This Iconic Showdown Proves Why Steven Spielberg’s War Epic Is One of the Greatest Movies Ever Made (and It’s Free to Watch)

Steven Spielberg has directed so many canonically excellent movies that it sometimes feels like showing off. And if that wasn’t true before 1998 — after the one-two punch of Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List in 1993 — then it was definitely true after he released World War II epic Saving Private Ryan. If you were to slot that movie into any other director’s filmography, it would be the best thing they ever made. But for Spielberg, it’s just another masterpiece alongside Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Saving Private Ryan has a 94 from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and a 95 from audiences, and it made nearly $500 million at the box office. It’s even part of the U.S. Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, which is as close as you can get to being officially declared a masterpiece (it’s Spielberg’s seventh film on that list). Even better: You can now watch the movie for free on Pluto.

Why Is ‘Saving Private Ryan’ One of the Greatest Movies Ever Made?

There are any number of reasons to consider Saving Private Ryan a great movie, like its memorable Normandy invasion scene or that bit in the end when Matt Damon becomes an old man, but it’s hard to argue with the scene where Tom Hank’s character (John Miller) has a one-man showdown against a German tank. It comes late in the film, after Hanks’ squad has gone to considerable effort (and lost a number of soldiers, most famously a young Vin Diesel) to track down Private James Francis Ryan (Damon). Their quest was sort of a PR mission for the U.S. Army, as Ryan was the last survivor of four brothers and had been reported missing, and it gives the movie a really compelling bit of momentum even beyond simply surviving the war.

At this point in the movie, Hanks’ squad has found Ryan with a group of soldiers defending an important bridge. Refusing to take the free chance to just go home, Ryan stays to help prepare for an attack from the Germans. Things don’t go super well for the good guys, and Hanks’ Miller gets shot by a soldier that his team had previously let go. With his remaining strength, Miller sits against some rubble and takes out his sidearm to fire some ineffectual potshots against an oncoming German tank. It’s a steadily heartbreaking scene, knowing that Tom Hanks — America’s movie dad! — is laying there, dying, with no hope of holding off the tank. He’s either going to bleed out or explode, and either one will be a brutal illustration of the sacrifice these men have had to make.

And then the tank explodes. It’s a miracle, or actually a plane passing by overhead at a very opportune time, and it gives Miller enough time for an even more powerful death scene shortly after that. But the showdown against the tank is a nice summation of the whole movie, with brave people standing up against impossible odds, even if they know there’s no logical reason to hope for something to save them. They still try and do the right and honorable thing.

Once again, Saving Private Ryan is streaming for free now on Pluto.