Special Features
_ Into The Breach: Saving Private Ryan
_ Exclusive Message from Steven Spielberg
_ Cast and Crew
_ Production notes
_ Theatrical Trailer
_ Re_release Trailer
_ High_Quality Digital Telecine Trnasfer
_ Scene Selections

When Steven Spielberg was an adolescent, his first home movie was a
backyard war film. When he toured Europe with Duel in his 20s, he saw old
men crumble in front of headstones at Omaha Beach. That image became
the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, his film of a mission following the
D-day invasion that many have called the most realistic--and maybe the
best--war film ever. With 1998 production standards, Spielberg has been able
to create a stunning, unparalleled view of war as hell. We are at Omaha
Beach as troops are slaughtered by Germans yet overcome the almost
insurmountable odds.
A stalwart Tom Hanks plays Captain Miller, a soldier's soldier, who takes a
small band of troops behind enemy lines to retrieve a private whose three
brothers have recently been killed in action. It's a public relations move for
the Army, but it has historical precedent dating back to the Civil War. Some
critics of the film have labeled the central characters stereotypes. If that is
so, this movie gives stereotypes a good name: Tom Sizemore as the deft
sergeant, Edward Burns as the hotheaded Private Reiben, Barry Pepper as
the religious sniper, Adam Goldberg as the lone Jew, Vin Diesel as the
oversize Private Caparzo, Giovanni Ribisi as the soulful medic, and Jeremy
Davies, who as a meek corporal gives the film its most memorable
performance.

The movie is as heavy and realistic as Spielberg's Oscar-winning
Schindler's List, but it's more kinetic. Spielberg and his ace technicians (the
film won five Oscars: editing (Michael Kahn), cinematography (Janusz
Kaminski), sound, sound effects, and directing) deliver battle sequences that
wash over the eyes and hit the gut. The violence is extreme but never
gratuitous. The final battle, a dizzying display of gusto, empathy, and chaos,
leads to a profound repose. Saving Private Ryan touches us deeper than
Schindler because it succinctly links the past with how we should feel today.
It's the film Spielberg was destined to make