awful and toilsome-the audience is the victim of the shooting

Rating: 1/10 (5 July 1999)

the most intensely boring, long-winded uninspiring 'movie' i have ever seen. spielberg can brilliantly bring a childhood fantasy to life but he has a lot to learn about making a deep and inspiring movie. schindler's list must have been a one off. the gore was pure hollywood, and once it was over the movie began a gruelling downward spiral involving the rest of the poor suffering audience.
the acting of giovanni ribisi was the only consolation (soothed but did not heal) and tom hank's peformance was tolerably mediocre.
all in all, a terrible waste of time. sure the people of our generation need a much needed history lesson in the bravery of our ancestors, sure we need to see a full-on assault of the gore to fully comprehend the horror of war but as an audience we also need a film with a sense of direction than endless gunfire combined with lacklustre dialogue. please do not insult our
intelligence, we are not so stupid that we cannot perceive the central message by sitting for 2.5 hrs watching this tripe. a subtler approach would have been much more effective, or (since apparently we need to witness first hand the shocking violence for the full impact)a movie with the gore but toned down, compressed and concentrated -not splattered whereever it 'felt' appropriate. giving spielberg the oscar for this show/exhibition was like giving the nobel peace prize to monica lewinsky. i could definitely see the agony of war, but the agony of watching this filthy excuse of a film was a greater tax on my forebearance.