‘Masterpiece’ war film is 1998 classic and streaming on BBC iPlayer | Films | Entertainment

If you are a fan of the war movie genre, this film is 100% a must-watch. Widely considered one of the “greatest war films of all time”, Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat.

The film is set in 1944 in Normandy, France, during World War II. Saving Private Ryan stars Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, alongside Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore and Jeremy Davies. It is inspired by the books of Stephen E. Ambrose and accounts of multiple soldiers in a single family.

The film’s synopsis reads: “Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) takes his men behind enemy lines to find Private James Ryan, whose three brothers have been killed in combat. Surrounded by the brutal realities of war, while searching for Ryan, each man embarks upon a personal journey and discovers their own strength to triumph over an uncertain future with honour, decency and courage.”

Saving Private Ryan was the second-highest-grossing film of 1998, and went on to win many accolades, including Golden Globe, Academy, BAFTA, and Saturn awards. It has a near-perfect rating of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critics’ consensus reading: “Anchored by another winning performance from Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg‘s unflinchingly realistic war film virtually redefines the genre.”

One critic said: “The 24-minute sequence at the start of Steven Spielberg’s Second World War drama is one of the greatest pieces of combat cinema yet made.”

Another wrote: “Not simply a 1990s classic or among the better prestige films of my generation, Saving Private Ryan is a stone cold masterpiece ranking among the very best war films of all time.”