Technically awesome, the rest... almost there

Rating: 7/10 (2 December 2007)

An interesting feature of Steven Spielberg, probably the most reliable hit maker outside the Michael Bay realm of idiocy, is that he often seems very clumsy with things that are the furthest away from the technical aspect of his films. There's often a quality of naiveté that simply would make the film more interesting and adult if it just was cut.
Saving Private Ryan has one such annoyance. And that is a rather common one; claiming a war as one side's story. In Private Ryan, this would be the bookend scenes which serve no purpose to the story, but to cram the supposed message down the viewer's throat. Every country has had its wars, it is insulting to millions to claim the story of human suffering in war is exclusive to one person, one side or one war. Also, Schindler's List has similar scenes that begin and end the film, although they are not as bad.
While everything in Private Ryan is technically as good as it will ever get, the story and the characters seem out of place. The only properly fleshed out characters are Hank's mysterious captain and Davies' inexperienced clerk that obviously serves as the characters most people can relate to. The rest of the characters aren't that memorable if you think of them as personalities, not ranks. And, Tom Sizemore plays a sergeant here, the believability coming from the fact he's played the same role about a zillion times. There are a few interesting cameos with Ted Danson and Dennis Farina.
The story, while a typical "road movie with soldiers" at least is not as standard as a retelling of a battle, is nowhere near Apocalypse Now or other movies treating soldiers as passers by. It's near to a typical Hollywood version of a war mission and something you could imagine John Wayne doing. This obviously was the purpose, making an old fashioned war movie, but it clashes with the realistic battle scenes.
The battle scenes. They simultaneously make battle look like something horrible, something you want to be a part of and actually instantly create a bunch of clichés. Details such as the exaggerated sound of a M1 carbine running out of ammo (a very common detail if you watch a WW2 movie made after this OR even better - play a WW2 video game), the scene in which someone is talking and suddenly is hit to the head, the scene in which the viewer (situated in the middle of the fighting) can't hear anything because of shell shock. Whoa.
Interestingly, this movie proves the quote: you can't make an anti-war movie and not make war look even more sexy in the end.
I'm not saying Saving Private Ryan is a bad movie. I'm just saying a lot of its flaws are glossed over thanks to the execution and respect to war veterans (who I of course respect as well, not depending of the side). Essentially, a similar film with better characters, similar technical awesomeness and fact instead of fairytale is the miniseries Band of Brothers, another project from Hanks and Spielberg.