One of the great war films with an opening sequence depicting the Normandy landings of D Day unmatched in its intensity. Nothing that follows quite matches that but it is still exciting stuff, a quest movie with a difference in which the life of one man is saved but at great cost. It is genuinely moving too particularly when Hanks meets his fate and the movie cuts to Damon as an old man (played by another actor but instantly recognisable), bookending the movie superbly.
  

The film is based on the true story of the Niland brothers.

Many veterans have congratulated Spielberg for the film's authenticity including James Doohan, Scotty from Star Trek. Real amputees were used in the scenes involving men with lost limbs.

":As powerful, devastating, memorable and moving as movies get."  Ian Freer, Empire

DVD available from Paramount Home Video :
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