One great sequence does not a great or even good movie make

Rating: 2/10 (25 February 2018)

Saving Private Ryan, features one of the most corrupt moral structures in the history of film. Over the last quarter century, only one movie, also radically overrated, is even more pernicious: Forrest Gump. What do we make of the fact that Tom Hanks is the protagonist in both?
That IMDB members rate it so highly reflects poorly on the judgment of the population of "serious" film viewers, given the extraordinary array of wonderful films made over the last century.
The film has one sensational feature: the opening sequence. That is enough to make the film memorable, but it does not make it good. Platoon also has a terrifying jungle version of a battle sequence, if not so extensive, but that is integrated into a much better movie.
The first, and essential problem: the plot is completely fallacious, which is worse than being simply made up. The Allied venture in WWII was far too serious an enterprise for a whole platoon to be sent out on an improbable, indeed fool's, errand across country to "save" one person while risking them all in an non-essential enterprise, particularly when modern communications obviated the necessity for any such an action.
Second, though it follows standard practice in representing the American population with a mix of backgrounds for the platoon, other than the sainted Captain Miller, played by Hanks, only one person is identified as having an educated point of view though his role back home is apparently clerical, namely Corporal Upham, the translator, and he is painted from the beginning as the coward.
This fact is made abundantly clear during the utterly unnecessary, indeed unwise, assault on the machine gun installation, which puts the lie to the value of their venture when they ignore it to engage in an action that could undo it altogether. Upham, seized with fear, cowers behind as his buddies take the nest. He joins them in time for the debate over the fate of the surviving German, pictured as a nasty customer. He invokes abstract moral principle, arguing that the German should not be summarily shot (Germans being murdered in cold blood are actually shown in the background in scenes of the mop-up just after the beaches have been secured), and thus they decide to let him go since they cannot take him with them.
Jump to the final series of sequences. Private Ryan is found. The good Captain Miller is shot and killed. By whom? By the nasty German soldier they let go earlier, that's who. About this time, that miserable wretch Upham is further demonstrating his utter lack of character by cringing on the staircase of a building while a fight to the death is being going on between another of his buddies and another evil German, who kills the GI with his knife after an agonizing struggle. Soon he has visually abased himself further by cowering in a ditch. Moments later, he is confronted by the evil German who has killed Miller, and another German soldier. They have been taken prisoner (at least as I remember it). The moment the German recognizes him, Upham shoots him point blank, as if to silence a truth and commit the murder he had forestalled near the beginning of the story. We are left to make sense of that, but no interpretation could be a positive one.
The only real lesson of the movie: rules - morality more generally - do not apply to war. If someone is in the way, take care of him. Kill or be killed. If you don't, you will pay. The good side is good regardless of what it does; also, in this stupid plot, regardless of how senseless it is.
Finally, Saving Private Ryan is the surest realization of the Achilles heel that has dogged Spielberg all of his career: his impulse to the maudlin or safe, accept that here he is dishonest the moment the plot kicks in and continues to be right to the end. He would have been a truly great director but for this fault, which tainted such memorable films as Schindler's List and the endings of Minority Report and AI.