Amazing Stories and Kelly's Heroes in one movie.

Rating: 1/10 (1 October 2008)

This movie is similar to the other Stephen Speilburg productions like "The Pacific" and "Band of Brothers." These productions focus too closely on the individual soldiers sentimental personal problems. Combat strategy and the historical accuracy of wartime is significantly diminished with the "slice of life" theme adopted here. Consequently, the poor screen writing matches the "sentimental" theme which is out of place for a wartime historical combat production. Saving Private Ryan was made using ideas from "Kelly's Heroes" (1970)and an episode from "Amazing Stories" about D Day (Charlie Sean) and were put together to make a silly war fiction aka Saving Private Ryan. There is a scene in the movie where the squad of soldiers are seen casually walking in farmland of the French countryside near Carentan behind enemy lines (taken from Kelly's Heroes). The casual walk is grossly inaccurate to history. It would have been impossible to stroll in the open French farmland near Carentan as featured in private Ryan because the Germans had sophisticated defense lines or "belts" constructed everywhere and where machine gun nests and large caliber guns were often placed at several locations to intercept the same targets which proved very deadly for the allies. The Saving Private Ryan squad would have been spotted and dealt with very quickly.
The allies had to use combined operations with tanks, aircraft and artillery to destroy the sophisticated bunkers and dugouts the Germans constructed everywhere. The allies used high explosive shells to destroy enemy bunkers, cluster bombs, and special shells that would burst in the open air to kill soldiers caught in the open.
Operation "Cobra" scheduled for 24 July 1944 was delayed because of deteriorating weather for 25 July 1944. However, one squadron of US bombers which took off wasn't recalled. General McNair the most senior American General in Normandy and hundreds of US personnel were killed when the squadron bombed too close to the operation Cobra "start lines."
Saving Private Ryan is a silly wartime fiction movie similar to "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific" where there is too much emphasis with the soldiers sentimental personal problems. The combat scenes recreated by Stephen Speilburg are devoid of combat strategy and historical accuracy. The combat scenes in Saving Private Ryan are just slugging matches. I would prefer to have seen Jerry Bruckheimers productions of "Saving Private Ryan" and "Band of Brother" and "The Pacific."