8.9 | / 10 |
Users | 4.7 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.7 |
As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.
Starring: Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Adam GoldbergAction | 100% |
Epic | 80% |
War | 49% |
History | 47% |
Melodrama | 31% |
Drama | 27% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine, that would attempt to beguile you
from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the
consolation
that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly
Father
may assuage the anger of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memories of the
loved lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the
altar
of freedom.
No film before has ever captured the destructive nature of war to this magnitude, and few have
exemplified the rousing spirit of man to a degree that encapsulates the essence of the human
condition through both the complexities of the soul and the base elements of his very existence
via the prism of the crisis that is the firsthand experience of the most destructive of forces.
Saving Private Ryan perfectly displays both, Director Steven Spielberg's 1998 epic World
War II picture a heartbreaking portrayal of the horrors of war but also an uplifting saga of the
dedication to duty; the value of life; the unwavering spirit of freedom; the brotherhood amongst
men; the courage to overcome all; and perhaps most importantly, the willingness to make the
greatest of sacrifices in the name of honor, principles, and friendship. Indeed, Saving Private
Ryan proves itself to be, perhaps, history's most important film, not only for its
graphically-realistic portrayal of combat but for the touching storyline and pertinent thematic
elements that
only reinforce the purpose behind the bloodshed and lend weight to the true price of freedom so
that others could in the years, decades, and hopefully even centuries to follow enjoy in life what
the men who fought purchased with their heroism, their unwavering commitment to their ideals,
and for many, their deaths.
In search of Private Ryan.
Saving Private Ryan's Blu-ray release is going to become the go-to disc for reference
quality
audio, but chances are those familiar with the film will find just as much -- if not more -- to love
about Paramount's positively gorgeous and impeccably faithful 1080p transfer that retains the
picture's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, not to mention Director Steven Spielberg's and
Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski's intended gritty, washed-out look. This high definition
transfer
brings with it vastly increased detailing, even underneath the rough-and-tumble and faded look
the
film employs; even during the bright, bloomy opening and closing scenes in Normandy
Cemetery, viewers will note the increased resolution on tree trunks and a character's light blue
jacket that's almost always in the forefront of the sequences. The bulk of the picture's wartime
segments, too, sport strongly-raealized detailing and texturing, even through the most minute of
objects: small bumps or netting on helmets; stains and gunk on uniforms; scratches on
weapons; and grains and clumps of dirt and sand scattered throughout the movie, notably during
the
Normandy invasion sequence that opens the film's World War II segments. More obvious
throughout the film is the eye-catching detailing as seen on the rough building façades that have
been incessantly shot
and bombed out, where bullet holes, chunks of concrete, and random debris strewn all over the
rainy village of Neuville or the tactically-crucial town of Ramelle that represents the primary
location seen in the picture's final act offer a wonderfully yet disturbingly realistic texture.
Additionally, close-ups of characters reveal a stunning level
of detail in facial pores and hairs, dirt and grime on skin, and even beads of sweat and blood, all of
which seem almost constant companions throughout the film.
Additionally, Saving Private Ryan's desaturated color palette is afforded increased
resolution in this superb transfer. While the picture de-emphasizes color and lends to the image
a tone
that's consistently heavy in grays, browns, and greens that gives the movie something of a bleak
look, the Blu-ray remains faithful to the intended appearance of the picture and only accentuates
the visual scheme for which the movie's become known. Still, there are places where splashes
of brighter color manages to come through; the green grass as seen during the
squad's assault on a machine gun emplacement at an old radar station stands out as perhaps the
most intense color in the film. Paramount's transfer also remains sharp and crisp throughout;
backgrounds remain nicely detailed, and the picture's intentionally heavy grain structure --
beautifully retained throughout the movie -- creates a consistently awe-inspiring film-like texture,
allowing for every nuance captured by the film elements to remain intact. There are a few
random speckles seen throughout the picture, but they only add to the gritty, throwback look
that
Speilberg and Kaminski so successfully capture. Blacks are pristine, deep, enveloping, and never
overwhelming, and flesh tones are spot-on accurate in every scene as they carry over the
elements of the picture's overall intended visual tone. Paramount has recently demonstrated
with their major releases -- Star Trek, Braveheart, Minority Report, and
The Lovely Bones,
for example -- that when they put in the effort, there might not be a better studio out there in
terms of delivering the most faithful, gorgeous, and film-like Blu-ray transfers on the market, and
Saving Private Ryan may very well be the best of the lot.
Saving Private Ryan's DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack is everything fans of the film
and
Blu-ray enthusiasts hoped it would be. Certainly the track's primary source of energy and
astonishment stems from the combat scenes, but it's the more subtle effects that truly bring the
film to life. For all of the up-front gunfire and close-in explosions, there are countless effects --
the
rattling of a flag against the pole in one of the film's first scenes, a slight breeze, the crunching of
typewriters churning out notifications of death -- that all excel in terms of enveloping the listener
into
the
film outside its primary wartime segments. Also impressive -- as much as any other sonic
element
in the film -- is the sound of distant gunfire and explosions that seems an almost constant
companion throughout the picture, notably inside the Neuville church or, later in the movie, the
assault on the radar station machine gun nest where Spielberg focuses on Upham observing the
combat from a safe distance. Still, the track will undoubtedly be recognized and long
remembered for its extended bookend action segments, and neither falter in any area. Beginning
with the
hum of the landing crafts' engines and the water pounding against their hulls and into their
interiors, the Omaha
beach segment submerses the listener into the pending invasion and engenders an anticipation,
a fear, an adrenaline rush quite unlike anything else. Once the German MG-42s open up,
however, all bets are off; the soundstage practically becomes the sandy and blood-drenched
beach as rounds zip around every speaker and clank off metal obstacles scattered along the
waterline and sand, while explosions in every direction incessantly punish the listening area. The
low end is
tight and invigorating; it's powerful but not excessively so. It's honest and heavy, but not
overbearing. Indeed, this may represent the most natural
low end yet to grace Blu-ray.
If there's such a thing as a soundtrack being too intense and even
somewhat frightening in its realism, this is it. In fact, it almost doesn't feel right handing out
superlatives to something that recreates an event that was in real life so positively devastating as
the Omaha Beach landing. Suffice it to say, though, from a purely detached perspective, this is
an incredible sonic
achievement that places the listener in the midst of the war. Is that a good thing? In this case,
yes. This
track comes alive quite unlike any other in name of creating the complete Saving Private
Ryan experience -- and reinforcing the picture's many themes beyond the gritty visuals of
war -- and this track accomplishes all that's required of it. The movie -- and the history it
represents -- deserves nothing less. If there's a misstep in the track, there appears to be a slight
lip synch
issue before the battle of Ramelle, found around the 2:06 mark in the film as a character shares
a story
about one of his brothers' girlfriends and their encounter in a barn. The effect was blatantly
obvious when viewing the film with a combination of a Panasonic DMP-BDT300 Blu-ray player and
Denon
AVR-3808 audio receiver connected via HDMI (with the audio stream sent through a separate
HDMI cable from the video stream), but seemed to be less of an issue when the Denon was
paired
with a PlayStation 3, also connected via HDMI. Otherwise, dialogue is accurate and crisp, never
garbled or lost save for when it's supposed to be underneath the chaos of the wartime segments.
Ultimately, despite what may or may not be a lip synch issue, Paramount's DTS-HD MA 5.1
lossless soundtrack for Saving Private Ryan is a rousing success and is easily in line to be
a top contender for Blu-ray soundtrack of the year.
All of Saving Private Ryan's special features are found on disc two, spread out between
two
categories: Saving Private Ryan and Shooting War. The latter (480i, 1:28:05),
narrated by Tom Hanks,
is a
fascinating documentary that chronicles World War II through the lens of the film camera, the
first
war
to be so extensively be captured on film. The piece begins with the U.S.' unpreparedness for
Pearl
Harbor and the unpreparedness of cameramen to shoot the coming multi-front war. The
documentary looks first at
Director John Ford's Oscar-winning short films on Pearl Harbor and the battle of Midway and
follows
to look at the history of the war through both black-and-white and color combat footage and still
photographs on land, sea, and air, and the role of combat cameramen in the war effort, all the
way
through to the end of the war in the Pacific theater in 1945. The piece examines combat
photography in both the Pacific and European fronts, and like Saving Private Ryan, it
features several disturbing and graphic scenes.
The Saving Private Ryan tab opens up a long list of additional extras. An
Introduction (480i, 2:35) features Director Steven Spielberg sharing scenes from the World
War II films he shot as a child, his fascination with the era, and the picture's place in film history
for the veterans who fought in the war. Looking Into the Past (480i, 4:40) again
features Spielberg, this time discussing his research for the film, the events on which the film is
based, and his approach in making the film an authentic recreation of war. Miller and His
Platoon (480i, 8:23) examines the collaboration between Spielberg and Hanks and
continues on to look at the additional characters and the attributes they display in the film.
Boot Camp (480i, 7:37) examines the contributions of Military Advisor/Actor Dale Dye
and the difficulties of the cast's physical and military training in preparation for the film. Next is
Making 'Saving Private Ryan' (480i, 22:05), a solid examination of the process that was
the construction of the film, featuring Director Steven Spielberg speaking on his style, the film's
place in his career, and how the shooting experience differed from other pictures he's made; an
examination of the shooting locations used in the film and the authenticity of the sets, props, and
wardrobes; the work of Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski and the look of the film; and the
importance of creating an authentic World War II chronicle.
Re-Creating Omaha Beach (480i, 17:58) begins with a brief historical overview of the
Omaha Beach invasion and moves on to look at the authenticity of the sequence, shooting in
Ireland, the use of Irish troops in support roles in the film, the collection of weapons issued to the
actors, shooting the landing scenes, the realism of the shoot and the chaos of the set as an
authentic military engagement recreation, the stunts of the sequence, the importance of safety
and capturing the finest of details for the sequence, and more. Music and Sound (480i,
15:59) features Composer John Williams speaking on the role of music in the film and how it fits
within the realm of the Spielberg/Williams collaborations, while Sound Designer Gary Rydstrom
speaks on how the absence of music enhanced the realism of the battle scenes, his research to
create the most realistic period sound possible, the process of editing the sounds together, and
the construction of the sound design for the film's epic climactic battle in Ramelle. Into the
Breach: 'Saving Private Ryan' (480i, 25:01) is a quality behind-the-scenes piece that
features cast, crew, World War II veterans, and Historian Stephen Ambrose speaking on the
real-life events
surrounding the Normandy invasion; stories of brothers killed in combat; the story and themes of
Saving Private Ryan; the picture's realism; Steven Spielberg's early films, inspirations,
and fascination with the World War II era; the actors' physical and military training for the roles;
the picture's legacy; and more. Some of the material in this supplement repeats parts of other
extras found elsewhere on the disc. Parting Thoughts (480i, 3:43) features Tom Hanks
and Steven Spielberg sharing a few final thoughts on the picture's themes and importance.
Rounding out this collection of extra content is the Saving Private Ryan theatrical trailer
(1080p, 2:16) and the film's Re-Release trailer (1080p, 2:05).
It wasn't just bullets and bombs that cleared the way for freedom, but also, and just as crucial to the war effort, the selflessness, courage, honor, and bravery of the men who fought. That selflessness, courage, honor, and bravery was for those in generations later who would view their actions with an understanding of the scale on which these men sacrificed all in the name of liberty and the hope that their descendants would be influenced to lead better lives, to do right by others, to stay true to themselves, and to demonstrate personal valor in all areas of life, in their hearts and souls, words and actions, principles and values. For all the books and memorials and movies, Saving Private Ryan is perhaps the most obvious but also most important tool through which one may see their courage, sacrifice, and purpose to the greater good not only as it applied to the world in 1942, but in the years following the film's release and, if there is any justice in the world, in the decades -- yea centuries and millennia -- to follow. Indeed, Saving Private Ryan is absolutely one of, if not the most, important pictures ever made. It's also quite possibly the best. Compared to those of its genre, perhaps only Glory -- a film that shares with Saving Private Ryan themes on the importance of freedom, respect, courage, and personal sacrifice for the greater good -- may be seen as its equal, and for as many other exceptional War pictures as there are, from All Quiet on the Western Front to Platoon, from Sergeant York to Das Boot, no other quite proves the equal of Saving Private Ryan, not only in terms of the importance of the raw grittiness or violence, but the far more crucial elements of humanity that truly convey what the film and its purpose is all about. Paramount's Sapphire Series Blu-ray release of Saving Private Ryan is the definitive edition of the film, and a necessary addition to every movie library. Boasting a sparkling 1080p transfer and a mesmerizing lossless soundtrack, the technical presentation is just as good as the movie. A strong-in-quality but somewhat underwhelming-in-quantity collection of extras rounds out what may very well be the must-own Blu-ray of 2010. Saving Private Ryan earns my highest recommendation.
Commemorative 20th Anniversary Edition
1998
Commemorative 20th Anniversary Edition
1998
Commemorative 20th Anniversary Edition
1998
2-Disc Special Edition
1998
1998
1998
1998
1998
Paramount 100th Anniversary
1998
2001
2017
2001
2014
2016
2-Disc Special Edition
2006
2002
Director's Cut
2005
1962
2010
2000
1977
2019
2018
2006
1969
2012
2014
Ultimate Edition
2002
2003