10 Most Dishonest Editing Cuts In Film History

10. The Old Man ISN'T Tom Hanks - Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan
Paramount Pictures

Steven Spielberg's war epic Saving Private Ryan is an inarguable masterpiece, yet it's also built on the foundations of a highly manipulative frame narrative, where we witness an elderly war veteran visiting the Normandy American Cemetery.

As Spielberg closes in on the man's face, filled with emotion as it is, the director smash cuts to the devastating 1944 Normandy Invasion.

From this point, the film follows Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) on his mission to rescue Private Ryan (Matt Damon), and the clear implication by this edit is that the old man is none other than Captain Miller himself.

Except, of course, it eventually turns out that Miller dies at the end of his mission, and the final wraparound reveals that the old man is in fact Ryan himself.

Though expertly executed by Spielberg, it's tough to argue with how needlessly he introduces a tricksy plot twist in a film that, in all of its historical enormity, really didn't need it in order to leave audiences sobbing.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.