A brilliant companion piece by Spielberg

Rating: 10/10 (26 September 1998)

Saving Private Ryan offers viewers a stunning companion piece to Spielberg's previous WW2 classic Schildler's List, although exceptional in its own right, Saving Private Ryan gives a completely different take on the conflict. Schindler's List examines the the evil of the war and what is was that people were fighting for, Saving Private Ryan gives us, in no uncertain terms a insight into the savagery of war and the senselessness of armed conflict. It reminds us that during conflict people die in the most horrible ways immaginable and that good people sacrifice their lives for the cause. If taken on its own Saving Private Ryan would seem to say that war is a senseless waste of human life and that there is no justification for this activity, but when added to the message in Schindlers's List, which showed us the evil which the war strove to eliminate, one is left asking the question.
When is the cause worth the cost?