Film: Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Moment: Disemboweled soldier cries out for his mother
The epic Omaha Beach sequence in Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (the second of his films to make the list – who woulda thunk?) certainly doesn’t skimp on the gore, but the queasiest moment is when we see the young soldier screaming desperately for his mother as his intestines spill in slick coils onto the sand. As opposed to less serious-minded films where you’re actually supposed to derive some sort of sick pleasure from all the bloodletting, in this case you can’t help but shudder at the fact that there were probably many men just like him on the beaches of Normandy that day, crying out for their mothers as they slipped off into oblivion.