Who is the main character in Saving Private Ryan?

It’s Tom Hanks

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Who is the main character in Saving Private Ryan?

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War

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Tom Hank’s character is the popular choice but I’m not so sure

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Then who would it be? It’s not Private Ryan.

We bless you call the war a “character” there really is no other choice.

On a rewatch I actually wonder if the Interpreter is, or at least he is us.

Edward's Burns' Private Reiben.

Jeremy Davies' Corporal Upham might be considered so, to some degree, as well.

Going by total screen time it's John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) by a country mile.

The only parts of the film he doesn't appear in are the opening 4 minutes of the movie when the actor playing the old version of James Francis Ryan is in the cemetery, the 7 minutes immediately following the D-Day scene when we are introduced to the film's main plot, and the final 4 minutes or so when the film returns to the old James Francis Ryan in the cemetery.

That's only 15 minutes out of 2 hours and 45 minutes where Tom Hanks doesn't have a scene in the film.

Has to be Hanks

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Going by total screen time it's John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) by a country mile.

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Probably right. But it bring’s to mind NCFOM where Brolins character has a ton of screen time but ultimately isn’t the main character.

How in the world could you think its anyone other hanks?

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I mean it was a cold mercy to provide the mother at least one son back.

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From the movie plot's perspective, what do you tell the mothers of the sons sent to retrieve Private Ryan in the middle of the largest invasion in history? frick your sons, THIS cat was worth more than all of them. Sorry, ma'ams.

I'm all for getting him home, should he survive the battle. That's a decent policy. But as presented, it was silly.

The Sullivans lost all 5. Boyd Borgstrom was sent home, but I don't think an elite squad was sent on an aimless search around occupied territory to get shot up finding him.

And as far as Fritz Niland, I'm glad he got sent home, but the Army (in real life) sent a chaplain to fetch him, not combat power during the biggest battle/operation in U.S. history.

So, silly plot remains silly. Great Omaha beach scene - *meh* rest of film. Certainly doesn't compare, as a total film, with the giants - Sands of Iwo Jima, The Longest Day, Patton and A Bridge Too Far. Really, not comparable to The Best Years of Our Lives as a complete film.