In my eyes SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is a masterpiece. Even though the movie is nearly three hours long and I am one of those impatient people who can not sit still for long periods of time, it is evenly distributed and takes on a powerful subject. SAVING PRIVATE RYAN was not merely another war movie; I really felt it caught the soul of war. So in closing if I had to pick one of these two movies to recommend to someone who has never seen either I would definitely recommend that person to see SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.

Unless, of course, it’s a principal that’s dying. Then the death must be drawn out. The scenes following the battle also differ with the movie. Once THE PATRIOT soldiers are at their base camp it’s almost as if the war is on pause. The atmosphere is actually cheery as the actors have their characters enjoy time-out from The American Revolution. In SAVING PRIVATE RYAN we hardly reach this giddy mood. When the soldiers are not fighting Speilberg creates a thick atmosphere of tension. The actors subtly play their characters with the feeling of anticipation. Unlike in THE PATRIOT, we never feel at ease.

For an action movie THE PATRIOT has a decent story line, but for a historical drama it was just too shallow. However it is harsh to judge the believability of a movie when comparing it to SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. Never have I seen a war movie so disturbing. When I see that high angle of Omaha Beach littered with bodies; it makes me wonder what it was all for. This is where Spielberg succeeds. By recreating World War II so realistically, his viewers see what he saw from the beginning: the inexcusable deaths of so many men, and the insanity of the war that they died for.

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, on the other hand, makes an effort to portray its characters as realistic as possible. The soldiers are ordinary guys some likable, some not, most reliable, all believable. While Benjamin "The Ghost" Martin is invincible, Miller, with his shaky hand, is homesick and tired. Take Corporal Upham (Jeremy Davies), for example. Upham, without a doubt, sees the war as we see

Some topics in this essay:
PRIVATE RYAN, Tom Hanks, American Revolution, War II, Jeremy Davies, , Thomas Gabriel’s, RYAN PATRIOT, SAVING PRIVATE, RYAN Speilberg, saving private, private ryan, saving private ryan, american revolution, war ii, world war, tom hanks, world war ii, captain miller tom, action movie, patriot story, bad guy, literary elements, miller tom hanks,