I wanted to do something special for my 100th movie (which is happening on the 107th day of the year... stupid tennis season getting in the way of things...) and I had it in my mind from early on that I wanted my 100th, 183rd (halfway, basically), 200th, 274th (3/4, basically), 300th, and final films to be special ones: however that was to be defined. In this case, I wanted to choose a film that has been deemed classic and that should very definitely be a part of the canon of my viewing. Of course, I didn't realize exactly where I was in the numbers until I watched Narc earlier, so I was a bit at the mercy of what I had on me. My brother Matt suggested the modern epic war film Saving Private Ryan, and since I've never seen it (yes, I know) it was a perfect fit.
The movie falls a single minute short of the joint record held by Heat and the Les Misérables: 25th Anniversary Concert for longest film watched (both of them coming in at 170 minutes) but let's be frank here: in the first eight minutes we've got crying at a grave emotional impact and gobs of American soldiers being unexpectedly assailed on by enemy bullets. Spielberg's not wasting any time getting us emotionally invested in his film.
I was going to start writing about some of the beginning plot points that lead the mission but three words in it felt stupid, since I think everyone knows the basic idea, even if they're one of the six cinemaphiles like me who haven't actually gotten around to seeing the film yet. So I'll spare you the minutiae and instead limit my comments to how I felt about it all, since, let's be honest, it's all about me.
There are a ton of people who are in this film that I had no idea: Paul Giamatti, Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, Ted Danson, Ed Burns, Chandler's roommate with the weird laugh, Phoebe's brother that she had the kids for, Patricia Arquette's brother in Medium, and more!
The movie is really every bit as outstanding as its been built up to me: from the overall look and feel of the film to the so obvious camaraderie the actors portrayed through their characters, and especially the individuality that every man earned. This was not a stock cast (and I could watch 2 hours and 49 minutes of Barry Pepper sniping from a belltower, you better believe it. Now I've not seen Shakespeare in Love, but I have a difficult time seeing how it could be better than this film, one that has already logged its rightful place in the top 100 of all moviedom. And, frankly if you didn't tear up a bit at the end, you must be completely devoid of all human emotion and should probably go get checked out.
Score: 10/10
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