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Steven Spielberg's 1998 film Saving Private Ryan instantly took its place in the pantheon of great war movies by setting a new standard for its shockingly realistic D-Day sequences -- scenes that redefined the graphic depiction of film violence. When a platoon, led by {|Tom Hanks|}, receives orders to rescue the title character ({|Matt Damon|}) from behind enemy lines, the value of a life is questioned. Can Ryan be worth the potential sacrifice of eight men? Spielberg put his young actors through a modified boot camp, and their harrowing real-life experience informs their portrayals. {|Tom Sizemore|} (one of the many psychos in Natural Born Killers) displays great humanity as Sergeant Horvath, while {|Giovanni Ribisi|} and {|Barry Pepper|} turn in career-making performances as a medic and a sniper. Through it all, Spielberg's remarkable, unfussy technique keeps the narrative's preachiness from overwhelming the film. He and Academy Award-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski always place the camera in exactly the right perspective to the action, providing even the quiet moments with great power. Squeamish viewers be forewarned: The violence here is truly brutal. But that is part of Spielberg's point: War is hell. Or, as Hanks puts it: "Every time I kill somebody, I get farther away from home."