Saving Private Ryan
             Oh my god! That's really about all I can say about Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg's new World War II epic. I'm afraid I won't be able to do justice to this movie in my review. My senses are still numb from experiencing the film. Not watching, experiencing. Because Spielberg throws you right down there in the middle of all the action, and you have no choice but to experience it. You are there, on Omaha Beach, as you watch thousands of civilians, with homes and families, get mowed down in an instant by the carnage of war. You witness the nausea, the insanity, the total death war brings. It is one of the most powerful antiwar statements ever put on film.
             After the carnage at Omaha Beach, we find out that one of the men who died on the beach, Daniel Ryan, also had two other brothers, Sean and Matthew, die in the same week. This leaves Private James Ryan (Matt Damon) as Mrs Ryan's only living son. General Marshall (Harve Presnell), who is not down there experiencing the bloodshed, decides that he must do the "proper" thing, and sends a platoon off its course from Normandy, with the sole intent being to bring Private Ryan home alive. The platoon, led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks), includes his faithful right hand man, Sergeant Horvath (Tom Sizemore), the sarcastic Private Reiben (Edward Burns), terrified French/German translator Corporal Upham (Jeremy Davies), and Privates Jackson (Barry Pepper), Mellish (Adam Goldberg), Caparzo (Vin Diesel), and medic Wade (Giovanni Ribisi).
             As they make their way through German held territory, they wonder, as do we, whether the lives of an entire platoon of men are worth risking just to save one, for what looks to be a public relations stunt. Thankfully, the film doesn't answer these questions.
             Saving Private Ryan is a brilliant film, possibly one of the best ever made, certainly
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