Famous for it’s bloody portrayal of the D-Day landings in 1944, Spielberg’s classic has been a long time coming. Now it’s been released, glitch-free, and we’re left with  the inevitable questions:

Can Blu-ray work its magic once again? Can the violence get any more graphic? Can the explosions get any scarier? Can Tom Hanks’ stare get any more piercing?

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating…

Set on and just after D-Day in 1944, Saving Private Ryan chronicles the journey of a group of US Rangers as they embark on an unusual mission. Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon) is the last surviving member of a quartet of brothers, all of whom had been fighting overseas in the epic struggle that was the Second World War. When word reaches the US Department of War that three of the four brothers have perished, it is decided that the remaining brother should be pulled out of front line combat and brought home in order to spare his mother the tragedy of losing all four of her sons.

Tom Hanks plays Captain John Miller, the soldier charged with leading the squad of soldiers sent to find Ryan and bring him off the line safely. They journey from the bloody landings at Utah beach on D-Day itself through the chaos of wartime France, constantly questioning the usefulness of their assignment, given that the lives of eight men are being risked to save just one.

This film is famous for having probably the most exhausting opening 25 minutes of any movie ever made. Director Steven Spielberg creates a truly harrowing, awe inspiring representation of the near-disastrous landing by US troops on Utah beach on 6th June 1945. I remember reading somewhere once that when the sequence was shown to a group of WW2 vets, many of them were actually quite disturbed by the accuracy of his portrayal of the sheer chaos that surrounded that fateful event.

Like owning World War 2 in a box.

When I first saw this film in the cinema back in 1998 I remember feeling roughly the same way. It’s an ordeal watching Hanks and the other US troops battle their way over what was in reality only a few hundred yards, and Spielberg plays it out in what almost feels like real time. You come out of the end of that truly brilliant opening half hour feeling like you have just personally been there.

After that somewhat electrifying first chapter, the pace of Saving Private Ryan slows somewhat as the troops start to dig in, preparing for the onslaught ahead. The rest of the film plays out as a less frenetic, but certainly no less vivid, ensemble piece with likes of Edward Burns, Giovanni Ribisi and Tom Sizemore delivering admirable performances alongside the always reliable, and in this instance really quite superb, Hanks.

The sudden change of rhythm from crazy-ass explosion fest to contemplative morality tale does jar a little and the action is only really sporadic until the big showdown at the end. This comes as a little bit of a disappointment, especially when viewed from the other side of HBO’s (and Hanks’ and Spielberg’s) masterpiece Band Of Brothers, which arguably gets the action to drama balance almost exactly right.

Saving Private Ryan is also a rather long movie, weighing in at a chunky 169 minutes. There’s an argument that the stop-start nature of the film, its tendency to go from second to fifth gear and then back again frequently and rapidly, is actually another masterstroke on Spielberg and screenwriter Robert Rodat’s part, seeing as the business of going to war has, for the ordinary soldier, often been described as “long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror”. Boredom’s a strong word for the calmer moments in this film, but it’s not exactly a smooth ride and you can’t help but feel that these pace issues could have been addressed, and that the film could have come in a good half hour shorter and been better for it.

Still, though, Saving Private Ryan is undeniably a classic piece of modern movie making for its scale, its ambition and its human drama.

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Paramount Home Entertainment has announced that they are recalling all copies of the special 2-disc blu-ray edition of ‘Saving Private Ryan’.

Apparently there’s a significant audio glitch somewhere on the disc which Technicolor, the people responsible for the transfer, failed to notice at the pre-release quality control stage.

The recall applies to all copies in the US, UK and Benelux regions. Quite how this problem slipped through the net on such a long awaited, high profile BR transfer is anyone’s guess.

The full press release from Paramount reads as follows:

Paramount Home Entertainment today announced that it is recalling the Sapphire Series Blu-ray edition of Saving Private Ryan recently released in North America, the United Kingdom and the Benelux countries due to an audio synch error that occurred during Technicolor’s authoring process. Although Technicolor employs comprehensive quality control measures, in this instance the issue was not detected prior to replication.

“Technicolor has been a valuable partner to Paramount Home Entertainment, and both Paramount and Technicolor are committed to providing the highest quality product to consumers,” said Dennis Maguire, President, Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment Worldwide. “Our Sapphire Series was created to present our greatest films with the finest picture and sound quality available. Saving Private Ryan is a five time Academy Award® winning film including Best Director from one of America’s most acclaimed filmmakers so we are recalling this edition to ensure that every Blu-ray disc honors Steven Spielberg’s vision.”

Technicolor has set up the following toll-free numbers for consumers who have already purchased the Saving Private Ryan Sapphire Series Blu-ray, which provides details on how they can receive a replacement copy—US and Canada: 888-370-8621, UK: 08000-852-613. Consumers can also return the Blu-ray to the stores where they purchased the product to receive a replacement. Technicolor expects to have replacement discs available at retail no later than Tuesday, May 18.

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So much cooler than the iPad.

Paramount has announced that Minority Report — the Steven Spielberg-directed, Tom Cruise-driven sci-fi thriller — will be available on Blu-ray on April 20th.

Spielberg’s Philip K. Dick adaptation will be a two-disc package, featuring a video transfer from a true 4K master created last year. It’ll be presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital and Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital with English, English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.

The Blu-ray package certainly looks like it’s going to be worth the upgrade, as in addition to the previous released extras presented in standard definition (except for HD trailers), there will be plenty of new special features presented in high-definition.

The full rundown of new supplements includes: The Future According to Steven Spielberg; Inside The World of Precrime; Phillip K. Dick, Steven Spielberg and Minority Report; Minority Report: Future Realized; Minority Report: Props of the Future; Highlights from Minority Report: From the Set; Minority Report: Commercials of the Future; Previz Sequences. All presented in HD.

It’s been listed at $29.99, so one can safely assume it’ll be going for 20 bucks on Amazon and Best Buy (at least on release week).

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