Tom Hanks has been in more classics than you can count, but one of his most acclaimed movies is dominating Netflix this week. Yes, 1998’s Saving Private Ryan is currently the third most-viewed film on the streaming platform in the United States this April 8th, as per FlixPatrol’s latest rankings. The Steven Spielberg picture landed on the site at the beginning of this month, and has been sitting amongst Netflix’s Top 10 most popular titles ever since.
Set during the invasion of Normandy in World War II, Saving Private Ryan stars Hanks as Captain John H. Miller, who leads his squad on a dangerous mission to search for the missing Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon). Known for its unflinching portrayal of war, it’s most famous for the epic and intense 24-minute opening sequence that depicts the attack on Omaha Beach in 1944. The cast also includes Tom Sizemore, Adam Goldberg and a young Vin Diesel.
The powerful war drama was a phenomenal success whichever way you cut it. On top of earning almost $500 million at the box office, it was viewed as the best movie released in 1998 by most critics and the fact that Shakespeare In Love beat it to the Best Picture Oscar that year has gone down as one of the Academy’s most infamous blunders, even if it still came out with five wins in other categories. History has deemed the Spielberg effort the victor, though, as it’s now viewed as one of the greatest films of all time.
Often the most popular movies on Netflix are underrated or mostly forgotten titles that are given another shot on streaming. In the case of Saving Private Ryan, though, it seems folks are deciding to revisit this bonafide classic once again, or else maybe finally give it a chance if they’ve never seen it before.
