Saving Private Ryan : A Look Back at Academy Awards Upsets

The decision of the Academy Awards to give Best Picture to Crash over Brokeback Mountain got me to thinking about the last time there was an upset in the top category.  So I decided to rewatch Spielberg's 1998 classic, and found it to be every bit as powerful as it was eight years ago.

Unless you've lived under a rock the last several years you've seen the film so I'll make the plot synopsis short.  After starting with a framing device of the aged Ryan from the title Spielberg throws us into the middle of Omaha Beach on D-Day.  It doesn't get much more intense than this as the chaos of war surrounds you immediately (even before the soldiers get mowed down the feeling of dread is unbearable).  

Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks), soon begins to cobble out a strategy of taking the beach.  The next twenty minutes or so is the execution of his plan, as his company leads the frontal assault.  This inferno is as close to being in real combat as you're probably ever likely to get in a film.  And despite many attempts to one up him, no one has done a better job of making you feel what it's like for the grunt on the ground (though a few have arguably equaled his feat since).

Much has been written about the battle sequences of the film.  Despite being copied stylistically in many films since, they still have an amazingly raw power.  It's really amazing how Spielberg gave a mater class of sorts in how to do battle scenes.  The jurky camera moves, the double printing of frames to give the film a 16mm feel, the desaturated colors, and many other little touches have been in countless films since.  It almost makes you forget who did it all first.