MOVIE · 1998

Saving Private Ryan

ActionAdventureDramaWar169 min

After the Normandy landings in 1944, a squad of U.S. soldiers is sent into German-held France to find one paratrooper whose three brothers have been killed in battle. Tom Hanks is Captain John Miller, the Ranger officer leading seven men through Omaha Beach, country roads, and deserted towns; Matt Damon's Private Ryan is the missing soldier at the center of the mission. Directed by Steven Spielberg, the film follows that search as Miller's unit pushes farther inland, with each stop bringing new losses, divided orders, and the question of what this assignment asks of the men carrying it out.