More than one Second World War veteran has declared Steven Spielberg's 1998 epic recounting a military mission following the D-Day invasion the most realistic war movie ever made. The movie's opening segment detailing the slaughter of Allied troops during the assault on Omaha Beach runs nearly a half-hour and is no easier to watch more than a decade after the film played in theatres. The story thereafter, even though occasionally violent, is almost a relief. Loosely based on real-life events, the story stars the sturdy Tom Hanks as Captain John Miller, a career serviceman who takes a small troop of soldiers behind enemy lines to retrieve Private James Ryan (Matt Damon), whose three brothers have already perished in action. In accepted war-movie fashion, Miller's charges include a raft of eclectic, stalwart stereotypes, including Edward Burns as a short-tempered private, Barry Pepper as a religious-minded sniper and Adam Goldberg as the sole Jewish soldier. The squadron's search through war-torn France is frequently beset by frustration and setbacks (at one point they locate the wrong private with the same name) and the viewer feels the pain when every soldier falls. The film won five Oscars, including a second best director award for Spielberg, and adheres strictly to the message necessary to all dramatic depictions of military conflict: War is hell.
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