Saving Private Ryan

Released in 1998, Steven Spielberg turned a wartime rescue mission into one of cinema’s most visceral examinations of duty, sacrifice and the human cost of combat. Tom Hanks’ Captain John Miller leads a small group of soldiers across war-torn France to find Private James Ryan, whose brothers have all been killed in action. Saving Private Ryan is remembered for the terrifying realism of its battle sequences, but its deeper power comes from the men carrying out the mission and the questions they begin to ask about the value of a single life. Beneath the violence is a film about responsibility, survival and what it means to live in a way that honours those who did not.