Saving Private Ryan
DreamWorks Distribution | Release Date: July 24, 1998 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
91
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
37
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
89
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
A bitter, bloody masterpiece with adrenalized emotions and hyper-realized images, this is perhaps as close to battle as any sane human being should ever hope to tread. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Nothing that suggests an independent vision, unless you count seeing more limbs blown off than usual. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This film embodies ideas. After the immediate experience begins to fade, the implications remain and grow. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A watershed picture, for both Spielberg and war movies. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The story raises hard moral questions relating to the relative value of human lives and the overwhelming debt that may be felt by those who benefit when others sacrifice. But the movie falls short of excellence because it doesn't so much explore these issues as finesse them in an action-filled climax. Read full review
100
Dallas ObserverPeter Rainer
He (Spielberg) commemorates the soldiers in that vast Normandy cemetery in the most absolute and honorable way possible. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
A movie of staggering virtuosity and raw lyric power, a masterpiece of terror, chaos, blood, and courage. Read full review
100
Film.comTed Fry
In striving to duplicate reality, Spielberg has gone reality one better -- he's playing war, but it's a game no one would ever willingly join in.
90
Film.comRobert Horton
A magnificent piece of movie-making.
90
Film.comJohn Hartl
Feels like the first truly honest attempt to deal with the horrors of combat - and the terrible responsibility shared by all survivors.
80
Film.comPeter Brunette
An exceptionally intense movie whose sheer filmmaking power ultimately transcends all its (many) limitations.
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
If Steven Spielberg's emotional intelligence matched his visual genius, his honorably flawed new film might qualify for one of the greatest-ever American WWII movies. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
A startling reminder of exactly how spectacular a director Spielberg can be when he allows himself to be challenged by a subject (in this case World War II) that pushes against his limits. Read full review
100
Mr. ShowbizRichard T. Jameson
No Hollywood film within recent memory has achieved such richness and originality of texture, such a compelling amalgam of passionate human drama and awesome technique. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Steven Spielberg's best war film -- and one of the two or three best movies the director has made. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Denby
Spielberg has taken us back to basics -- back to art, back to amazement at the film medium itself. Read full review
100
New York PostRod Dreher
A film of such cyclonic visual and emotional power, of such dazzling virtuosity and shattering humanity, that it is difficult to endure, yet alone describe. Savagely beautiful and savagely true, Saving Private Ryan is an excruciating masterpiece. Read full review
80
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Raises Hollywood's depiction of war to a new level. Read full review
100
ObserverRex Reed
Saving Private Ryan is a masterpiece. It cements Steven Spielberg’s reputation as one of the seminal filmmakers of the era. It tells a gallant story of honor and duty and courage under fire. It shows you things about war that have never been seen on a motion picture screen. Read full review
100
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
One of the best films ever made in this country, filled with our proudest national virtues, cognizant of our deeply rooted human weaknesses and frighteningly able to evoke emotions. Read full review
100
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
For those who are willing to brave the movie's shocking and unforgettable images, Saving Private Ryan offers a singular motion picture experience. Read full review
80
SalonGary Kamiya
Using the overpowering techniques of modern film, Steven Spielberg has cut through the glory-tinged gauze that shrouds World War II to reveal its brutal reality, creating a phenomenology of violence unsurpassed in the history of cinema. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleBob Graham
An overwhelming experience. Read full review
100
San Francisco ExaminerG. Allen Johnson
The effect is riveting and frightening. You feel you are under siege with the combatants. Read full review
90
SlateDavid Edelstein
What Steven Spielberg has accomplished in Saving Private Ryan is to make violence terrible again. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
An excellent movie, as effective in battle scenes as it is in that of soldiers ruminating on an Edith Piaf song. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
A horror movie based on history, offering some of the most spectacularly brutal, viscerally intense battle scenes ever brought to a Hollywood movie. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
A harrowing World War II epic about the struggle to uphold decency in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, the visual masterwork finds Spielberg atop his craft, weaving heart-pounding action and gut-wrenching emotion — often during the same sequence — that will leave viewers silently shaken. Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Steven Spielberg's new film begins as a monumental epic; then it diminishes; and, by its finish, is baffling. [August 24, 1998]
100
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
Steven Spielberg's soberly magnificent new war film, the second such pinnacle in a career of magical versatility, has been made in the same spirit of urgent communication. It is the ultimate devastating letter home. Read full review
100
The Seattle TimesJohn Hartl
Steven Spielberg's magnificent new film, Saving Private Ryan, redefines the World War II movie. Read full review
100
TimeRichard Schickel
A war film that, entirely aware of its genre's conventions, transcends them as it transcends the simplistic moralities that inform its predecessors, to take the high, morally haunting ground. Read full review
100
TNT RoughCutAndy Jones
Spectacular, wrenching masterpiece that unflinchingly documents the random horror, the grisly spectacle and the ugliness of war.
80
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The movie's greatest strength lies in phenomenal performances that reach from the leads right down to the smallest supporting roles. Read full review
100
USA TodayMike Clark
The rawest, most sustained screen portrayal of 20th century combat. Read full review
100
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A searingly visceral combat picture, Steven Spielberg’s third World War II drama is arguably second to none as a vivid, realistic and bloody portrait of armed conflict. Read full review
100
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Searing, heartbreaking, so intense it turns your body into a single tube of clenched muscle, this is simply the greatest war movie ever made, and one of the great American movies. Read full review
80
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Its relatively minor imperfections seem more glaring when compared to the near flawlessness of the film's lyrical, scorching start. Read full review
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