Carnage of war revisited

Okay, so the Farrelly Brothers may not get the Oscar for Best Picture despite a masterful job in There's Something About Mary. After seeing Saving Private Ryan last Friday, I can pretty much give up my campaign.

Spielberg has done it again, yet another story of human triumph through the most grim of circumstances. Saving Private Ryan will probably be most remembered for its extremely graphic depiction of an extremely graphic war. However, it would be a shame if it is not remembered as one of 1998's best films as well as some of Steven Spielberg's finest work.

After making it through the most fierce fighting of World War II, Captain John Miller is assigned the mission of finding a single infantry soldier, Private James Ryan. Ryan has been given permission to return home after all three of his brothers have been killed in the fighting.

Tom Hanks stars as Captain Miller. He is joined by an eclectic group of soldiers including Sergeant Horvath (Tom Sizemore), Private Reiben (Edward Burns), Privates Caparzo and Jackson, (Vin Diesel and Barry Pepper, respectively) and the title character played by Matt Damon. Ted Danson also makes a cameo appearance as Captain Harmill.

The film is terrific in all aspects. Hanks gives his best performance since Forrest Gump and is well complemented by a great cast. Spielberg pulls the unbelievable by making the audience feel as though they are on the battlefield. Frank Darabont and Robert Rodat wrote a great script that pulled no punches in capturing the horror of war.

Like There's Something About Mary, this movie is a sure to be a classic, but not for the faint of heart. Editors had to cut some footage from the D-Day scene to avoid an "NC-17" rating for graphic violence. It uses the same conventions to manufacture the realism seen in Schindler's List, sheer gore and the different reactions of the human psyche to the most dire of situations. This movie is very good and undoubtedly will be nominated for, if not win, several Academy Awards. Anyone brave enough to sit through three hours and ten minutes of complete suspense and terror will love this film. Saving Private Ryan gets 9.5 out of 10.