Saving Private Ryan

Cast View all

	Tom Hanks	Captain Miller
	Tom Sizemore	Sergeant Horvath
	Edward Burns	Private Reiben
	Barry Pepper	Private Jackson
	Adam Goldberg	Private Mellish
	Vin Diesel	Private Caparzo
	Giovanni Ribisi	T
	Jeremy Davies	Corporal Upham
	Matt Damon	Private Ryan
	Ted Danson	Captain Hamill
	Paul Giamatti	Sergeant Hill
	Dennis Farina	Lieutenant Colonel Anderson
	Joerg Stadler	Steamboat Willie
	Max Martini	Corporal Henderson
	Dylan Bruno	Toynbe
	Daniel Cerqueira	Weller
	Demetri Goritsas	Parker
	Ian Porter	Trask
	Gary Sefton	Rice
	Julian Spencer	Garrity
	Steve Griffin	Wilson
	William Marsh	Lyle
	Marc Cass	Fallon
	Markus Napier	Major Hoess
	Neil Finnighan	Ramelle Paratrooper

Crew View all

Director	Steven Spielberg
Writer	Robert Rodat
Producer	Ian Bryce, Bonnie Curtis, Kevin De La Noy, Mark Gordon, Mark Huffam, Gary Levinsohn, Allison Lyon Segan, Steven Spielberg
Musician	John Williams
Photography	Janusz Kaminski

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Notes

Story Synopsis:
The winner of five Academy Awards® and internationally acclaimed by critics and audiences alike, Saving Private Ryan offers us a glimpse into the realities faced by American soldiers during World War II. The story is told as it is seen through the eyes of a squadron of GIs, who, after enduring the horrific D-Day invasion, were then called upon to perform a dangerous special mission. Captain John Miller (Hanks) must take his men behind enemy lines to find and return Private James Ryan (Damon) to the United States after his three brother had all been killed in combat. Captain Miller’s men find themselves initially questioning their orders - why risk the lives of eight men to save only one? The accurate depiction of the brutalities of war may be unsettling, but if you can endure the troublesome images and allow yourself to hear the message of the movie, you will almost certainly gain a greater understanding of the tremendous sacrifices that so many young men and women have made for our country and appreciate their courage. (Laurie Sevano)

DVD Picture:
The anamorphically enhanced DVD, viewed in component video is exceptionally defined with superb clarity. The stylized picture is harshly contrasted imagery, but is a superb transfer of Janusz Kaminski's Academy Award®-winning cinematography. Contrary to what some may call "excellent picture quality," we assure you that the desaturated colors and contrasted imagery is absolutely intentional and closely resembles the theatrical presentation. To create this appearance, as it was seen in the theatres, Kaminski and director Steven Spielberg chose to strip the lenses of their protective coating, flash the film stock and desaturate the colors with the ENR bleaching process. Shadow delineation is nicely rendered, as seen when Captain Miller and his men try to rest in a church lit only by a few candles. The visual experience is intensely emotional, and everyone should understand that the emotion is created by the deglamorized appearance of Spielberg's vision. There are no distracting artifacts or pixelization for a transfer that is clean throughout. The picture measures 1.78:1, anamorphic and letterbox.

Soundtrack:
The DTS® Digital Surround soundtrack projects a realistic sense of immediacy and exceptionally conveys the dimensionality, depth and impact of the intended sound mix. The sound is incredibly coherent with a seamlessly integrated holosonic soundfield that projects pinpoint delineation and realistic sidewall and center back surround phantom imaging. Interchannel detail is articulate for overall clarity. This soundtrack is a powerhouse of intensity. For over 24 minutes continuously you will experience the most dramatic and full scale SPL holosonic soundfield of any motion picture soundtrack yet to be produced. No other soundtrack to date, whether DTS Digital Surround or Dolby Digital encoded, has delivered such a dimensionally spatial sound sculpture with such breathtaking and intensely emotional impact. The sound breathes life into the stunning imagery, in this case, sadly, war depicted in intimate combat at Omaha Beach. Bullets whiz by in all directions, explosives impact throughout the soundfield, machine gun fire emanates from the split surrounds and you feel the deeply powerful bass, intensified by the full scale .1 LFE at below 25Hz. Even the surround channels are driven full scale SPL at below 25Hz. This is a soundtrack that is capable of damaging audio systems not capable of intense full scale 25Hz bass. It is a soundtrack that demands full range loudspeaker capability in all channels! No single subwoofer directed by bass management can project the bass-energized holosonic imaging this soundtrack creates. You are immersed in the holosonic soundfield for what seems endless. Even shots underwater are felt and heard with a realism that is breathtaking. The John Williams music score, recorded and mixed by Shawn Murphy, is sweeping and dynamic with a deep soundstage and an expansive presence that extends well into the surrounds. The DTS encoding reveals subtle harmonic textures and distinctive directionalized soundfield energy. The sound perspective shifts perfectly in accord with the picture angles for effective localization. Low frequency effects are natural sounding yet at times extremely powerful. Dialogue is disappointing because it is almost entirely ADR-produced and is wanting in natural spatial integration. But then this is a challenging feat considering that the dialogue takes place largely on battlefields, open countrysides and shelled towns. In scenes with pounding rain, the sound is enveloping and able to create chills. And what wonderful extended dimension is created by the back center phantom channel! Listen for the center back fly-overs by the P-51s with your Surround EX-type processor engaged. The sound is exhilarating. There are instances when dialogue emanates from a surround channel amidst aggressive soundfield envelopment that is very effective. There is so much to celebrate with this sound design. This spatially dynamic soundfield experience ranks among the greatest soundtracks of all time. The richly spatial holosonic soundfield is what we have always advocated and enthusiastically applaud here. While we wonder what subtleties in the audio would be revealed had DreamWorks opted to encode at 1536 kbps, for those fortunate enough to have DTS Digital Surround processing capability, the 768 kbps DTS DVD release will for now have to serve as the definitive soundtrack for Saving Private Ryan.

This Disc Contains The Following WSR-Rated Superb Qualities:
Collector Edition
Reference Quality
Superb Cinematography
Superb Special Visual Effects Quality
Superb Music Score Recording Quality
Superb Sound Effects Recording Quality

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