Saving Private Ryan (DVD)

The plot serves only to drag a squad of characters through uncharted peril with few fitting the normal pre-determined 'hero' tag of war films. They're off on a PR mission to find a Private James Ryan and take him home to his mother, who is shortly to learn that her other three sons are dead.

While the men are constantly under threat from the Germans, they are not engaged in a key battle that will help win the war. Without a major event to eclipse proceedings, a greater examination of each man's personal fears is allowed to shine through.

This is not a film that will please everyone and quite rightly so. But no movie about any war can seek to provide answers to every question. What Spielberg does is create a world of frightening carnage in which a small story is played out. As such, this is an important film that deconstructs war machines into separate, frightened men as it so likely was.