worth seeing, but I don't get the hype

Rating: 6/10 (26 August 2016)

For people who say this is the best war movie, I can't help but wonder if any of those people have some of Stanley Kubrick's war films. Dr. Strangelove and The Paths of Glory IMO are so much better than Saving Private Ryan. Saving Private Ryan visually and technically is far superior to the other films. But the story isn't a gripping story which feels like it has an very powerful message. Largely because it's centered around WW2 which was a war which was necessary for the allies to fight in. The more compelling films IMO are the ones centered around wars and encounters which represent the costs of wars for little if any benefit. I'd say that Warhorse is a better film than Saving Private Ryan too.
Saving Private Ryan does display the real bravery and horrors of WW2. But that is nothing particularly new. Just about every WW2 film does that. The main story-line of rescuing Ryan is what is the biggest turnoff to me. The film even addresses the issue of their order to rescue Ryan. It's not smart to put an entire team of many people in danger in order to try to rescue one soldier in the middle of a battlefield. Many other soldiers die, and Ryan, even when found doesn't feel he deserves to be rescued. He even insists that they keep fight off their enemy rather than leave right away. My inquiry is that if our Nation objects to too many family members dying in battle, why allow so many of one family to fight? Probably my favorite parts of the film were the side stories not directly related to Saving Ryan at all. I like the story of the translator going from a coward to a killer. I like the part of the film where they discuss whether it's right or wrong to escape a Nazi Trap or put themselves and their mission at risk in order to spring the trap. And of course the D-day invasion sequence is incredibly powerful.
The film is certainly worth watching, and many people it's great, but I just find it OK, and certainly not one of the best War films. I don't know if it would even crack my top 10.