be remembered as one of
the greats.
As every one says, it was realistic, hauntingly realistic.
I’ve seen many war films including Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and
Patton, but none were as real as this. The story centers around
eight solders (led by Tom Hanks) sent to find Private James Ryan
(Matt Damon) because all three of his brothers died on D-day, and
that got him a ticket home to his mom. The story opens on Omaha
Beach on D-day: this has got to be the bloodiest scene in cinematic
history. The big explosions, bloody scenes that usually happen
center screen in most war movies is taking place everywhere in the
background here. With the camera work, it was jerky, chaotic, random,
blurry at times, really summing up how chaotic war is. This one
scene affected me so much I couldn’t sleep that night. No movie, no
horror, no war movie, no huge budget Sci-Fi extravaganza, has ever
made me lose sleep. This wasn’t about glory, like the old WWII movies
tried to portray. This wasn’t about generals, or the President: this
was, when it comes down to it, about solders, the nameless ones that
the higher-ups send to their deaths.
I’m a kid. I’ve had the facts thrown at me in school, I’ve heard
what my Grandpas would tell me about the war, I’ve listened to historians
talk about it on TV, but I never had a clue, I wasn’t even close, till I
saw this movie. I have got to say this movie, Saving Private Ryan, has
got to be, by far the best movie I have ever seen, four stars, two thumbs
up and all that, but I never want to see it again. You won’t understand
that until you see it.