Dull, dull and dull again

Rating: 7/10 (1 July 2000)

Take the hype, Tom Hanks and the first 20 minutes of this film away and you have a very routine war film with all the usual cliches, gung-ho American GI superhero gunk, all-looks-lost ending and loads of flag waving!
In fact even with Hanks the film stinks. There are far better war movies around, the underrated Thin Red Line, Cross of Iron, the full subtitled version of Das Boot (The Boat) and perhaps best of all, Sam Fuller's The Big Red One.
But of course they didn't get the kind of success they so richly deserved because there was no Spielberg/Hanks collaboration to get the hypemobile moving.
With the exception of the truly outstanding 20 minutes, where no other film (apart from truelife documentaries) has ever come close to the realities of war, SPR sucks through a long thin straw!
It sometimes amazes me how Speilberg can hit all the right notes (Jaws, Close Encounters, Schindler's List) with lots of decent action & rounded believable characters we feel for; and then comes out with dross like SPR & Lost World.
For those that live outside the States this film will probably leave you cold - especially if you're one of those allied countries that also served in France during WW2, but didn't even get a sniff in SPR.
The only decent acting came from Tom Sizemore as Sergeant Horvath. But even he isn't allowed to develop his character before his off on another mission shooting at people and banging on that War is Hell etc.
If you want heroes, if you want emotion, if you want drama, if you want a true depiction of how bad WW2 really was go and buy Schindler's List!
*/*****