In the beginning of the movie, Ryan is in Normandy, France visiting all the fallen soldiers. Then the scene changes to 1944, D-Day. This first war sequence is extremely grotesque and realistic. It is not for those who are faint of heart.
As the movie continues, you learn about certain soldiers in particular: Miller (Hanks), Horvath (Sizemore), Reiben (Burns), Upham (Davies), Wade (Ribisi), Mellish (Goldberg), and Caparzo (Diesel). These men are sent on a mission to save a soldier, Ryan (Damon), whose three brothers have already died. This movie follows them through their mission.
This movie is very excellent. I had to see it in theaters two times because I loved it so much. And I even did my senior research paper on The Battle of Normandy. The acting is excellent. And some people think that Steven Spielberg made mistakes, but these are not mistakes. The parts where "blood" and water are splashed on the screen or cameras are at odd angles were put there on purpose. Spielberg wanted to capture the aspects of war from a different point of view than what is usually put on film. This is why throughout most of the movie, the cameras are shaky. Spielberg even changed the color. The colors are "dusty" instead of a true color. There's no real "blue" sky, but a dusty blue color.
Overall: A+