Stunned and horrified

Rating: 9/10 (5 August 1998)

As many others have remarked, the first 25 minutes of this film are intense, brutal, and painful to endure. I agree there. However, I disagree with some that the "shaky" cam during the Normandy sequence was jarring or headache -inducing. Completely drawn in, never once did I stop to think I was viewing the gore and horror through a lens. I was there. And I didn't want to be. I closed my eyes during some scenes, but I couldn't close my ears, I couldn't escape - the bullets kept on flying.
How could anyone survive something like that and go on to lead a semi-normal life? I couldn't even watch "White Christmas" after seeing this movie; at the first sight of a WWII jeep, I wanted to cry. What is it like for someone who was really there?
Good movies simultaneously make us think and feel, and this one did that for me. I only wish Spielberg would have cast unknowns in all of the parts; seeing Tom Hanks and Matt Damon in the midst of this ultra-realistic violence reminded me it was still Hollywood pulling the strings. Most people have commented that Hanks should win an Oscar, but I think that would be unfair to the rest of the cast. The grueling process they had to endure, the dark heart of humanity each actor had to face to make such a film, makes them all deserving of recognition. Hanks played Captain Miller with honesty and grace, but I don't think he necessarily outshone the performances of Tom Sizemore, Ed Burns, or Jeremy Davies.
Analyzing the plot or the characters is missing the point. If the "Jew" had been the sniper from Tennesee or the "Brooklynite" had been the combat-shy translator, most of you would still complain about stereotypes. People say they didn't care about the characters because they weren't "interesting." Is everyone you meet on the street incredibly "interesting"? I doubt it. The point isn't to care or not care when they get killed, but to realize this really happened, to all kinds of men and women that we may find boring or typical in civilian life, but who put their lives on the line.
Some say they didn't need the "war is hell" message crammed down their throats. Well, that's great for you, but if "everyone" knows war is bad, death is bad, why is it still so rampant in our society? War is always happening somewhere. This movie shows that not only is war hell, but the death of one man is just as tragic. If everyone really did know this, we wouldn't have gang wars, drive-by shootings, or terrorist bombings. Everyone NEEDS to know this. And if a gut-wrenching movie will drive this message home to those people, then I'm all for it.
And though this is getting too long already, I have to say one more thing: many of you didn't care for the apparent sappiness of the "bookend" scenes of the old man at the cemetery. Why does everyone have such an aversion to sentiment? I say things in my every day life that, if someone were to make them movie dialogue, would sound hopelessly cheesy. But that doesn't make them any less true or real.