The mission is a man.
As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.
- Graphic violence
- Body horror
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Character
Earnest, grave, overwhelming and classical in form.
- earnestironic
- gravecomic
- cooloverwhelming
- classical in formformally daring
- intimateepic
Who loves it, who doesn't
188 profiled raters. Loved most by The Prestige Hunters; disliked most by The Ironists.
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Reviews on TMDB
Written by TMDB members; each links to the original. Not part of Tastebuds's numbers.
- Reddazraelon TMDB · Jun 20267/10
The opening scene on Omaha Beach lives rent-free in my head. Not because I want it to, but because my father — whose special interest is the World Wars — wanted me to "understand the horrors and reality of war" at 12 years old. I'm truly unsure why it couldn't have waited until I was old enough to *actually* go to war, but it is what it is. Anyway, I vividly remember a man having his arm blown off, stumbling in shock, and then picking up his own arm. I vividly remember listening to a man screaming for his mother as he laid on the beach with his intestines on the sand beside him. That was about the point where my dad paused the movie because I was sobbing so hard I couldn't see the screen anymore. Not to give me a break; he just wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything. So. The point of me explaining that is so you understand how deeply I mean it when I say that in terms of hammering home the horrors of war, this film easily gets a 10/10 for Omaha Beach. I just wish it wasn't a core memory for me, but here we are. The rest of the film is a lot more tame, but I remember being extremely frustrated watching characters I cared about die for a character I hadn't really yet seen and car
Read the whole review on TMDB - attractor5454on TMDB · May 20267/10
Rating 70/100 Amazing start showcasing just how atrocious and disgusting war is. Followed by a non-sensical plot point to rescue one person in a war where millions died, because he's the last guy in his family. I really liked the interpersonal relationships between the cast, the movie showcasing just how mortal everyone is and they can die at any moment is where the movie is at its best. Deducting some points because as you would expect the movie very much leans into American war propaganda, look at how merciful, all powerful and correct we are as an army and how bad everyone else is. If I ignored the stupid reason for the journey, the journey is fun and entertaining, and if I ignored the social and political messages of it its even better as a movie, and then I would rate it as a 85, but unfortunately I can't ignore those and hence its a 70 for me.
Read the whole review on TMDB - CinemaSerfon TMDB · Dec 20238/10
I don't think I can recall any Hollywood film that depicts the atrocities of the D-Day landings as effectively as this does at the start. Indeed, watching it you wonder just how any of the Allied soldiers managed to ever survive the water let alone fight their way up a beach crowded with tank traps, mines and barbed wire - all whilst under constant machine gun fire. Steven Spielberg leaves very little to our imagination and bodies drop left, right and centre with an authenticity that John Williams scores remarkably poignantly. It's during this seemingly impossible assault that we are introduced to "Miller" (a career-best from Tom Hanks) and his squad who are tasked with taking out one of the heavily defended pill boxes. Meantime, the US Chief of Staff - General George Marshall is informed that one particular lady is about to get three telegrams in one day telling her that her sons have died. There is a fourth - "James" - and the reward for "Miller" and what's left of his group is to find this man and get him home to safety. What's also illustrated quite succinctly here is that despite the most meticulous of planning, nobody really has much of a clue who had landed where, who was al
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Cast
- Tom HanksCaptain Miller
- Tom SizemoreSergeant Horvath
- Edward BurnsPrivate Reiben
- Barry PepperPrivate Jackson
- Adam GoldbergPrivate Mellish
- Vin DieselPrivate Caparzo
- Giovanni RibisiT/4 Medic Wade
- Jeremy DaviesCorporal Upham
- Matt DamonPrivate Ryan
- Ted DansonCaptain Hamill
Crew
- Steven SpielbergDirector
- Robert RodatWriter
- Janusz KamińskiDirector of Photography
- John WilliamsOriginal Music Composer
- Michael KahnEditor
- Mark GordonProducer
- Gary LevinsohnProducer
- Ian BryceProducer
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Pairings
Companions we picked from the closest works, and how to take them.
Similar in taste
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Les Misérables 201279% alikeBoth earnest, grave, overwhelming.
Blood Diamond 200679% alikeBoth earnest, grave, classical in form.
The Manchurian Candidate 196279% alikeBoth grave, earnest, meticulous.
Letters from Iwo Jima 200679% alikeBoth earnest, grave, epic.
Band of Brothers 200186% alikeTelevision · Both earnest, grave, overwhelming.
Chernobyl 201984% alikeTelevision · Both earnest, grave, overwhelming.
Often watched with
Recommendations from TMDB. Opening one adds it to Tastebuds
