The 24-minute sequence at the start of Steven Spielberg’s Second World War drama is one of the greatest pieces of combat cinema yet made.

An old-fashioned war picture to rule them all - gripping, utterly uncynical, with viscerally convincing and audacious battle sequences.

The visual masterwork finds Spielberg atop his craft, weaving heart-pounding action and gut-wrenching emotion that will leave viewers silently shaken... If words occasionally fail the picture, the images speak indelible volumes.

I'd argue that Saving Private Ryan is more cynical than it might get credit for, sprouting the seeds of who Spielberg would become in the 2000s.