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Film critics pick the 50 best movies of all time

From film critics Gail Kinn and Jim Piazza's new book 'The Greatest Movies Ever,' their picks for the 50 greatest films

30. 'Saving Private Ryan'

  • By Molly Driscoll

"Spielberg lays before us a visceral and devastatingly honest film experience that speaks more through action and emotion than words," Kinn and Piazza write of the 1998 film by the director. "But the brilliant director cannot seem to resist his urge to frame the story in sentimental conventions of the genre... it's difficult to ignore this transition into the predictable, but the harrowing vision of war that radiates from the screen is burned so deeply into your senses that, regardless of those Spielberg-ian niceties, you are ultimately left with the harrowing insight into the pain and tragedy of war."

In an interview with American Cinematographer, Spielberg discussed how he was influenced by some of his favorite films set during World War II but also how he tried to set "Ryan" apart. "On 'Private Ryan,' I tried to take the opposite approach of nearly every one of my favorite World War II movies," he said. "Films that were made during the actual war years never really concerned themselves with realism, but more with extolling the virtues of winning and sacrificing ourselves upon the altar of freedom. Those were the themes of many World War II pictures, which also were designed to help sell war bonds. I love those movies, but I think Vietnam pushed people from my generation to tell the truth about war without glorifying it."

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Mark Sappenfield
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