Arguably the greatest war movie ever made just landed on free streaming. The war genre is filled with an eclectic assortment of movies, ranging from action-packed thrillers like 1917 and American Sniper, dark comedies like Good Morning, Vietnam, slow-burning classics like The Bridge on the River Kwai and Apocalypse Now, and even war-based courtroom dramas like A Few Good Men. But for the past 28 years, one war movie has stood out as being so brutal and realistic that it gave surviving veterans flashbacks. That lauded movie is now streaming for free.
Directed by none other than Steven Spielberg, Saving Private Ryan just landed on free streaming once again. It’s not the first time the movie has been available on a free streaming platform (MovieWeb has covered similar stories several times in the past . . . you’re welcome). This time it’s the shores of Pluto TV that Saving Private Ryan has stormed. The movie was added to Pluto TV on Nov. 1. Like most films on Pluto TV, it is expected to remain on the ad-supported free streamer for one month and depart at the end of November.
‘Saving Private Ryan’ Is an Unrivaled and Explosive War Epic
It might not be your personal favorite war movie, but you can’t deny how epic in scale and emotionally harrowing Saving Private Ryan is. The D-Day opening sequence steals the show — as it rightly should — but the film is filled with unforgettable and tear-jerking moments. Vin Diesel’s death while saving the French family, the post-D-Day condolence letter scene, and Stanley Mellish’s standoff with the Nazi soldier. To be honest, there are so many standout scenes; you kind of forget that they’re doing all this to save one guy.
Saving Private Ryan‘s lauded status doesn’t just come from one overly excited writer, it’s the general consensus among audiences and critics as well. Saving Private Ryan holds a near-perfect 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating. That’s an incredibly hard thing to achieve. But what’s even more impressive is its 95% audience rating from over 250,000 user reviews.
‘Saving Private Ryan’ Might Be Tom Hanks’ Best Performance
All the praise that’s heaped on Saving Private Ryan often overshadows the performance of its leading actor, Tom Hanks. Hanks plays Captain Miller, who is put in charge of the mission to save Private Ryan (Matt Damon). While Hanks can sometimes be criticized for just playing different versions of Tom Hanks, his performance in Saving Private Ryan feels different. There’s a weight to his character that’s unlike any other. Even before the D-Day landing, you can see how war-torn he is, and that descends further and further into emotional scarring throughout the movie.
