Saving Private Ryan - The Movie - My Review

As promised earlier while writing the Review for the Book, i watched the movie last night and as far as i'm concerned, it's been a letdown!!
Not that there's anything specifically wrong with the movie, it's just that after reading the book, i had a different set of expectations, which naturally, the movie could not meet.
Actually, i can't fault Spielberg, Hanks or any of the team. Compressing a 300 Page book into a 2 Hour movie is no Joke! To be honest, the movie was brilliantly made. Without losing any of the Grim reality , Spielberg magnificently showed the humane side of of War. Real Good!
But as i relished the book and remembered each bit of the story (i'd just finished the book 2 days ago) i was getting ahead of myself and when a particular scene was missed or replaced by a more cinematic one, the book-lover in me sort of revolted!
Especially the scene (in the book) where, after being given the assignment to find Private Ryan, Captain Miller and his team set off in a Jeep to being the search. It is one of more colourful parts of the story with Sarge driving like crazy thru pot-holed and mine-laid roads for quite a distance, till finally the Jeep is blasted off with the passengers escaping unhurt. This crazy bit was totally left out in the movie. This is just one example. But again, it isn't probably possible to show everything in the short duration.
The ending has also been slightly modified with Corporal Upham's character being shown as a coward. It's way different in the book. But i guess someone had to become a fall-guy so the audiences relate to the grim ending of the flashback in the story.
However, Credit is due to Tom Hanks, one of my Fav stars, who is a natural fit into Captain Miller's character. His entire team's cast has been very well chosen with many names that we would today recognize easily - Tom Sizemore, Vin Diesel, Edward Burns and Adam Goldberg.
Matt Damon does a Fab job as Private James Ryan.
The movie has been nominated for 11 and has won 5 Academy awards including Best Director for Steven Spielberg.
Here's what i have to say - If you've not seen the movie, Watch it now! If you've not read the Book, Read it immediately, but don't do both in immediate succession!!!!!