Lifeless characters die in battle

Rating: 3/10 (4 August 1998)

The film may have been more than well-done gore-fest if any of the characters had been remotely interesting, I may have cared whether or not their lives were worth risking. Their mission didn't seem any riskier than anything else they may have encountered. There was no dramatic conflict. The character-developing monologues were nauseating and the stories they told were recycled workshop material. The true story upon which the film was based was totally undermined, and Spielberg's point of view is uncommitted, self-involved, and pedestrian. He quotes Abraham Lincoln instead of exploring the issues, and asks for approval at the end. Frankly, the emptiness of the story, characters, and treatment wasn't worth the pain of the opening scene.