Very good war movie - but too simple, straightforward and obvious to be regarded as a classic!

Rating: 7/10 (14 May 2004)

A whole family of young men are killed on D-Day bar a front line solider (Private Ryan) who must be pulled back from the battle field for the sake of his poor mother.
Steven Spielberg is a director that I feel is vastly over-rated. While I admit he has produced both classics (in artistic terms) and blockbusters (in commercial terms) is he really that good? Is he really able to rise above the budget, acting, technology or script? Does he believe in anything? Have a grand message for the world other than it is good to be rich and famous? A nice guy, sure, but so is my milkman.
Call me a hard man to please, but I don't believe that Spielberg has put anything really new in the cinema pot and he has dipped in and borrowed plenty: Hitchcock, Scorsese, Kubrick and Kazan have all produced mini-masterpieces from nowhere with no stars or budget to speak of. Spielberg hasn't (although Juggernaut was above average for a TV movie).
As has been said a thousand times before, the opening takes a first hand look at D-day and is quite brilliant, but when it ends the movie droops. It is then a bog-standard war-is-hell product with a lot of extra emoting and men-can-cry to show that we have turned the page.
(Actually we haven't - many European films and B's have explored war from a first hand and more down-and-gritty viewpoint, but the mass audience haven't actually seen those products so they just think they are getting something new.)
Tom Hanks is a great actor. He is the first and only modern star to play weak (or even stupid) and improve his box office standing. I praise him for it. No one could be better than him here, really bang on the money. But no one else needs to do much other than mouth words and Ryan (despite being the title role) is a star walk-on.
I am glad I saw this film and I recommend it to you. But I wouldn't want to see it again no matter own it. Money has been well spent and its heart is in the right place, but at the end it wants to get you in a headlock and push emotions down your throat. Further proof - in my book - as to why Spielberg isn't really the master of his own game, just a little above average at it.