The Movie: Saving Private Ryan, if you didn't already know, is an extremely realistic film about WWII, in which a team of 8 soldiers are assigned to find one Private James Ryan, whose brothers have all been killed in the war, and bring him back home to save his mother from further anguish. It starts out with an intense recreation of the historic D-Day invasion, that will leave stunned with its unbridled realism and true depictions of the horrors of war.

But more than just a gory war movie, Saving Private Ryan covers a wide range of emotional and moral conflicts, enhanced by amazing sound editing and excellent choices in camera work. It's definitely one of the greatest war movies ever made.

The DVD: There are two versions of this DVD, one with Dolby Digital sound, and another separate edition featuring DTS sound. I am reviewing the Dolby Digital version. The anamorphic video transfer did a wonderful job of conveying the muted colors and gritty, grainy look of the original film, though it did at times show signs of a bit too much edge enhancement. The audio, however, is where this disc really shines.

In each and every scene (not just in the action sequences) you get an incredibly detailed surround sound mix with well defined directionality. Bombs in the distance are subtle, yet well defined. In the war sequences, you're right in the middle of action, and you can hear each bullet whizzing by, each explosion around you, each shell seems to seamlessly follow along with the movements of the camera. Truly an amazing job of sound editing, and a worthy transfer to the DVD medium. I can only imagine what the DTS version sounds like!

This disc however, was a bit weak in the extras department. You get a short message from director Stephen Spielberg, two theatrical trailers and one behind the scenes featurette, and everything else is text-based. Of course, you don't really expect too much on a one disc edition of a nearly 3 hour long movie if you want the video to be of decent quality. This disc is so full in fact, that the DTS version of this DVD doesn't even have the featurette -- it uses the extra room for the higher-bitrate DTS audio stream.

But overall, this DVD proves a worthy presentation of the film itself.