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DVD Review
Roach & Seals Reels: "Saving Private Ryan" |
by Donnie Seals Jr.
Assistant Photo Editor
and Chris Roach
Correspondent |
An admirable thing about Steven Spielberg is his desire, to not only entertain as a filmmaker, but to also teach. His latest epic, the Academy Award winning "Saving Private Ryan" is an important film that reminds many people and teaches newer generations of the sacrifices made during World War II.
The film opens with the D-Day invasion on the beach of Normandy. The first 20 minutes of the film are so real and so intense that it will stay with you as one of the most memorable and dramatic sequences ever captured on film. Columbia alumni Janusz Kaminski's incredible cinematography matched with Spielberg's brilliant directing make you feel as if you are at the invasion yourself. When I first saw this sequence, my heart raced the whole time, and I understood how fast and terrifying a battle in war must be. After the long opening, the film moves its focus to a small band of men led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks).
The group of eight men must move behind enemy lines to find Private James Ryan (Matt Damon) and send him home. His other three brothers have already been killed in the war, and the army wants to give his mother her remaining son. Most of the movie is the interaction of these men, as they search for Ryan, and the different values they hold true in life and war. All the acting is emotional, and I still think either Tom Sizemore or Edward Burns should have been nominated for best supporting actor.
The thing I like best about this movie is how realistic it is. When watching some war movies, I feel removed or just too distant to care. "Saving Private Ryan" pulls the viewers and their emotions right into battle with the actors. This movie won Academy Awards at this year's Oscars for cinematography (Kamanski also won for Spielberg's "Schindler's List") and Spielberg won the award for best directing. This is one of the greatest epics ever made, and one of only four Spielberg films currently available on DVD (the others being "1942," "The Color Purple," and "Amistad"). "Saving Private Ryan" is an important film that everybody should see. This DVD is a limited release, so I suggest getting it sooner rather than later.
VIDEO
Kaminski created such realistic war images with his cinematography that you could compare many of the images captured in "Saving Private Ryan" to photographer Robert Kappa's work. The war scenes are reminscent of the stories of photographers and cameramen on the field of battle with the soldiers. The camera shakes and rattles throughout those scenes, which places the viewer closer to the action. "Saving Private Ryan" has a clean video transfer that should not disappoint. The 1:85:1 aspect ratio represents the original theater screen size, and the anamorphic transfer should excite people with 16:9 televisions.
AUDIO
Looking for a great demo disc to show the awesome audio power of DVD? Start with Dreamworks' "Saving Private Ryan." In order to enjoy this DVD at it's best, you
must answer "Yes" to all of the following questions. Do you own a TV 26" or larger? Do you own at least five speakers to surround you in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound (a DTS system would be better)? Do you own a receiver or a DVD player with a Dolby Digital decoder? Do you live in a building where the resident neighbors don't complain about the noise levels? If you have answered "Yes" to all these questions, I advise you to move to the very next step and purchase this DVD.
"Saving Private Ryan" is a musical massacre of bullets, explosions and gunfire that fill the room from beginning to end. Along with many other awards, the film was awarded an Academy Award for Sound Design. The Omaha Beach scene sets the tone for this disc with a 30-minute orchestra of violent explosions and thunders. Every bullet could be felt whizzing by my head as every bomb was felt under my seat.
The rear speakers were constantly volleying screams and bullets back and forth while the low end of the film sent rumblings through my apartment (especially the tanks at the final battle scene. You can't see them, but you can feel them). The actions reacted simultaneously with the sounds perfectly on screen. The Dolby Digital surround sound track is available on this disc as well, but doesn't measure up to the 5.1 track.
EXTRAS:
This DVD has some nice little extras, but nothing too overwhelming. It features the usual cast and filmmaker's bios and theatrical trailers (two of them to be exact). It also has production notes, which is another common feature. One nice bonus is a 25-minute documentary about the film and World War II itself. This features original WWII pictures and footage, plus interviews with Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and WWII historians and vets. The final feature on this disc is a small message from Steven Spielberg about the film and about the D-Day Museum in New Orleans. In it he reminds us that he made this movie to show that "freedom does not come free." |
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