Saving Private Ryan (1998)

The first twenty minutes of this film are mind blowing. Spielberg shows you visions both terrifying and sublime. It is interesting that he chooses to start the film concentrating on the eyes of the veteran at the grave (which turns out to be Private Ryan) then matches it only a few scenes later with the eyes of Captain John Miller. When the film ends and you realize that Ryan's remembrances of the storming of the beach could not have been first hand, rather stories that were told to him (as the young Spielberg was told war stories by his father). Perhaps this is simply a conceit to surprise the audience, but it is also likely that Spielberg was commenting on how memory is not completely reliable and can never capture the essence of an event or life. The plot of having a group of soldiers risk their lives on a mission to bring one soldier back to his mom won't lose her last son is of course ridiculous and is just too much of a hurdle to get over and keeps this film form being a masterpiece. I was surprised however that even given this ridiculous plot device the film was still very powerful.