Saving Private Ryan

If you're in the mood for a feel-good movie which you come out of feeling uplifted and cheerful, this is not it.

However, something that I (Hanna) have learned is that sometimes, you just have to sit down and watch a movie, regardless of how unpleasant it is, if only to get an idea of historical events and what they were really like.

Saving Private Ryan is the goriest, most intense, and unenjoyable movie I have ever seen. I've seen the movie twice now, but refused to watch the first 25 minutes (the horrific landing on Normandy, where nothing is left to the imagination) a second time. This meant that Maddie (who is big-time a gore-a-phobe) was in luck. We skipped over the more unpleasant scenes (which isn't saying much) but the images portrayed from the first time I watched it were still burned into my brain. I've been told that it's the most realistic war movie out there even to this day, and it really helped me visualize the things that happened on places where me, Maddie and our family have visited (the beaches of Normandy being one of them). It's an incredible story, with 5 star performances all around. You truly do forget that it's acting. I always have an opinion about which movie should have won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and normally, I don't agree that the film that wins should win. This applies to the year that Saving Private Ryan was released. I'm at a loss at how Shakespeare in Love (which I have not yet seen, but is on our list of movies to watch) beat out this amazing film.

Maddie had her own thoughts. "I don't like violent movies, but I felt that I had to watch this one (after years of my mom telling me I had to) and afterwards I realized why. Even though we skipped the Normandy scene, I still went away from it with a better understanding of the intensity of war. The acting was awesome making the characters seem like they were real people with real pasts. Despite not seeing about 30 minutes of the movie, I still appreciate the movie for what it is - an incredible story backed by amazing performances."