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.| Tom Hanks | Capt. John Miller |
| Edward Burns | Private Richard Reiben |
| Tom Sizemore | Sgt. Horvath |
| Jeremy Davies | Cpl. Upham |
| Vin Diesel | Pvt. Caparzo |
| Adam Goldberg | Pvt. Mellish |
| Barry Pepper | Pvt. Jackson |
| Giovanni Ribisi | T/4 Medic Wade |
| Matt Damon | Pvt. James Ryan |
| Dennis Farina | Lt. Col. Anderson |
| Ted Danson | Capt. Hamill |
| Harve Presnell | Gen. George Marshall |
| Dale Dye | War Dept. Colonel |
| Bryan Cranston | War Dept. Colonel |
| David Wohl | War Dept. Captain |
| Paul Giamatti | Sergeant Hill |
| Ryan Hurst | Paratrooper Michaelson |
| Harrison Young | Ryan as Old Man |
| Dylan Bruno | Private Alan Toynbe |
Genre/Type - War, War Epic, Ensemble Film, Combat Films
Produced by - Amblin Entertainment / Mutual Film Company
Release - Jul 24, 1998 (USA)
Released by - DreamWorks / Paramount
Running time - 170 min.
The Sullivans (1944, Lloyd Bacon)
The Purple Plain (1954, Robert Parrish)
The Tanks Are Coming (1951, David Ross Lederman, Lewis Seiler)
Pearl Harbor (2001, Michael Bay)
When Trumpets Fade (1998, John Irvin)
Attack on the Iron Coast (1968, Paul Wendkos)
Overlord (1975, Stuart Cooper)
Beach Red (1967, Cornel Wilde)