Saving Private Ryan

"The mission is a man."

1998 2h 49m EN

🙌

8.2

BANGER

★8.2TMDB · 17,889

WarDramaHistory

Synopsis

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As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.

“The mission is a man.”

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Cast

Tom Hanks
Captain Miller
Tom Sizemore
Sergeant Horvath
Edward Burns
Private Reiben
Barry Pepper
Private Jackson
Adam Goldberg
Private Mellish
Vin Diesel
Private Caparzo
Giovanni Ribisi
T/4 Medic Wade
Jeremy Davies
Corporal Upham

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Robert Rodat, John Greaves
Languages: Czech, German, English, French
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Clocks in at 169 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $70M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 6.9× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

28 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 4 languages: Czech, German, English, French.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

316+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Steven Spielberg, shot by Janusz Kamiński. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by John Williams. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Steven Spielberg directs. Janusz Kamiński behind the camera. John Williams scores. Michael Kahn cuts. A long sit — settle in. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in Czech, German, English, French.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Clocks in at 169 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.
2Mid-budget at $70M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
3Made its money back 6.9× over at the box office.
428 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
5Dialogue crosses 4 languages: Czech, German, English, French.
6316+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
7Directed by Steven Spielberg, shot by Janusz Kamiński. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
8Original score by John Williams. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
9Editor Michael Kahn shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
10Tom Hanks and Tom Sizemore and Edward Burns carry the top of the cast.
11Marketing tagline: "The mission is a man.".
12IMDB entry: tt0120815 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
1317,889 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
14Classified under 18 themes, including "dying and death", "self sacrifice", "bravery", "world war ii".
15Released under 14 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Janusz Kamiński
Original score: John Williams
Editing: Michael Kahn
Production design: Thomas E. Sanders
Costume design: Joanna Johnston
Makeup / hair: Betty Glasow
VFX supervisor: Stefen Fangmeier
Sound: Gary Summers
Stunt coordinator: Simon Crane
Runtime: 169 min · 2h 49m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $70,000,000
Box office: $481,840,909
Return: 688% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Awards

Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Film
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Director
Academy Award for Best Film Editing
National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama
Academy Award for Best Sound
Academy Award for Best Sound Editing

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Steven Spielberg

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2018-06-27
★ 6/10
Great WWII war action in France, but too much of the drama is weak RELEASED IN 1998 and directed by Steven Spielberg, "Saving Private Ryan" (SPR) is about the Normandy invasion and its immediate aftermath from June 6-16, 1944. The focus is on a Captain (Tom Hanks) and his men who are commissioned to find a paratrooper (Matt Damon) whose brothers have been killed in action. No one's supposed to say anything bad about SPR. To do so is considered sacrilege, but I have to be honest about what I like and don't like about Spielberg's popular WWII war flick. The initial beach landing (shot at Curracloe Beach, Ballinesker, Ireland) is outstanding, as is the closing half-hour battle at the crumbling village of Ramelle. In between these two great bookends are a few quality sequences, but I didn't find a lot of the drama all that engaging or convincing. The cast is notable (also including Tom Sizemore, Barry Pepper, Edward Burns, Giovanni Ribisi, Jeremy Davies, Vin Diesel, et al.), but the characters never struck me as real for the most part. I've seen the film three times and each time I was too often conscious of the fact that I was watching actors portraying WWII characters in a movie. When you see a truly great picture, by contrast, you completely forget you're watching a movie, e.g. the original "Apocalypse Now" (1979). Moreover, too many of the situations in SPR, including the dialogue, simply struck me as unreal or annoyingly treacly. Exhibit A is the moronic dog-tag sequence, which was supposed to be emotionally stirring but just made me roll my eyes. But, like I said, no one can criticize SPR and get away with it, even if the criticism is legitimate. It's like you'll be accused of being un-American or something, which is far from the case with me since I love America; I just can't stand the corrupt government & politicians, particularly the loony DemonKKKraps. In light of my criticisms, I simply don't get why so many praise SPR as "the greatest war movie ever made." Again, the opening and ending battle sequences are great but the dubious dramatics leave quite a bit to be desired. I've heard SPR hailed on the grounds that much of it was taken "verbatim from first-hand, eye-witness accounts of the real Normandy invasion." I'll take their word for it, but this isn't what I object to. I object to the contrived, sappy, questionable way Spielberg depicted the dramatics and the fact that I was unable to buy the characters as real. The aforementioned dog-tag sequence is just one example, others include the French father’s stupefying actions and the forced fight at the radar station and how it’s resolved (ooh, the Captain’s a high school teacher, whoopee). Nevertheless, there IS a lot of good in SPR that makes it worth viewing. You can’t beat the battle sequences, the cast and the convincing WWII visuals throughout. THE MOVIE RUNS 2 hours, 49 minutes and was shot in Ireland, England and France. WRITER: Robert Rodat. GRADE: C+/B-
E.J. Cummings2019-04-09
★ 10/10
This movie should be known for changing Historical War Dramas as we know them. It was the first to accurately depict the carnage of war, and changed the direction of this genre of movies for all time. The initial D-Day scene was fantastic. Afterwards, Tom Hanks is ordered to chose a team of his men and look for James MacGuffin Ryan from Iowa. In order to achieve this goal, Hanks takes us across the entire back drop of world war 2, all the while making us ask, is all this worth just one man? Honestly it's a must watch and is on my "Difinitive Movie List"
lildrosso2019-11-26
I watched this movie during a project at school. Saving Private Ryan was a beautiful and, above all, realistic film. The film presented in a realistic way how the war went then. Most of the film was set in Europe in 1944. The story is that American soldiers are being sent to Europe to fight against the Germans. The American boy James Francis Ryan is sent to Europe with his brothers as a soldier. After the invasion of Normandy it appears that all his other brothers have already died and he is the only one left. That is why corporal Miller is instructed to look for him and return him home. The main actors who play in the film are Tom Hanks who plays corporal Miller and Matt Damon who plays the soldier Ryan. You also have all the soldiers in the group of corporal Miller. I think the characters in the film are very well thought out because they contain characters that are very brave, but also characters who have a hard time in the war. With this they show that not every soldier was as heroic as everyone thought. The film was made on a set that I thought looked very realistic. In the background you saw the buildings that were about to collapse and the shots. I also really liked the sound that came with the film. For example, when a tank arrived, you heard that it was slowly approaching.