June 6, 1944, D-Day, the invasion of Normandy was the largest amphibious invasion in history. The western allies stormed the beaches of Normandy by means of parachuting and assault parties that landed on the beaches using boats. Saving Private Ryan picks up with the western allies landing on Omaha Beach.

Released in 1998 and directed by Steven Spielburg, Saving Private Ryan stars Tom Hanks as Captain John Miller and Matt Damon as Private Ryan. The emotions portrayed by both of the two critically acclaimed actors are very accurate to the to the real soldier’s reactions, according to WWII veterans. Saving Private Ryan is based off the soldiers that landed on the beaches of Normandy and for the soldiers who parachuted into Normandy, the amazing HBO miniseries Band of Brothers covers the airborne division during WWII. Released in 1998 and directed by Steven Spielburg, Saving Private Ryan stars Tom Hanks as Captain John Miller and Matt Damon as Private Ryan. The emotions portrayed by both of the two critically acclaimed actors are very accurate to the to the real soldier’s reactions, according to WWII veterans. Saving Private Ryan is based off the soldiers that landed on the beaches of Normandy and for the soldiers who parachuted into Normandy, the amazing HBO miniseries Band of Brothers covers the airborne division during WWII.

The good, the even better, and the bad. The movie does a good job showing the relationships between each member of the Captain Miller’s Squad. The squad goes through its road bumps along the way, but when it matters, they always have each other’s backs. The intensity of the action scenes and mainly the intensity of the beginning scene when the boats are landing on Omaha Beach is insane. It’s impressive to see bullets whizzing past the soldiers as they struggle to get off the boats and have to jump off the of the boats and swim to the shore. They then have to make it to the end of the beach going through machine gun fire and explosions from mortar shells. The movie perfectly displays the effects of combat throughout the various action scenes, but this movie isn’t just action all the time, it has it’s downtime. That downtime shows how the squad gets along and shows how far they go just to find Private Ryan.

The only bad in Saving Private Ryan that I have found is that yes, it’s based in Normandy and during D-Day, but it’s still not completely historically accurate. Yes no movie is perfectly historically accurate, but Saving Private Ryan is only a little bit off. Other than that, there’s nothing else to say about the bad.

Since its release in 1998, the movie has aged well and still remains one of the best depictions of WWII in a movie to this day. I highly recommend giving Saving Private Ryan a watch. I rate this movie 8.5/10.