Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Saving Private Ryan is a celebration of superb cinematic prowess. It features everything in a great film: strong character development, recognition of the past, entertainment, special effects intended to create a better viewing experience, and a powerful story.

I'm sure that many people remember the cinematic year of 1998. Cinema managed to put a slew of excellent movies on the screen, highlighted by Saving Private Ryan and Life is Beautiful, which both observed the past. The travesty that I don't think the Academy can ever redeem itself for is that neither film won Best Picture. Instead nine Oscars were inexplicably handed to the cast and crew of Shakespeare in Love. I'm not going to sit here and knock on that terrible movie in this post. Instead, I am going to convince why this was a travesty and why exactly it was committed. 

Steven Spielberg's second best film had his directorial hand's fingerprints all over it. Effects added to a better visual experience and strong acting performances by Tom Hanks and Matt Damon made it possible for the audience to have an emotional connection and sympathize with the soldiers. The idea of a group of men risking their lives to save one man creates a story full of key decisions that all guide to the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal of this film was to remind us all of sacrifice, especially the sacrifice made by the men who fell on the beaches of Normandy.

Perhaps the film did too great of a job reminding the audience about D-Day. Survivors who attended the premiere in theaters left in tears after the opening scene due to its gratuitous violence which created the most realistic reenactment of the battle ever set to film. Due to the general knowledge of the graphic violence, many people were drawn away from watching the film altogether. Including members of the Academy. This is the first step where they went wrong. The next fatal flaw was that members of the audience watched Gwyneth Paltrow's Shakespeare in Love. Paltrow's father, a member of the Academy, showed the movie to many other people in order to promote his daughter. And hey, it worked.

Saving Private Ryan should have won Best Picture. There is nothing the Academy can do to redeem itself now; however, we can all do the film and our history its due justice by watching this masterpiece. Conclusion: Must See

Rating: 9.5/10