***** Haha! Yeah man. Sometimes we need a break from all the murder and mayhem... talk about some high quality entertainment on YT. :) It's a small world bro, good running to you.
I hear that man. Seriously small world indeed. I don't even know what made me want to look through all these Siskel and Ebert clips, or what made me look at the comments on this particular one, but yeah coincidence to the extreme lol
Because Saving Private Ryan is a dreadful film and SIL is at least decently made. Same goes for Schindler's List. Spielberg is a hack. And Lincoln... Jesus that was bad. The very fact that the man has even one oscar and is thought of along side true masters like Kurosawa, Kubrick, Scorsese, Polanski and Leone does in fact show how much of a joke The Oscars are.
You are so right. Being a fan of these two guys and watching this show every week as a kid, this clip is actually hard for me to watch because there is no doubt that Siskel is really struggling here.
It really is saddening. Gene Siskel passed away in early 1999. Roger Ebert passed away 14 years later. They got to do what they loved until the very end and they will always be remembered fondly.
Saving Private Ryan came out at the right time, when many of the veterans of World War Two were still alive. It instilled in us the horror of what they went through and was like a final salute to them. And Band of Brothers.
I remember watching this in the theater and how much anxiety I got right before the last battle scene. The theater was shaking and the sound of the tanks moving slowly through the streets was so eerie. That was by far the most intense moment I ever experienced watching a movie.
My Dad was in WW2, he refused to see the movie because he heard it was so realistic. He landed one town north of Normandy 6 months after the invasion, marched all the way through Europe to Leipzig in the winter of '44. He has told me many times it was constant confusion and chaos just like the first 25 minutes of the film.
+David Evans My father also served in WWII as a Glider trooper 194th Glider Infantry Regiment of the 17th Airborne Div. His unit began action in the Battle of the Bulge late December 1944 then on to the Rhineland Campaign, the Operation Varsity Glider drop and finally mop up and policing activity till he was released to go home in July 1945. He was lucky to go home early since he didn't have enough points but because his unit was supposed to take part in the invasion of Japan was allowed to go home on leave. The Atom Bombs probably saved his life. What I know of his combat experience is nothing. Never spoke of it to myself, my brother, or sister nor even my mother from 1945 till his death in 1999. But he did apparently speak of it one time at a family gathering where he had 2 much to drink and spoke of watching friends of his being torn apart and killed in front of his eyes. I thank Mr. Hanks and Mr. Spielberg for their dedication in showing the public what that war was really like. May we never have one like it ever again.
natskivna Thanks for this. My dad was just south when the Battle of the bulge occurred. He too was assigned to the Japanese theater after Hitler, was about to leave London for Japan when news of the bomb changed those plans and he come home on the Queen Mary with 1800 other troops.
I was able to take a tour of the Queen Mary in April 2013. She is a museum now in Long Beach, CA. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend taking that tour especially since your dad was on her. They have tours focusing on her days as a troop carrier during WWII.
+natskivna Thanks, that's a great idea. I live about 1/2 hour north of that. I haven't been because I generally shy away from touristy stuff. They turn it into a haunted ship every Halloween. But you're right, I should find out from my dad where he bunked and go check it out (he's 91).
When that military car is driving out to that farm to tell that mother one of her sons has been killed in action and she sees the car coming and just sets down on the floor of the porch knowing what's happened and overwhelmed. It caught the horrible feeling of losing a child without saying a word. It brought tears to this Cowboys eyes.
I remember this episode and had to see this movie. I saw SPR at the local movie theater and before the movie started, audience were all just laughing and talking. Then the movie starts and when it was over, I'd never seen a crowd of people walking out of the theater so quiet and, like me, wiping tears from our eyes. Spielberg is a genius.
When it was run in my hometown they had counselors sitting in the lobby aide WWII and Korea and Vietnam to refer the men to places that they could get help. BTW my father was in the first wave of D-Day and he only lived to be 39.
When this movie ended as I watched it at the Brooklyn Center Minnesota multiplex, I clearly remember saying to myself: "How is it possible for someone to make a movie this good"? I still feel that way.
apparently it was supposed to win Best Picture but Harvey Weinstein campaigned behind the scenes and was able to convince the academy to vote for Shakespeare in Love
I don’t know about message horsecrap, but it is the most stereotypical cliched war movie ever made. You name the cliche and it’s in here, coward gets guy who just wants to go home killed then kills guy who killed him because shame is courageous. Plus many more. First 45 minutes are excellent though.
Yes but the 90s Oscar best picture winners is a debated topic in the film community People say that Ghost and Goodfellas were robbed by Dances with Wolves in 1990 People also say that The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction were robbed by Forrest Gump in 1994 People argue about weather Babe and Apollo 13 should've won instead of Braveheart in 1995 And the mixed opinions and views on American Beauty for 1999
Two reasons why: 1. This was released in July, while Shakespeare was released in December. The Shakespeare film was fresher in the voters' asshole minds. 2. Most of these asshole uncle fuckers didn't go to college and feel that Shakespeare is classy to vote for. Same reason why they picked English Patient over Fargo, or Dances With Wolves over Goodfellas. At least in these later years, they have gotten a little better with choices.
Man, I miss these two. They were unpretentious, yet intelligent. Able to appreciate mainstream films and art films. I'll always remember what they did for the Hoop Dreams movie.
Think about Hanks in the 1990's. Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Toy Story, Saving Private Ryan, The Green Mile, Castaway. Amazing run of movies from him. 100 years from now though people will still watch SPR. History will remember this as Hank's decade.
@@virajkanbur4371 nah, what about Gary Oldman? State of Grace, JFK, Dracula, Romeo is bleeding (criminally underrated film) True Romance ( A small role but probably the best performance in the film) Leon, Fifth Element, Murder in the first, Air Force one. I’m not knocking at Cruise though, he starred in some very good movies throughout the 1990’s. I just think Oldman had a more variety of roles, many of which should have won best actor. It just shows how many amazing films were made in that decade. Possibly second behind the 1980’s?
As a veteran, and the grandson of a veteran that was on that beach, this movie affects me emotionally unlike any other film ive ever seen. At the grave site, when he asks "am i a good man?" oh man....the reading of the Lincoln letter, the mother on the porch, the german that was captured, and then met again....
Best movie I've ever seen. I saw it with my friends at the theatre. Afterwards we all just sort of wandered away, lost in our own thoughts. The theatre was eerily silent on the way out. I've not had the guts to see it again since then.
I remember having to pee an hour into movie...needless to say i waited til movie is over. Afterwards, we all made a bee line to the bathroom. I was next to a gentleman old enough to be in the war with a veterans hat on. As i was walking away..he turned to me and said..that was the most realistic war movie I've ever seen...as tears were rolling down his cheeks. As powerful as the movie itself.
I remember having to make that same decision many years later watching Dunkirk in theaters. I was hoping that movie would be as good as Saving Private Ryan a movie I had seen many years before with my Korean War vet grandfather in the theatre. I was watching Dunkirk having become myself a combat veteran since watching Saving Private Ryan as a teen. Long story short Dunkirk was a poor movie nowhere near as good as Saving Private Ryan and I went and took a piss.
I saw this when it came out and when the end credits rolled I sat in my seat unable to move. No other movie,not even Schindler's List, had that effect on me.
You and me both, I was just 18 when I saw this in the theatre, before the film Id been into war as a topic and watched alot of war films, after this screening I never wanted to think about war again, speilberg effectively gave me ptsd, thats the job this film does.
@@theyellowlightsaber3193 I took my 16 year old son with me to see it in the theater. Afterward, sitting in the car, I just sat there and bawled for 5 minutes, I had been so emotionally drained. I'm sure my son thought "Holy Cow dad!"
@@davefullmer8669 I was too traumatised to cry, I was suffering from phantom shellshock but yes there were plenty of moments you could cry at in this film. Tom Hanks crying by himself in a corner is cryworthy, you dont usually see tom as an actor breaking down like that in his films but the fact Miller privately blames himself for getting Wade killed is pretty sad
Same here, David, only I was sobbing uncontrollably and was frozen in my seat until the crew came in to clean the theater. Cried all the way home, and now, in 2021, I still can’t watch the movie because of the emotional impact it still has on me. I’m 76 years old, and grew up loving war and cowboy movies and saw almost all of them. Since Ryan, not so much. This movie is a masterpiece in every sense of the word, and when it didn’t win the Oscar for Best Picture, I decided the Oscars were bullshit, and have never watched another one since.
I lived in Normandy for four months. Spring 1998. Came home in June, and a couple of months later, this film was released. Talk about chills up and down my spine! I saw it four times in the theater.
The historical consultant was Stephen Ambrose. Spielberg showed Ambrose the rough cut of Omaha Beach. After it was over Ambrose left & said he would return. Spielberg was filled with self doubt. Ambrose returned & told him it was the best he had ever seen. My best friend’s Dad fought & was nearly killed in Normandy. She was thinking to take him to see Private Ryan. Then she read of Internet stories of WW2 veterans being overwhelmed by the battle scenes. She decided not to take him. Today, she wonders if she made the correct choice or not... He passed several years later... She & I have visited Pointe du Hoc, Utah & Omaha Beach. It was very emotional for us....We also visited the American Cemetery too....
Wow. I’m a young person that has never seen this film, but seeing Siskel and Ebert show and talk about it, I’m almost in tears at it’s heartbreaking and beautiful depth. Can’t wait to watch
gregg mikulla I have to sort of disagree with you there. Yes there are fine movies, but Schindler's list is the kind of movie you only want to see once, and Munich doesn't really have the wide reaching appeal as a World War II film. I've seen SPR so many times and you really get a perspective the soldiers went through that I haven't seen in any war film with the same emotional connection.
It is also very interesting, and enlightening to view the Allied Cemeteries in Normandie. To this day they are kept every bit as beautifully as is our own Arlington National Cemetery. To this day, French survivors of the German occupation and their liberation speak with great love, respect and appreciation for the sacrifice of the fighting men of the Allied Forces.
The mission wasn’t to save a mother’s feelings. It was policy after the five Sullivan brothers were killed when the USS Juneau was sunk in the southwest Pacific. That family effectively died then and there. No becoming husbands, fathers, no descendants. So the “Surviving Son” policy was put into effect.
My father drove a truck off a landing craft on D-Day and got stuck in the surf. He said he was more scared of the sergeant yelling at him then the Germans. Obviously, he was not in the first wave. He drove a truck pulling a trailer with a bulldozer on it. He said the hardest part was driving hours across Europe at night following the red light on the truck ahead of him (no headlights allowed) and having to urinate on the floor because they never stopped.
Though "Saving Private Ryan" was a brilliant film , it completely drained me , I could not watch it a second time, I remember sitting in the theatre & noticed during the grueling first 28 minutes , a family entered with toddlers, suffice to say , they did not stay, what were those parents thinking ?, this was not Disney. So many Images of that first part still cross my mind, one in particular was the young soldier walking around listless searching for his arm that had just been blown off....
RIP guys,Me and brother were with you since Sneak Previews on PBS.The first movie we remember was North Dallas Forty.I really hope you're in a good place,THANX so!
The greatest war movie ever. And that’s saying something. Most accurate, heart wrenching portrayal of war. I mean if I ever see the actor who played Oppum I think I’ll smash his face.
When I saw SPR, two older gentlemen were behind me. When Hanks hit the beach, one of them said to the other, ‘That’s not how John Waine did it’. Fast forward 20+ years, I’m on a Zoom call with Dale Dye and was able to tell him that story.
If you didn't get to see this on the big screen, you missed out. Very powerful film. There have been a couple good war movies since, but nothing compares to this.
I noticed that Siskel had hair extensions. I wonder if he was already undergoing treatment for his brain tumor. The movie was released in late Summer 1998 and Siskel died the following February.
I applaud Steven Spielberg for this film, more importantly , to all the american men who were a part of WW2, the ones who survived and to the ones who's fate was not as fortunate , I salute you , and give my deepest thank you's and gratitude for your courage and patriotism .
They don't fight for democracy or the USA or any of that, go to your VFW and ask anyone. You fight for your buddies in your squad and to eventually get home after the job is done, period. Anybody standing up and saying "I'm here to support freedom, apple pie, and baseball" would be shunned and deemed a dope who might get you killed in combat by being too gung ho instead of soberly considering the tactical situation.
Tom Hanks is the modern Jimmy Stewart. Abe Lincoln's mom was Nancy Hanks, her brother is Tom's direct ancestor. He is Lincoln's 3rd cousin, 4 times removed. Maybe he should avoid doing a play at Ford's Theater. By the way, there is a fine museum in the basement of the theater, they have many Lincoln items. Also the derringer the vermin Booth murdered him with. The vast majority of tourists visiting DC have no idea the museum is there, which is a shame as visiting Ford's is a moving experience.
+tiffsaver I did neither. I mean that the film itself was never able to get passed its opening and it's what keeps it from being a great film all the way through. It's a very good film instead of being a great film.
+GregB1986 Ok. But I think it's important for a lot of reviewers here to realize that CGI and digital technology in film and sound gave SPR a leg up from it's many predesessors.
Even after 20 years, this is the definitive WW2 movie. It is like Schindler's List. Epic, moving and horrific, and so well made and acted in. Superiour film making that sadly, doesn't come that often from demented Hollywood these days.
Just imagine a Dad bringing a ten year old boy and his sisters at 8 and 9 to see this in a theater. That was my old man and my sisters still talk about the sound and images of the Normandy scene. They had their hands over their ears and their heads in between their knees.
SPR is the only movie I ever went to see at the theater multiple times in a row. Every single time I watched that opening battle scene, I had to cry for those guys, because those things actually happened to real people in that battle.
I feel the same way about “Virgin Vaginas IV.” I saw it at least 6 times. Every single time I watched that opening M-F-M scene, I had to “spill a little fluid” myself; because those things actually were happening to that woman in this movie. The power of cinema.
360SRH 2 Sure, Spielberg is guilty of being a bit of a flag-waver, but he's far from pretentious. Stone, on the other hand, is the pretentious one. Whether it's Platoon, JFK or Natural Born Killers, he does nothing but attempt to make the audience gasp. I don't care if he's a vet, Platoon was a bad movie. It was almost laughable at how hard he was trying to be controversial.
SPR, although not of my generation (I was drafted in 1969), is a movie so good and so moving that I remain unable to watch it again. Even so, I am still haunted by almost every scene still vivid in memory.
My 15 favorite movies from the 1990's 15. Dances With Wolves 14. The Green Mile 13. Fargo 12. Total Recall 11. Back To The Future Part III 10. In The Line Of Fire 9. Titanic 8. The Lion King 7. Unforgiven 6. Jurassic Park 5. Heat 4. Goodfellas 3. Schindler's List 2. Terminator 2 Judgement Day 1. Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan wasn't an anti-war film, at least not in the way that most people imagine such a thing. It was a film which told the honest truth about war, from the soldier's perspective, and drove home so many of the brutal realities of combat which are glossed over in other movies. The greatest beauty of the film is that it leaves the interpretation of the moral ambiguities of war up to the audience...much like the elder Pvt. Ryan is left to wonder if he truly did "earn it".
“Did you fire your weapon in basic training?” Interesting foreshadowing, because that characters main conflict is whether or not he can bring himself to do that.
I saw this film when it first came out. It is brilliant. Like Schindler's List it is a movie I just can't get myself to watch again. Everyone should see both of these films at least once.
Not a fan of SPR, but it led to Spielberg and Hanks producing Band of Brothers for HBO, and I watch that entire series at least once a year. Love, love, love. If you've never watched it, do it soon, you're welcome.
EarendilUndomiel why should i believe you? you don't like saving private ryan, but you want me to check out another war movie/series? no way, i bet it sucks. hey i don't like the movie goodfellas, but you should check out this other show about the mafia.
***** When did I ever say that I didn't like Saving Private Ryan? And I don't care if you don't like GoodFellas, it's still my favorite movie of all time.
i own saving private ryan and the thin red line on DVD. i couldn't watch half of the thin red line without turning it off. saving private ryan is the true winner. It captures war at the highest level a movie can.
I think this movie can be for younger viewers. I always think realistic consequences to violence (blood, wounds, agony, etc) in movied is better than the sanitized action of a pg-13 flick, such as mission impossible.
I was mistaken. I thought Siskel died much earlier than this. Our guy had less than a year at this point. They don`t make them like this anymore. I wish we had these two so that they could go back and re-review films from the past.
SPR was great, but, hands down (for me) best war drama is HBO's "Band of Brothers" and "Pacific." Both based on real people and their experiences in WW2 and both done with Spielberg & Hanks as producers.
+Powderfinger Well of course those were great, but they had so many more hours to tell their story with! Different format. I love those miniseries' too, but it doesn't take anything away from this movie.
Saving Private Ryan was a milestone in film making. There were war films made before Saving Private Ryan and war films made after Saving Private Ryan. When this film was released it automatically made all previously made WWII pictures look dated.
I suppose if you're a simplistic person who can only handle straight forward "right/wrong" plot lines then yeah...for you saving private ryan would be the "better" movie. For people who like a movie to challenge them a little bit...Thin Red Line is much better. No drugs needed.
I'd love to see an interview with the Academy voters and ask them to defend their voting for Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan for best picture. One of the worst tragedies in Oscar history.
I believe when this episode of "Siskel and Ebert" was shot, Gene Siskel was already suffering from, and knew about, the cancer that would end his life the next year. He was diagnosed in May of 1998, "Saving Private Ryan" came out in July of that year.
