This is WAR!

Saving Private Ryan is the best War movie ever made. The Movie takes you right through D Day at Normandy and it ain't a pretty sight. Legs blown off in the air, Soldier looking for his severed hand, bullet holes in helmets, soldier's guts spilled out while he's crying for his Mama, it's RAW WAR without any holding back. When the movie was released , back in 1998 , the War Veteran's group even set up a helpline to people traumatized by the on screen depiction of World War, itself is clear example of how graphic the movie is. The Last War movie (American) I saw was Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now". Except for the Helicopter attack accompanied by Richard's Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries" and some actions here and there in midst of an "Aguirre Wrath of God" inspired ride into the Heart of Darkness aka Vietnam, it was an emotional account of the casualties of war rather than physical."Saving Private Ryan" on the other hand doesn't waste screen time by probing over the ethics of War ;hell the first and last 30 minutes went to the war sequences only,takes you right into the action.
The Story ;as the name indicates a find and retrieve operation of the eponymous character ,who has already lost his 3 co siblings in the war. So the Chief Staff of the Army wants him back with his mother as a consolation for the loss of her other sons. Tom Hank's character Cpt. James Miller and his team his given this rather inconspicuous mission ,confused over the ambiguity of sending 8 soldiers right into the middle of the war for finding one. Their journey right through the debris of war becomes our too. The Choice of consoling one mother with the possible depriving 8 other mother is not that believable even though there are real incidents that inspired the movie indirectly. But the team move on with their Herculean task of finding a needle in a stack of needles because as Cpt.Miller says If this what gets him to his wife ,then that's his mission.
Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore (originally offered to Michael Madsen),Adam Goldberg,Vin Diesel,Giovanni Ribisi portrays the soldiers who don't seem to remember the last time they felt good about anything. Caught up in the emotional and moral whirlpool of war they brave the hostile environment and the ever impending doom with the clarity of their mission and memories of their loved ones. Against all the odds,they set out to find Pvt. Ryan(Matt Damon,role offered to Edward Norton). But as every War's fate they too suffer losses that divides the team over the sensibility of the mission. That's when Cpt.Miller reveals he's a High school English Teacher who just wants to get back to his wife. He has been fighting the war for a very long time now and he's sick and tired with all off it.His leadership and strategies keep the team together but still prone to losses. Finally when they find Captain Ryan and inform of his loss,he refuses to return home with them as he didn't want to abandon his troop and loose the only brothers he had left.So they decide to stay and fight along with him ,help them safeguard the bridge until reinforcements came,while keeping Ryan alive.
Stephen Spielberg is a true legend. You will not be any disappointed with any movie with his name on it. Same is the case with this movie which laid the benchmark for future war movies and video games. WAR movies portrayal of WAR became more intense with handheld cameras and right in the middle of the action camera attitude(Remember Call of Duty and Black Hawk Down).In it's violence,the director has infact enlightened us on the wrath of war and it's first casualty,Innocence.